Oh geez, you raise a very good point: I was looking at this as cooked weight rather than raw weight. I know the meat will reduce when you cook it, but couscous will have the opposite effect, so now things are even crazier.
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With uncooked couscous and cooked beef that would be 16,190-17,600 calories.
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Ditch the one meal a day thing if you’re trying to gain weight and fill out. Now obviously you don’t have to go to insane extremes, but check out some of the old JM Blakely articles on gaining weight to put this into perspective.
“For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don’t care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That’s your breakfast.”
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We need the rest of it.
“For lunch you’re gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don’t want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don’t care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can’t let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter.”
“For dinner you’re gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don’t like sardines, don’t put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it.” “Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals.”
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The missing part to this was that, BETWEEN meals (yes, somehow there was a between means here), one was supposed to take 2 Hershey’s bars and let them melt inside their mouth. JM’s theory was that you could avoid the blood sugar crash by just never letting the blood sugar come down: just ALWAYS keep it elevated. You let the chocolate melt because you’re clearly too full to actually EAT the damn food, but you could certainly just swallow it down.
When Dave asked JM “are you serious” with that advice, he opened his mouth and showed Dave a mouth full of crowned teeth, from all the cavities he had accumulated with this approach.
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That was my favorite part. The first time I heard Dave Tate talk about this I was laughing, but was also in awe. Such a simple concept, but you have to be fucking animal to actually do it.
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Well now I’m nostalgic for my childhood when dinner was mid-afternoon and supper was the evening meal.
To the topic at hand, you gents are defining a very good mystery.
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I think we can see some serious issues with the eating here. I wasn’t dissimilar to OP, 6’2 at 155 when I first started, eating was a chore, but it’s what’s required, I did a physical job at the time and so had to eat so much more (I was so excited by my first desk job because it meant gaining weight became way easier). I used to drink 4 pints of full fat milk a day (got the nickname milk duds from coworkers), a bag of mixed nuts (200g) and all of my regular meals (which were massive). I used to have to poop mid meal, almost every single time, like my digestive system just had to make more room. Got to 210lb at my heaviest. Hard work, but doable, just got to actually commit to eating, otherwise your just moaning online.
The otherside of this is you need to actually train like you want it as well. OP you’ve listed a load of exercises and rep ranges, what weight are you using on the big lifts? If you eat big but aren’t training for it you’ll just get fat, and I’d guess that isn’t your goal.
You’ve got a lot of real-estate, it’s going to take a lot of gains to fill it out, think years of consistency, in the gym and the kitchen (it’s not either or here it’s both).
Take this as the fuel you need to fire your life up to get where you want to be. You’re only 23, so you’ve got plenty of time, but do you want to be looking back at this post in 2 years time and still saying the same as above?
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Well now I’m nostalgic for my childhood when dinner was mid-afternoon and supper was the evening meal.
This was definitely a weird transition for me getting toward the midwest. That, and butter instead of mayo on sandwiches.
That was my favorite part. The first time I heard Dave Tate talk about this I was laughing, but was also in awe. Such a simple concept, but you have to be fucking animal to actually do it.
It’s definitely like “outrunning” credit card debt by paying off one with another.
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Yeah its not computing…
Definitely not the estimated cals being presented by the OP
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Boy is it!
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To gain weight I would add 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and big glass of whole milk daily on top of your intake. Still not gaining. Add another glass of milk.
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You’re right, I undercounted. Not even sure how I got that original number, but the actual breakdown came to around 2,760 kcal a day. Either way, I’m planning on doing a proper bulk for a few good months.
I currently eat around 4 kg of couscous + 1.5 kg of beef over 6 days.
Couscous: Taste of Medium Grain Couscous | LIDL
349 kcal per 100 g
4,000 g total = 40 × 349 = 13,960 kcal
13,960 ÷ 6 = 2,327 kcal/day
Beef: Tesco British Beef
173 kcal per 100 g
1,500 g total = 15 × 173 = 2,595 kcal
2,595 ÷ 6 = 433 kcal/day
You’re sitting down and housing 8.8lbs of couscous and 3.3lbs of beef with veggies in one sitting? 12lbs of food in one shot, per day, every day?
Ye, I miscalculated how much I was actually eating. But eating one meal a day/3500 cals in one sitting during my bulk wasn’t anything new. I used to be extremely skinny, but I don’t particularly hate eating. I just couldn’t be arsed spending anytime in the kitchen.
I went from around 75kg to 95kg doing this. So I just kept at it.
I did a cut early this year and dropped down to 80kg but I lost my appetite in the process and its been a struggle since. I’ll definitely try to get more than one meal a day, will probably be munching on food that doesn’t require a lot of cooking/no cooking.
Honestly, might give this a shot or make my own version of this based on what I can find. 24 eggs is crazy tho
I think you nailed it with this comment. I have no problem lifting but the kitchen ALWAYS been a struggle. Sometimes I’m consistent for a few months and other times (especially after a cut) I’m struggling to hit my daily intake.
So far,
Bench - 85kg 3x8
OHP - 50kg 3x8
Squat - 90kg 4x8 (old PR). Current: 80kg 4x8 
I don’t deadlift (I find it hard to program) but last I tried, I got 180kg for 1 rep.
Thanks guys for the responses. I originally set out on my journey to hit that mythical 100 kg bench and thought everything would fall into place physique wise. Even though I’ve improved over the years, I realised I’m nowhere close to where I want to be.
I have one good year of uni left, so I’m making adjustments and resetting expectations. I like hitting targets and setting goals so I don’t lose track of where I’m heading.
I’ve cut down on the drinking over the last few weeks and now only drink a pint or 2 every other weekend. My insomnia is intense though, so I still smoke at night before bed.
I’m fixing my diet, and I think my next step is to try and hit 110 kg bodyweight by the end of next year. I don’t particularly care about being a bit chubby and I’ve been lean before. Right now, my primary goal is to not look like a Slender Man and to have some decent mass on my frame.
I’ll probably drop some occasional updates on this thread when I’m able to.
Current targets:
110kg bw
Bench: 100 kg 3×8
OHP: 60 kg 3x8
Squat: 100 kg 3x8
Deadlift: 200 kg 1RM
Given where I’m at and bulking roughly 2kg a month. I think these goals are realistic for me.
I have an idea, if you’re willing.
You have a golden opportunity here.
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Thanks, I like this routine a lot and I’ve been running it for about a month. I consider myself a late novice at lifting, so it’s been tough adjusting to the volume. Shoulder and arm days are manageable, but I find myself pretty gassed on chest and back day by the third exercise.
I’ll keep running it throughout the next year because the gains I’m getting are pretty good. If you have anything for legs to help complete this program, I’d appreciate it.
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Solid stuff, might give it a shot.
I don’t think I’ll hit my original goal of 110kg bw in 5 months but 100kg seems reasonable.