Messed Up My Diet for 8 Weeks

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

From the start:
I was doing ICF 5x5 for a year. did a 3 month cut on this and then started doing madcows after.

Started a new job right at the same time as i started the madcow routine.
Steadily progressed on the routine for a while. Have been doing it for around 15 weeks now and am doing poorly on this routine.

I have only gained around 9 lbs in this time. I know. The thing is with my new job, it is very active but sometimes it isn’t. i really can’t predict how much calories i burn as it is inconsistent, so this has caused problems.

bottom line, i probably haven’t been eating enough to endure this routine.
I thought it needed a deload so i took one, but now im still stuck.

bodyweight - 156lbs

Latest Squat for 5 - 120kg
latest bench for 5 - 85kg
latest pendaly row for 5 - 72.5kg

I am looking for advice on what to do next.
diet wise i think i will just go eat 4k a day and suck it up that i will gain more fat than i want for a while till i work it out.

For the routine, should i go back to the start or carry on where i am now? I am really struggling to get the reps and my form looks a little sloppy on the heavy set right now.

2

Sticking with the program protocol to reset with 90% after failing two sessions is probably a good step.

For diet, I had a similar experience when work and other activities were physically demanding. As a starting point, I used online calorie calculators to predict how much extra food I needed each day and determined if it were reasonable based on experience. If I still didn’t feel recovered then I would eat more. You’ll have to go by trial and error to figure it out.

Personally I wouldn’t eat in extreme excess if I knew I would end up having to burn a lot of fat off in the long run. I’ve tried many times putting on weight fast and I found that anything in excess of 1 lb/week doesn’t help me add strength any faster. You’ll have to figure out for yourself the point where you get little return for your effort. Take notes on what you do so you can make changes as necessary.