A client asked - was worried - that he may be harming his metabolism by not gaining weight fast enough in the off-season. He is determined not to gain too much.
My answer:
You're doing nothing to hamper your metabolism by not zooming up in weight. It takes long dieting to slow it down, and that's a normal slow down. It takes awhile to bring it back up to normal, but it's just as much a time issue than a how-much-can-I-eat-in-a-week issue. You're doing great to keep moving up slowly. Your goal if 16-18 lbs is what I would call an aggressive off-season where you're going to have at least a full year off. If you were going to start dieting in 6 months, I'd probably stop at 10-12.
If your daily food is what you say here, I think it's just fine. By keeping your food moderate, you'll not gain as fast but you still have room for the higher days which will stimulate your met rate and give you a nice glycogen surge. The bottom line is tracking your food and your weight and adjusting along the way. When I work with clients through the off-season, my goal is usually 2-3 lbs per month to stay anabolic for a longer period of time, but the food is increasing much of that time....it's not a static amount of food. As the food increases and you get further into the off-season, the met rate keeps ramping up to your genetic max for that body weight. You'll see that you have to keep adding food to keep moving up even a lb or two per month.
