My first long cycle I did actually just finished at the beginning of the year and this was one of the things I was concerned about. 550 test for 17 weeks, 5-6 weeks in added 3-400 Mast.
My maintenance calories at the start were dialed in at 3k. I ended up eating 4600 cals a day to keep growing by the end of my cycle. When my cycle ended a month later my maintenance calories stabilized at 4k-4100 cals. Started the cycle at 165 8.5%bf I came off only lost 5lbs after a month and got a dexa and was 195 12.5%bf. Put on like 20lbs of lean mass and 10lbs of fat.
What I did was week 1 added 150 calories then each week added 100 calories till I got to week 5 - 550 cals. I gained 11lbs in the first 2 weeks . After that I ate with the goal of gaining 2lbs a week. Some weeks I gained 1lb and then I would up the calories but then hold at those calories for at least a couple of weeks. Once or twice i got too aggressive with calorie bumps and grew tits and love handles in like 4 days, then I would pull the calories back a little and the water would go away, weight would drop back to previous numbers but from there the scale would start going up again. It is a mind fuck but besides the initial water weight I didn't have wild weight swings that were all over the place. Weekly pictures did help to a point but they also all started to blur together. I also did daily weigh ins and averaged them out for the week and that's how I compared week to week.
I definitely did use the scale as a tool, I don't know if I was too aggressive with food but I was happy I don't think 2lbs lean mass to 1lb fat is a bad ratio and at the end of the cycle I was still only eating 500 cals above maintenance. I also ate 95% clean all cycle. My 5% just a bowl (4-6 servings) of sugary cereal after each training session. I did utilize like 1 cheat meal a week for a few weeks of the cycle but I didn't like the unpredictability of it so mainly saved those for occasional dates with the wife, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
