Losing strength

[AndiMorris]

Since going vegan a few months ago I've lost around a stone in weight, which thankfully is mostly fat, but I've also lost some muscle mass, and with it some strength.
With my stats being roughly as below for 1RM I really need to be upping my strength, and certainly can't warrant losing any more:
85kg squat
40kg OH press
110kg deadlift
At around 65~70kg body weight

When vegetarian I tried bulking, getting around 3000 cals/day, and the weight did go up, but unfortunately so did the waistline. Recently my diet has become very clean, and vegan, so I was hoping that just simply by eating more I should increase my strength without increasing too much bodyfat, but this doesn't seem to be happening.

My daily food intake tends to be:
Breakfast: almond milk and 50g oats ~ 300 cals
Morning snack: Fruit, veg, protein smoothie ~ 400 cals
Lunch: Leftovers from previous nights dinner ~ 300-400 cals
Afternoon snack: 25g nuts & a piece of fruit ~ 300 cals
Post workout if training day: Thrive recovery drink ~ 300 cals
Dinner: homecooked, vegan meal ~ 300-400 cals

Now, after adding all this up I'm getting around 2000 calories per day on training days, and 1700 on rest days. (Shit, just writing this down I can see I need more than that!)

SO......is 3000 calories something I should still be aiming for as a rough guide to do a clean bulk? I don't mind putting on some fat, but I'd rather stay the right side of 14% bf, and I'm around 13% now. I just get the feeling that adding another 1000 calories/day on top of this is just going to result in my belly coming out at me again.

Apologies for this stream of consciousness.....

[Think_machine]

Try messing around getting your protein steadily throughout the day. You ideally never want more than threeor four hours without a little bit of protein for what I have heard.

Are you sleeping right?

Are you overtraining or undertaining?

Do you drink?

What kind of job do you have and how is your stress/ day time recovery?

[AndiMorris]

I sleep at least 8 hours a night.

I wouldn't say I was overtraining, perhaps undertraining. Most weeks I make the gym (Crossfit class) 3 times a week, sometimes it's 4, sometimes it's 2.

I do drink, not excessively but I do. On your average week I'll probably have a beer on a Wednesday, and maybe 2 beers on a Saturday, unless it's a special occasion and we go out, when I'll have several. That only happens every couple of months though. The other time that I drink is if I'm on tour with the band, and that is usually pretty excessive, but again that's perhaps once a month, usually less.

I work in IT, so is primarily office based, seated, and low stress.

[AndiMorris]

I'm thinking of replacing one of my daytime snacks with a home made mass gainer. Looking to get around 2500 calories on a training day.

[muchidna]

hi, i know the feeling, vegan diets tend to be much more filling per calorie, particularly with fruit, more fiber and stuff, meaning you could feel alot fuller, with alot less calories
if it were me, i'd either swap some meals for more calorie dense meals or add some stuff to it, stuff like wholemeal sandwiches with bean patties, or wholemeal wraps , anything calorie dense, i particularly like whole grains + beans as both have a good amount of protein in them

but yeah, vegan, unprocessed diets tend with an emphasis on fruits/vegetabled tend to be less calorie dense, more filling than other diets

[AndiMorris]

Thanks.
Looking around this site I've found a nice recipe for a mass gainer shake, and also a nut breakfast bar, which I think could give me an extra 1000 calories per day if I was to have them both. This would probably be too much, so perhaps I'd look to replace a couple of the snacks with those high calorie recipes.