10 pounds in a month... all of a sudden

    ive been on a very strict diet for a couple years, eating every two hours, eating only lean meat, never cheating, drink a gallon of water a day, 3500 cal, 80 fat, 300 pro, 380 carbs, eating til im stuffed always on clean food only, while working out very hard. and ive been stuck at 178-182 for about a year and a half. i decided to loosen it up a bit to see if i could grow(bulk) finally.     
    i changed it up to eating when im hungry and eating alot. eating meats that are slightly fattier than before. eating more things like, yogurt, chili, 85/15 ground turkey, metRx big 100 protein bars, for the extra calories. suddenly ive gained 10 pounds in a months time, obviously of fat only. (weird for me after being so lean and muscular of three years.) i weighed 193 last week. i actually feel like im eating less than before.
    anyways, the question is, since this is the only thing that has stimulated weight gain after years of trying should i keep at it? suggestions? i actually dont feel like im at my bviggest, muscle wise, i feel fatter.

Age: 21
Wt: 185(156 as of 3/06)
Ht: 5'11"

Sups: ON 100% Whey Gold, NOxplode.

My guess is you werent consuming the amount of calories you were before, either that or you needed more...which you can monitor and if your not making progress slowly adding calories you would be able to find out what will help you gain, and gain more cleanly...

That being said the easiest way to bulk is to put on both muscle and fat, then cut and shed the fat off.

Sounds like you are just eating much more dirty then before and consuming much more calories then before even if you are not actually eating more, your eating more calorie dense foods and its adding up. Either way your eating way over maintenance and past the point of building muscle so your storing it as fat.

You have put on some muscle, even if you feel like its all been fat. So dont stress if your putting on some fat, its normal and usually necissary. If you feel like your putting on too much fat playing with your calorie intake, or even adding in more cardio will help.

My suggestion is to actually find out how many calories your body needs, and keep a log book for a couple weeks that actually records how many calories your really taking in each day. and you can adjust that number to experiment with what works for you, numbers will always change as your weight changes.

keep in mind that things like cardio and any other activities like sports will impact your numbers, so while bulking you will also need to account for those.

hope that helps a bit.

6'3"  @213

Squat 1x20x275

press:200, Deadlift:475, Bench:300, P.clean:235, Squat:385

"The only failure that is final is to stop trying to improve"