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Ok, so let’s take this by steps.
First, if you just wanna regain some muscle and strength, you don’t necessarily need to change your diet. As long as you’re eating enough protein (recommended number in literature consistently falls in about the 1.6 - 2.2 g of protein x your body weight range for optimal results). Your muscles and strength atrophied due to lack of stimuli, but the muscular and neurological connections still exist, so you’re primed for body recomposition - similar to “newbie gains”. You definitely do not need “mass gainers” that are basically calorie bombs with good macro spreads. Protein shakes (almost purely protein) can be helpful to meet protein goals without going over on calories. Those 2 are different things.
Now, if you want to gain significant muscle mass, increasing your weight, you need to eat at a caloric surplus - eat more calories than you burn. You don’t need to go overboard and eat like a horse. In fact, unless you’re on PEDs or other forms of “juice”, it is extremely inefficient to eat a LOT more. iirc the recommended number is around 10-20% calorie surplus.
Doing this WILL also gain you some fat. That is inevitable. Your body is just not 100% efficient. Same way that losing fat also loses some muscle. That’s why body builders bulk, then cut. The slower and more measured the process, the efficient it is. The more the caloric surplus, the more strength and muscle you gain, but also the higher the fat %.
It sounds like you just powerbombed your calories and gained some extra fat. I’d recommend not thinking too much about right now. Just lower your calories to “normal” and do strength and resistance training until you reach a level of muscular and strength you’re happy with, you’re likely still in recomp phase so you might naturally lose some of that extra fat, then do a mini-cut to trim some of the extra fat you might still have, and you should be good to go.
Goodluck.
Know someone who has been on a weight loss journey using strength training as the foundation. At first she used Noom, which helped her learn better eating habits. But she found she wasn’t putting on muscle like she wanted and began working with a dietitian. She is now eating more calories, still a low calorie threshold, but is now gainng muscle. She preps meals and snacks ahead. I envy her refrigerator with its tidy containers of cut veggies.
If it were me, I wouldn’t sign up for anything or pay anyone, at least not right away. I’d start out with eating healthy foods and exercising. I would not take any special supplements or protein powders. I’d give it some time to build strength back and see where I stood. You didn’t put the weight on in a month, so don’t try to take it off that fast.
I can speak from my own experience here. Diet is everything! I used to be 250lbs and bench 315 for 1 rep and now, 3 years later, Im 205lbs and bench 395lbs for 1. The only thing that I have changed is my diet.
To keep it short and sweet, I tried pretty much every diet in the book for at least 6 months. Some diets got me lean but my strength and mass wasnt there (vegan for example) and some diets got me a lot of mass but a lot of fat as well (mediteranean for example).
About 3 years ago I discovered something. I began reading research papers much much more thoroughly and found that a lot of the research is very flawwed and very skewed. Eventually I discovered that animal products are hands down the best option when it comes to muscle growth and nutrient availbilty and overall health.
I recommend 1 gram of protein per pound of goal body weight. That said, Im cjrrently taking in 280 grams a day as an experiment and its working wonders for me. All of the protein should come from grass fed and finished beef and organs and maybe raw dairy if you tolerate it well.
Fat intake should be about half the grams of protein. So If you want to weigh 200lbs, you should be eating 200 grams of protein and 100gram of fat. The fat being all from the beef, organs, and dairy.
Carbs should come from fruit and berries. I recommend .5 to 1 grams per gram of protein. This is the one you can play with a bit to help keep lean. At .5 youll be lean most likely, but if you do a lot of high intensity workouts adding some extra carbs may benefit you strength gain.
I know thats a lot, but if your interested feel free to ask questions. You can ask here or message me, Im happy to help👍
Either way good luck to you and Work hard in the gym💪