How is it possible the stats of my Pokemon don't raise after I used vitamins on it?

Question

I am playing my soulsilver game and I put many vitamins like carbon and zinc on my Pokemon.
I saw they give you 10 EV points each and every 4 points should give 1 point in that stat. But after I put all 10 vitamins until the max of the first 100 EV points on a stat, my level 31 Pokemon hasn't improved anything in his stats.
How is it possible my Pokemons stats don't grow after using so many vitamins? I also read somewhere I could see this stats improve a lot at a higher level, but will it still do if I level him up with rare candies on higher levels?

Answer 1

What you described is absolutely normal. The number of real stat points your Pokemon gains from EVs depends on its level. What you read about four EVs giving one stat point is only true at level 100. At lower levels, EVs do not contribute as much to your Pokemon's stat total (strictly speaking; the proportions are the same).

At level 31, your Pokemon needs approximately 13 EVs to gain an extra stat point (subject to rounding and other factors). The reason that you didn't see any stat gains after using 10 Vitamins (even though you should have gotten at least seven points) is that stat recalculation only occurs upon level up in Gen 4. If you level up your Pokemon, then it will gain at least seven points in the stat you used 100 EVs on.

You do not need to worry about the timing of when you used your EVs. Your Pokemon is not disadvantaged by the fact you used Vitamins at level 31 instead of level 100. Your Pokemon's stats are recalculated every time it levels up, which will keep it caught up. So, yes, your Pokemon will still have high stats when it gets to a high level (with Rare Candy or otherwise).

Comments

Thank you for your answer. My Pokemon didn't get 7 points in his stat at his next level up but I'm slowly getting the stats improved with (now he is level 34) +4, +5 and +4 again.

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Since I'm linking this answer to other people, I should probably say something about the comment above.
You can simulate a level 31 Pokemon with x EVs in a stat levelling up to level 32 with x + 100 EVs in the same stat using this teambuilder: https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/teambuilder
You will see that each time, the difference in stat points is >=7 higher, depending on the species, nature and IVs. So what OP described where they used 10 Vitamins between level 31 and 32 must not be entirely true (unless I'm mistaken, please correct me if so).