Bros help me out here. It's my first time playing any pre-3DS pokemon game, it being HG, and I'm constantly underleveled throughout the game, I dont know why. Whenever I tackle a gym leader/boss character I'm easily 10-15 levels below them and my pokemon get wiped in one hit. I took a look at their IVs and it turns out I have absolutely shitty luck; all of them have one or two stats in the single digits (usually under 5), and none were in their 20s. Even after bumping them up to be hovering more or less around 25 in each stat in a save editor, I'm still always underleveled, broke from buying healing items all the time, and having my ass handed to me.
Am I just expected to be grinding wild pokemon before each boss NPC? I fight every standard trainer I run into, but my mons are still underleveled. Should i be rematching those ones that call my phone? What am I missing? Like, I'm trying every strategy I can but when every boss char's pokemon has higher speed and can wipe out each of my team in 1-2 hits, at one point I just gave myself some rare candies to even the odds a little bit more, and I'm fucking upset with myself that I did.
Again, is there something I'm missing?