Hey guys, I've been lurking for awhile now and applying everything I have learned here to my diet and workouts, but now that I have I have reached my weight loss goals I am having a little bit of trouble.

Let me give you a little history about myself. I work at a call center, which gives me little or no exercise throughout the day. I'm 5' 6" and 130 pounds, which is what my original goal was, but once here I feel I am way too small. In January I weighed 160 pounds, and on my frame that wasn't pretty. I jumped on the Atkins bandwagon, which I actually read the book btw, and don't feel it's the devil everyone thinks it is. I ate alot of vegetables and meat, just mainly cut out all sugars, processed food, and cokes. I was able to get down to 138 pounds without really trying, but I still looked like crap. I was the definition of skinny-fat as Swole puts it.

In July I joined a gym and started running a couple of miles. Within a month I was running four miles 4-times a week and working out 5 times a week. I was able to tone up quite abit and lose most of the fat. When I first started working out I was eating around 1400 calories a day, which was more than 10 x my body weight as many people had suggested on this board. As my weight has gone down I adjusted that and am currently eating anywhere from 1900 - 2300 calories a day now. I have also cut out most of the cardio-except for one or two times a week. I mainly do this just to keep in shape now.

My problem now is that I am not gaining any lean mass. I would like to bulk up some, but still have this fear of eating too many calories. My diet is ok, but I do eat out a few times a week, in the evening. When I do eat out I try to make better choices and always keep my calories in the range I am shooting for.

I took the week off from working out last week and kept my calories at around 2200, which I figured would cause me to lose a little bit of definition. I had been gaining a little bit of weight the past few weeks, and thought I was making some progress, and figured with taking the week off I would probably gain a pound or at least not lose any. By this past weekend I was back down to 130, and that's after eating pretty badly last week.

Any advice as to how many calories I should eat a day? I don't really want to gain all the fat back so I don't want to go overboard on calories. I do space out all my meals and eat between 6 to 7 times a day.

No ideas from anyone? I guess I will just add some calories but dang it's hard after trying to lose weight for so long.

yeah, i know how that feels...i spent 6 months losing a bunch of weight on what was basically a starvation diet...then i came here and learned just how bad that was for me and what it was doing to my body. needless to say, it wasn't what i wanted to accomplish. you sound like you've been around the boards and sucked up a bunch of knowledge...it might be time to really focus on your nutrient intake instead of just counting calories...for example, how many grams of protien do you take in in a day? for your weight, should be around 130-140, maybe more if you want to bulk up.

you might also want to go read Marcus's post. its stickied at the top of the Fat Loss forum. its an extremely good read, complete with mathematic formulas for calories, macronutrients, the whole deal.

on top of that, take a look at your lifting routine...to put on mass, stick to the biggies...(squats, bench, pull-ups, deadlift etc.) and go with a heavier weight and fewer reps, but try to get in about 5 sets.

:gl:

. take a look at your lifting routine...to put on mass, stick to the biggies...(squats, bench, pull-ups, deadlift etc.) and go with a heavier weight and fewer reps, but try to get in about 5 sets.
:gl:


Tanis is right, hit the weights. I would even stop cardio or if you are addicted, cut it back drastically.

[QUOTE=Malakie I would like to bulk up some, but still have this fear of eating too many calories. [/QUOTE]

If you want to bulk, get over it. Eat clean, lift hard, sleep long. To give you an idea, I started bulking at 149 lb 4 weeks ago, I'm now 153 (7-day averages). I guess about 1-1.5lb of that is fat. To do this I had to eat between 2800 and 3000 cal/day AFTER EATING EXTRA CALORIES FOR THE WORKOUTS. In other words add 250-500 to those numbers on workout days (I sometimes did 2 workouts in a day, then took a day off).

I've been trying to follow Bernadi's suggestions of not mixing high fat and high carbs in any meals, but I manage to do this about 70% of the time.

I've been utterly shocked at how much clean food I can eat without putting on much fat. Personally I think a key here is to spread the calories into 7-8 meals. I know Knubb disagreed that this was important for bulking, but I think it keeps the metabolism going and also allows you not to mix carbs and fats too much.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459429

I normally take in anywhere from 140 - 200 grams of protein a day. Lately I have been trying to focus eating carbs just before and after lifting weights, other than first thing in the morning. With my job I don't get much physical activity during the day, so I don't see alot of point in loading up on carbs during the day.

I also lift between 3-4 times a week, and run 4 miles, 1-2 times a week. I was running more during the summer, but have cut it back the past 6 weeks.

If you really want to see what my life has been like the past few months. Take a look at my Fitday.

Yes, I know I don't get enough sleep and I eat out way too much. :/

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=malakie

Lately I have been trying to focus eating carbs just before and after lifting weights, other than first thing in the morning. [/url]

I think this is the way to go.