Ok so I had cut down to 180 from 11/05-1/06. I stayed cutting or in that same diet form per say until about March. Then I wanted to try a bulk so I started eating more during my meals, but I did not gain any weight and furthemore stayed at 180, but I was getting more defined. Ever since the begginig of this summer and after my college semester was over, I started feeling kind of down I guess, not like myself. Right after that occured I could see I was gaining weight again, but what really bothered me the most was I was eating the same exact as I was before when I wouldn't gain anything, mind you I was doing the same exact workouts too. Also in the past if I would put on some weight from drinking or whatever, all I woudl have to do is lift weights and I would be back to normal. I am now at about 187lbs, have some fat that has devloped around the stomach area and overall too. I have been doing more cardio HIIT (sprinting starights and jogging curves on track if that is HIIT), but am having troulbe brinign the weight down. IT is really bothering me and making me feel worse, and I really don't understand it. I am trying to go on my cut diet again but am just getting too hungry. Here is an example of a meal of what I ate when I cut: 6' grilled chicken sandwich lettuce tomatoe, and a piece of fruit

or 1 piece of grilled chicken breast, brown rice, piece of fruit

attempted bulk: 6" grilled chicken sandwich lettuce tomato, fruit, cliff bar

or 2 peices of grilled chicken breats, brown rice, piece of fruit 1 or 2 whole wheat slices of bread with natural PB, some egg whites

Now I am trying to have 6" grilled chikcen sandich, fruit, and half cliff bar

or 2 pieces of grilled chicken, brown rice, and just a piece of fruit

so far its been pretty hard, and I'm losing motivation, and am in pretty much disbelief of how I gain back some weight when I was eating the same as before and lifting the same as before with added cardio now, someone gimme some suggestions, thanks

I personally would re-vamp that dietary approach, and of great importance is to include some healthy fats. The body won't let go of stored fat if you aren't ingesting at least some, and they are also good for hormone levels.

As well, for fat loss I'd introduce some cardio at 65-75% of your MHR for 45 mins. on empty in the a.m., and omit the HIIT you are/were doing. Not only do I feel the former to be superior for pure lipolysis, you've already been doing HIIT and not losing fat (possibly muscle instead), so you'd be well served to switch it up.

All of my clients on this board utilize the cardio I recommend, and well, you can see how they have done. :)

Good luck!

~SC~

It's clear you've had a metobolic shift of the sorts, you may have overshot your calorie's and been tricked by the fact that your body can utilize far more than your base metobolic rate when you've been in a state of depletion for an extended period of time.

That or you're really ignoring fats and rest in your diet and exercise plan.

I've found that after dieting for an extended period of time, your body's caloric imbalance allows you to eat a lot more than you would if you're
simply trying to maintain your weight.

You're body has to resatureate it's store's (fat/glycogen/whatever else you get from food), which for me, takes about 3 to 5 days. That time frame is based on how long it takes me to start feeling normal again.

I view it as a window to eat freely, of healthy foods of course, but more than I'm accustomed to eating. Generally I don't go overboard though, I eat for mental sanity and with the idea that I'm repairing my body.

I've hit the exact imbalance you have in the past as well. I'm being 100% honest in saying you need to rest, start mixing up you diet and start paying some attention to your depression. You may very well be working yourself to hard/not getting enough rest, which in itself cause's major stress on the body and ultimately destroy's your mindset in time.

Up your proteins/veggie's/polyfats and start doing some exercise that's a not insanely taxing. Long walks, preferably with some uphill battle's. You need to calorie cycle for a bit in my opinion, it always makes me feel better if I start feeling like my body's dipping into a storage state (sluggish/bloated feeling).

You can do the cardio Swole has suggested, it'll be a big help getting you back in balance as long as your eating your meals.

My best advice would be to calorie cycle for a bit and most of all, give that depression your dealing a little attention. My biggest threat to physical health is mindset/emotional well being!!! Gotta get yourself calm and focused, perhaps even pampered if you're truely out of sorts over this all.

BD that is really good advice!

Just speaking from what I've been through xyouxfailmex.

There's a thin line between obsession and simply taking care of yourself. With dieting, an innocent action can be a complete disaster all because of poor knowledge or lack of research. There's a lot more to it, body types, mental toughness, the list is to long to go into it all.

In your case, you've done all the research and taken the first steps towards a better looking body.

Messing with your body composition can have serious life implication's so you really need to take a slow, concentrated effort in trying to determin what you're physically comfortable doing day in/day out.

You've got a life to live man!

Consider yourself accomplished if you're not doing anything to a great extreme. Balance and patients over extended periods of time (good or bad) need to be your focus.

Once you have it in your head that you're just trying to figure out your body, you'll be able to cope with the mental anguish of the added weight you have on you right now ( i know its a pain in the butt to go through discomfort, but it's just part of bein human! ).

Adjusting your diet is completely normal, start exploring different forms of eating so you know how to manipulate your body in the ways you've been wanting to. It's a very positive thing that you notice your body is not acting right on your current food plan, it's just a signal for change.

Stay positive and pay attention to the change's you decide to make so you remember what you did if you ever run into this problem again.

For me, the change's needed were simple. I had to cut back on my food intake and reach points of hunger to almost " reset " my body. I cycle days of eating meat/veggie's and carb load every other to every two days. You'll notice in the carb load that you don't need to eat as much, this is your body calming down and getting back in balance. This lowers the amount of insulin floating around in your body which should decrease hunger and let you drop that water weight that's making you so uncomfortable right now.

Different forms of calorie cycling have been my biggest dieting tool when it comes to physical discomfort through diet.

If you exercise on your days of no carbs you'll start to notice your calorie defict come back into play. More of the food you eat will go straight to your muscle and less of it will sit around waiting to be used. It makes me feel a *lot* better and gives me a much better idea of how much food my body can handle based on activity level's.

This is *just* my form of detoxing when I get bloated or feel like my body is not acting right. It happens to a lot of us I assure you, don't get down over it though, I'm sure you look far better than a whole lot of people out there right now.

A fix is always just a few changes away. Keep with the idea that you're trying to get somewhere, and chalk up that 8 pounds to a mistake in diet plan.

Calm that mind down and make some time for fun, you're not in the ditch you think you are :nope:.

-Brian

As well, for fat loss I'd introduce some cardio at 65-75% of your MHR for 45 mins. on empty in the a.m., and omit the HIIT you are/were doing. Not only do I feel the former to be superior for pure lipolysis, you've already been doing HIIT and not losing fat (possibly muscle instead), so you'd be well served to switch it up.

All of my clients on this board utilize the cardio I recommend, and well, you can see how they have done. :)

Good luck!

~SC~

Thanks for the tips. Now when you say do cardio at 65%-75% of my heart rate, would jogging 2 miles at a good pace be considred that. And from what I thought, long distance running would eat more muscle than HIIT like I had been doing?

BD- thanks for the words aswell. Do you think I should try to focus more on a cutting diet now. To be honest with you, I have never really been too technical about my diet plans. Once I saw I started to lose weight I just kept eating clean to my best and saw it was not effecting my weight. Now I just find it harder to go back into the cutting diet after I was attempting a bulk and was full after meals, bascially I'm getting more hungry now that I cut as before I wasn't. What do you think I should do? Also, this might be a dumb question but how does one know if they are losing muscle? I feel I am, mainly because of loss of definiton in arms, and just overall feel a bit more flabby. I think SwoleCat made a good point about teh HIIT eating my muslce away possibly, but what shoudl I do cardio wise too? Thanks much guys.

220-age=maximum heart rate, multiply by 65 -75 to get desired HR

the decimal point is important, .65-.75, otherwise you're going to be on the treadmill trying to get yourself up to 14000bpm, which is actually pretty bad for you.

Also, you might want to ditch the Clif Bars, or any other kind of sports nutrition bars. Even the healthiest ones are miles away from being anything I'd consider "clean" or conducive to fat loss. I used to eat Clif Bars every day, loved the hell out of them, kept finding ways to justify why I was eating them or how they weren't really sabotaging my progress...but the reality is that there's really not a whole lot healthy about them, and you could instead be eating something healthier, tastier, and cheaper in their place. Just something to think about, hope it helps.

anyone else have any suggestions on what type of cardio I should do, what type of diet I should be on.



Also what are "good fats", I know natural PB and olive oil are some but what else?

fish oil, flax seed, and almonds have good fats.

I would attribute your weight gain to the semester ending. When the semester ends your workload changes, as do your routine, sleep patterns, social engagements, and responsibilities. It's easy to get bummed out or punchy at breaks. So I would try to keep busy doing some sports/outdoor/social thing until school starts again.

Oh, and I won't argue with SwoleCat on the cardio suggestion. Have you seen that guy?

I don't run on a treadmill that much really, so I don't know what heart rate I'm giong at, thats why I was asknig would running 2 miles at a decent pace be considired wat swolecat suggested?? And also, if i did that fasted, wouldn't I lose more muscle that way??