My apologies if this is in the wrong forum, but I didn't see any others more suitable for this post.

So I've been a reader of this forum for a few years now but never really posted before, I've read a lot of the material here and followed a lot of the workout plans and cutting/bulking dieting plans. With the help of this forum I've pretty much converted my lifestyle from being a couch potato that only ever eats junk food to always being active, keeping fit and eating healthy. I've actually gone from being able to do around 3 chin-ups max to around 18 max, although I've never had any serious spontaneous muscle growth no matter how much (or little) I train or how much time I give myself to rest.

Here I thought I had myself figured out, how much I needed to workout and how many days rest needed before the next workout.
I was eating healthy every day - lots of veg, fruit, lean meats and wholegrains etc.
I also tried protein shakes and didn't notice much difference - although to be fair I only tried them for two months.

So here's where I get confused - Long story short it's just been what feels like the worst month of my life (Relationship troubles so I'm sure most of you have been there), for the first week I was stressed out and barely ate anything and almost lost a stone (around 14lbs). I was expecting to lose most of my hard earned lean weight in place of emergency fat storage, which is another reason I'm so confused.
I pretty much replaced any liquids for beer - which isn't the best way to deal with any problem I know, but I didn't really care at that point. When I did get my appetite back I couldn't be bothered to cook anything so it's been mainly fast food and no healthy stuff, this has pretty much carried on for three weeks.

I've done the odd set of chin-ups, pull-ups and weights but was still expecting to be a mess by the end of the month.


So for a quick summary - I thought that:

Healthy diet + Exercise = Muscle gain + Fat loss

and

Extreme weight loss + Copious amounts of beer followed closely by:
More beer + Junk food
= Extreme muscle loss + Fat gain
I was wrong!


I've somehow gained more muscle this month than I would have done in 3 months of proper diet and exercise, my abs also look better than they have done in a long time.

I obviously don't recommend this diet plan to anyone and I'm not going to keep following it, I've already slowly started eating decent meals and cut the beer out - But I just want to know how this has happened??
I've already thought of the possibility that it was just because I haven't worked out much and I've given my body a rest (If you can even call it a rest), but I actually didn't work out much for a month or so before that.

If anybody has any ideas I'd really appreciate a reply as I'm totally confused!

Thanks, Jamie.

Extreme weight loss + Copious amounts of beer followed closely by:
More beer + Junk food
= Extreme muscle loss + Fat gain
I was wrong!

But I just want to know how this has happened??
Rebound.

Stress, near starvation (if you lost almost 14 lbs in that short of a time frame), etc. put your body in a catabolic state. Then you started eating a lot of calories through junk food, the stressors started clearing up, and you went anabolic, gaining some weight.

To a point, it's not the quality of your nutrition that allows you to gain muscle -- it's the quantity of calories (coupled with the proper exercise, of course). Eating tons of fast food is actually a great way to put on mass, but the downside is that its horrible for your health. As well, it can take weeks for the body to repair itself after exercise and this process can be delayed or slowed when you enter a very catabolic state.

I bet it was just the sudden shift from really healthy to really unhealthy and most of the way back.

I was trying to cut, and went strong for a couple weeks seeing "appreciable" fat loss, but nothing special considering how hard I was working.

Well, over 4 days, I had about 3 different 1,000 - 1,500 calorie carb binges (after a whole day of excellent eating), then figuring I had screwed myself over, I had a bunch of pizza, too.

I didn't gain any fat, and felt hella stronger next lift day.

So I'm thinking :confused: Excellent diet/lifting/aerobics 6 days a week, and then no lift, no aerobics, and pizza and beers 1 day a week... Wonder how that would work? It'd sure make dieting easier ;)