ONLY GAINING WEIGHT!

[webutter]

Hey Hard-Bodies...

 

Riddle me this...I've been working hard over the last 5 years.  I started at 210 lbs and now I'm 260 lbs.  Some good, some bad.

 

Started riding the bike and went on a strict meal only diet and lost 26 lbs...probably lots of water weight and some fat hopefully.  I started at a 28% bmi and went to 24%.  Then the gym suckered me into training.  I hadn't lifted since college so I was into getting back into it. They killed my cardio and I lifted for 40 min with 30 sec - 1 min breaks.  They also said I wasn't eating enough and i started eating sweet potatoes and introduce veggies in with my meat diet.  No bread, no sugar. After a few months, I gained 30 lbs and went to 28% BMI and eventually 30% BMI.  I talked with the manager of the gym and he was lost.  They said I should check my Thyroid....I did...it was fine.

 

So, I ditched them.  Started P-90x.  While, I hated listening to those routines, it helped.  I killed it.  Made my own weights and did it twice a day some times.  I wasn't a complete master, but a competitor.  On day 87 of 90, I blew my shoulder out.  SHIT!  The other news is that I didn't lose any "weight" in fact I gained weight and still looked chubby-ish. 

 

8 months later after resting that torn shoulder I started to work out again...slowly.  Yes, I had put on some fat and some bad habits with booze at that point. I was probably weighing in at 235 or so.  Still squeezing into my 36 waist size and mushrooming. 

 

I got another trainer.  He tried to kill me with burpees and said to ditch the dieting, ditch the bmi, and just keep the heartrate up, and drink protein shakes...fyi - I never drink protein shakes.  I recommend against them.  That will be the key to cancer in 20 years. Watch out.

 

Got another trainer cause mine quit the gym.  This guy admitted I had strength.  Then put me on the NFL combine workout.  Killed me.  I couldn't do it at my age.  I'm dedicated, but just didn't want to get injured again.  So, got another trainer.  She said to take steroids or HGH and eat only turkey patties with water...right.

 

So, after 5 years of that I'm back to the bike and some occasional lifting.  I'm curling 50lbs dumbells and pushing 245 lbs on the bench.  But I can't take my shirt off at the beach cause of my big old gut, moobs, and I'm clocking in at 260 lbs. 

 

On the diet side, I've tried atkins, paleo, and calorie counting with not much luck.  I'm headed into looking at hormone research next now that I'm 40, but if you have an answer to this 6'2" 260lbs set up let me know.  I guess I wasn't made to be thin, I guess I'll have to settle for being a Viking.

[Guzzi]

Hey @webutter

 

You must be new to the community because I can see that you have only one post. This section is what we call the Respawn Point which is for members who have fallen off the wagon and want to make a point of declaring that and starting again. That's probably why you haven't had much response. Why not repost this in the Introductions page Here. I will still give you some help and advice though. 

 

Although I agree with you that your genetics are probably making you more prone to being heavy set and easy to add muscle, that isn't the end of the story. What you make of the body you were given is up to you. If you want to lose weight then it's simple, eat less. No silly diets, no daft programs, no excuses. 

 

What i would suggest you do to begin with is to keep a food diary for a month so that you can find out where you are going wrong. This requires you to be 100% honest with yourself though. No missing out that extra potato you had because "it's just one, it won't count" or missing out any snacks because you don't want to admit to them. It would only be yourself that you would be cheating, and the prize you would forfeit is the body that you've always wanted. 

 

You can use apps like My Fitness Pal to record your diary or just do it the old fashioned way. The benefit of using MFP is that you can "share" your diary with other people to get input on what to change. Now it's easy to miss things from your diary, what I did was I took a photo of everything I ate so that when I came to fill out my diary there was nothing that I forgot to add. 

 

Let me tell you this. When your body stores fat it does so in 3 distinctly different ways. You have the wibbly wobbly adipose fat just under the skin. We can see this fat so it's east to think that's all the fat we have, but unfortunately it's not. We also store fat around our organs, this is the most dangerous in terms of our health. There's also the third kind, the fat we store through our muscles. Because we can't pick where our bodies loose fat from you might see your arms or legs getting smaller as you lose weight. Whilst it's true that you will lose a small amount of muscle mass when you lose weight, it's really the loss of the fat that is behind the visible change for most of us. This leads me to my next point. 

 

Exercise! In order to prevent losing muscle it's important to remind your body to keep the muscle and ditch the fat. We do this by lifting heavy weights. Now there are more programs out there than I've had broken bones (ie a LOT) but the best thing to do is to KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Forget all the nonsense that personal trainers have given you (coz it sounds like you've had some right numptys) and go back to basics. Deadlift, Squat, Bench, these are the Big 3 that you want to focus on. If you haven't had instruction on how to do these lifts properly then get some. You DO NOT want to start lifting without proper form. A lot of people use Stronglifts 5x5 as their program, it's worth a read. 

 

I would also recommend you look at the main Nerd Fitness site and read the articles. 

 

Does any of that make sense to you? 

[Igaduma]

What you did first... it seems to have worked for you.

I'd do that again.  Make sure not to compensate by eating more though.

 

In fact, exercise in general is a bad way of losing weight.  The results are almost negligible (unless maybe if you go really overboard).  Energy spent working out is only a relatively small percentage of the energy you spend just being.

 

You'll lose some muscle mass.  You might to some strength training to compensate for that.

BTW: If you read about how building muscle will help you lose weight because you burn extra energy to maintain the new muscle mass... it's true.  It's a very small amount of energy though.

[webutter]

Thanks to Guzzi and lgaduma.  If I only get two posts that help, that's all I need...so thanks.

 

I've gone back to the basics since I signed on.  Thanks for the thoughts.  So, one thing I need some clarity on though.  My trainers advised that I wasn't eating enough to lose weight.  For example, on a normal day I should intake about 2600 cals and when I work out heavy I should approach 3600.  Is that where I'm going wrong?  Before I started with them I was eating about 1300-1700 per day. 

 

Right now my diet is for shite, as I'm pretty frustrated, but I can clean it up no prob.  I've used My Fitness Pal for years.  While I find is is helpful as a diary, I never noticed it to help with fat reduction.  It did illustrate how much sodium I intake, so I've been working on that.

 

Love me some bench and squat.  I haven't tried the deadlift though.  Ever have any back aches from that?

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

 

[Igaduma]

you only lose weight by eating at a deficit.

the deficit may not be to big though.  at the very least it won't be healthy.  It might (sources disagree on this) make your body go into starvation mode causing  you not to lose weight

[Guzzi]

@webutter have you actually tried working out your BMR, Base Metabolic Rate? That gives you how many calories your body needs just to do its thing (breathing, digesting, pumping blood) and a starting point for you to work out your actual intake should be. Now, someone made a really good post about this recently... If I can find it I'll post it, but you can always Google BMR. 

 

As Iggy said, you need to eat at a deficit, how big a deficit depends on how much you have to lose. @260lbs, even with a decent volume of muscle mass, if you're looking to get back down to 210lbs then short term, I wouldn't worry about having too big a deficit (within reason, eat sensibly) and your body will let you know if you are lacking fuel for your workouts (feeling weak, light headed etc). If that happens bring you calorie intake back up a little to compensate. Listen to your body. 

 

Im one of the people who disagree with the whole "starvation mode" thing. There's very little evidence to support the theory that short term large deficits provoke this response. The trouble is, that a lot of the time we just don't know when it comes to how the body works. Ideas that we once considered to be fact are now totally debunked, and I'm sure that will continue. Iggy might be right, I might be right, we can't say for sure, so pick one and run with it.  

 

Deadlift is AWESOMMMME! 

 

Don't listen to those who say it's bad for your back, it's actually the opposite. Check out This article if you're not convinced or This one.

 

I like this quote

To simply put it, there is no other exercise that provides as many benefits to the male body as does deadlifting.

[webutter]

Cool.  Good advice on the BMR.  I checked it and it says for me to hit 2300.  

 

Since our our last chat, I've started the cal counter again.  Today, I ate 2000 cals of good food and felt fine.  My counter said my goal was to eat another 1200 cals based on some walking that I did. But I had three meals and snacks.  Think I'm going too low? The counter says I should be at 236 in 5 weeks.  That should be correct right? My colleagues around me say that is too few cals. 

[cristinalyons]

Thanks for your amazing advice.

[Guzzi]

2 hours ago, webutter said:

Cool.  Good advice on the BMR.  I checked it and it says for me to hit 2300.  

 

Since our our last chat, I've started the cal counter again.  Today, I ate 2000 cals of good food and felt fine.  My counter said my goal was to eat another 1200 cals based on some walking that I did. But I had three meals and snacks.  Think I'm going too low? The counter says I should be at 236 in 5 weeks.  That should be correct right? My colleagues around me say that is too few cals. 

 

Hmmm.... Yeah, you're a big dude, that seems low. When I was working out I was aiming for around that many calories. **sighs wistfully** those were the days... **looks off into the far distance**  

 

If you ate enough and didn't feel hungry then it's fine though, you want a deficit anyway and if you can eat enough and still lose weight then great! I'd still want to double check your numbers though, it will come in handy for you later on. Keep tracking your food too, then we can look at your diary and make some suggestions. 

 

What's your height and age?

[Guzzi]

1 hour ago, cristinalyons said:

Thanks for your amazing advice.

 

I'm glad you found it helpful!  

 

Have you made your own intro thread yet? You don't need to say much about yourself (though you can if you want to!) but it's always nice to get some replies to say "hi" and you can ask for any help or advice that you need. Just a thought.  

[webutter]

6'1" and 40. 

[Guzzi]

Ah, right! I've got it. 

 

Your BMR is 2300 but that's only the start of the equation. The BMR is how many calories your body needs whilst doing nothing, sitting at rest. Now we need to calculate for your activity level on top of that. 

 

Hold on, I'll post a pic  

 

[Guzzi]

[Guzzi]

If we say that you are lightly active, that would give us a calorie usage of 3175kcal, which sounds reasonable for a guy your size. 

 

Now, how you respond to that is up to you. My suggestion would be to maintain a good deficit, 800-1,000kcal, to begin since you're looking to lose a fair amount, but don't go hungry.

 

Then you can see how you feel in a month's time and readjust if you feel you need/want to. 

 

Ill tag @Waldo for his opinion, sorry Waldo, as he knows more about this than me.  

[Waldo]

6'2" and 260, you're about the same weight I once was and slightly taller.

You'll lose very fast at 1500 net calories

You'll lose moderate at 1750 net calories

You'll lose slow at 2000 net calories

Don't waste your time above 2000 net cals if you are actually trying to lose.  2000 will be yawn inducing slow.  A person in your shoes should have no issue with a couple months of 1500 net cals.  Little deficits are are little people.  Big guys can handle big deficits.

 

Net calories means counting exercise.  A good lifting session should burn about 600 cals an hour.  Running burns about 800 cals an hour.

 

Eating too little inducing "starvation mode" is largely scientifically unproven nonsense.  If there is even a scrap of truth to it, it only applies to women.  

 

[Guzzi]

Thanks Waldo! 

 

I'd go with his opinion over mine, lol! Waldo is straight to the point, no small talk, but he has the experience to back it up. You should check out his site Strength Unbound if you want to see his transformation pics. 

[webutter]

@Waldo great and interesting info.  I'll give it a shot and report back in a few weeks.  I think my trainers had recommended I eat above 2600 cals since I'm lifting heavy, but I don't feel like I need it.  Thus putting on 30 lbs of fat. 

 

Appreciate the advice.  

 

Guzzi thanks for for the hook up and feedback.  

 

I'll get on track and talk soon.  

[Guzzi]

Yeah, report back and let us know how you get on. Have you thought about joining in on the next challenge on the 17th? You could work on this for your goals and it would help you to meet other members. 

 

Have you read about the challenges? Spezzy did a good post Here if you haven't.