Advise and help.

[Chillen]

Originally Posted by lowery

First I want to start off and give my weight and height. I’m 5’-8 and 150lbs (68kg). I recently lost around 35 pounds.

Congrats, man. A job well done.

I want to gain muscle but I don’t think that I am going about it the right way. I eat around 1500-1800 calories a day and have done so for the last 3 years and I have a clean diet. I only drink water and green tea. I take in around 125-150 grams of protein a day. I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 3 days a week for 2 hours each of those days…crazy cardio.

I lift 3-4 days a week. I don’t do BJJ the same days I lift. I recently have been doing 5 sets x 6 reps. I stay at a weight that I can keep good form but heavy enough that I feel it towards the end. I haven’t seen that much change as far as muscle growth. I look more lean and tone but the growth just doesn’t seem there.

You did not specify your age. How old are you?

What I have in bold and in blue, really stands out to me. This sentence stands out to me because IF you were in fact running these numeric calorie values for this length of period, then you were running calorie deficits strictly for three straight years.

Making some calculations just from averages (age wise), and considering your said activity level, you are stilling running calorie deficits with a range between 1500 to 1800 calories. Even if you were not performing all said activities per week, you would "still" be approximating deficit calorie values--pointing to averages.

For comparison:

I am not too far off from your weight (168lbs), and you are at 150. This slight weight disparity isn't going to be a major difference to provide a base of comparison--in the numeric calorie sense.

At 50 years old, my BASE calorie maintenance need is 1600 calories per day. This is what I would need if I was a lazy-butt and slept all day, and did nothing but breathe. Now...when you add in work (say average 8 hours), then this would push (my MT-Line to maintain) above 1800 calories, and we even haven't addressed workouts for the week yet.

You see what I am getting at? I posted that to make you think some.

I have a few questions:

• How long did it take you to lose 35 pounds of unwanted tissue?
  
• After this tissue loss, when did you begin wanting to add quality weight?
  
• How long did you wait when the bodily feedback wasn't to your satisfaction that you felt something was wrong?
  
• How did you come to these calorie figures to begin with?
  
• And, how (or did you) study calories and macros that are need at a personal level?
  
• What made you think that these calorie levels would also bring you tissue gain.........when....it solicited tissue loss of 35 approximate pounds?

Normally, I am very careful in just telling someone to just to eat more dependent on their education level in their numeric calorie values, macros, and other tangibles in personal activities.

While this may be true in some cases (dependent on circumstance), its not solving three issues:

1. Am I eating enough?, 2. How much do I need to eat?, and 3. What should my macro nutrients be at?

Lets look at your activities:

• I lift 3-4 days a week.
• I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 3 days a week for 2 hours
• crazy cardio.

And, from looking at ALL of your activities (that you stated in your opening thread post), and again looking at average age (without knowing what this is), I would think it safe...to....assume, you need more than 2300 calories per day.

Another question:

Do you also go to work or school (on top of the above activities)?

This is my point: You can take all the supplements in the world (Whey Powder, Creatine Mono, Krill Oil, BCAA's, astaxanthin, etc), NONE OF THEM will do you any good--operating in a "true" caloric deficit environment when wanting to add quality muscle mass. Post new to weight training gains, the body WILL NOT partition very well toward your personal goal want.

Therefore the first order of business:

You calories and macros--as personally configured from your personal particulars and personal activities. You then set a approximated calorie surplus above your MT-Line. Then you observe your bodily response (for a time) to these approximated values and then make adjustments.

This is my homework for you:

Go here: Diet Information, and figure out your calorie and macro needs.

From this come back post up what figures you come up with, and let's work this out together and get you back on track, brother.




Best regards,


Chillen

[lowery]

answers in red

Originally Posted by Chillen

Congrats, man. A job well done.



You did not specify your age. How old are you? 36 years old

What I have in bold and in blue, really stands out to me. This sentence stands out to me because IF you were in fact running these numeric calorie values for this length of period, then you were running calorie deficits strictly for three straight years.

Making some calculations just from averages (age wise), and considering your said activity level, you are stilling running calorie deficits with a range between 1500 to 1800 calories. Even if you were not performing all said activities per week, you would "still" be approximating deficit calorie values--pointing to averages.

For comparison:

I am not too far off from your weight (168lbs), and you are at 150. This slight weight disparity isn't going to be a major difference to provide a base of comparison--in the numeric calorie sense.

At 50 years old, my BASE calorie maintenance need is 1600 calories per day. This is what I would need if I was a lazy-butt and slept all day, and did nothing but breathe. Now...when you add in work (say average 8 hours), then this would push (my MT-Line to maintain) above 1800 calories, and we even haven't addressed workouts for the week yet.

You see what I am getting at? I posted that to make you think some.

I have a few questions:

• How long did it take you to lose 35 pounds of unwanted tissue? about 6-7 months
  
• After this tissue loss, when did you begin wanting to add quality weight? within the last year
  
• How long did you wait when the bodily feedback wasn't to your satisfaction that you felt something was wrong? when i knew i was almost 190lbs
  
• How did you come to these calorie figures to begin with? i came up with these on my own after reading a few things. it work for my weight loss, but i now understand that if i want to grow in need to add more.
  
• And, how (or did you) study calories and macros that are need at a personal level? just by reading random things and not to sound like an idiot but im not sure what a macro is. i will now research it though
  
• What made you think that these calorie levels would also bring you tissue gain.........when....it solicited tissue loss of 35 approximate pounds? i thought that if i stayed at that level that i could be more lean if i started lifting

Normally, I am very careful in just telling someone to just to eat more dependent on their education level in their numeric calorie values, macros, and other tangibles in personal activities.

While this may be true in some cases (dependent on circumstance), its not solving three issues:

1. Am I eating enough?, 2. How much do I need to eat?, and 3. What should my macro nutrients be at?

Lets look at your activities:

• I lift 3-4 days a week.
• I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 3 days a week for 2 hours
• crazy cardio. on this i meant the BJJ was crazy cardio

And, from looking at ALL of your activities (that you stated in your opening thread post), and again looking at average age (without knowing what this is), I would think it safe...to....assume, you need more than 2300 calories per day.

Another question:

Do you also go to work or school (on top of the above activities)? i work full time 40 hours a week

This is my point: You can take all the supplements in the world (Whey Powder, Creatine Mono, Krill Oil, BCAA's, astaxanthin, etc), NONE OF THEM will do you any good--operating in a "true" caloric deficit environment when wanting to add quality muscle mass. Post new to weight training gains, the body WILL NOT partition very well toward your personal goal want.

Therefore the first order of business:

You calories and macros--as personally configured from your personal particulars and personal activities. You then set a approximated calorie surplus above your MT-Line. Then you observe your bodily response (for a time) to these approximated values and then make adjustments.

This is my homework for you:

Go here: muscleandbrawnddotcom, and figure out your calorie and macro needs.

From this come back post up what figures you come up with, and let's work this out together and get you back on track, brother. i will look at this today and see what its all about. thank you for your time and help on this.




Best regards,


Chillen

[Rich Knapp]

I personal think you are on the right track in all area's but how much intake in Carbs and fat.

A macro is the grams of a nutrients " Micronutrients" Macro's for short. Grams of each one: Protein, Carbs and Fats, are your Macro's.

You are very active and you cal intake don't match you energy expenditure for adding muscle.

We aren't saying eat like a pig, just eat to match you energy expenditure plus a little more to help growth. If you don't want to go back to being over weight then your gains will be slower and harder to balance things but it can be done.

What you can do is what they call a "Bulk with Mini cuts" This is a way to eat as a bulk to add muscle then when you put on a certain amount of fat then diet back to the condition you want. Its a slower way to add muscle but you can keep trimmer this way.

Were not all power lifter body style in here or want the look. BUT we all do know how to help you reach your goals= Trim and muscular NOT a bodybuilder or power lifter just in good shape.

Congrats on your weight loss, I understand you not wanting to go back there just to add muscle. To some people muscle size or strength isn't that important to add that much weight.

But if you look close thats not what people are saying. Just eat more to accommodate all your activity thats all.