Bodybuilding Forums

Just to keep me motivated I decided to start this thread, since ending TSPA about 5-6 weeks ago My diet has well and truly sucked, I've experimented with high carbs and low/high fat diets to gain muscle and in the process have gained alot of fat. I think I'm up to 15% body fat, I'm now going to start a cycle to lose that fat, didn't want to do this as I need the muscle mass but it's got to be done:(. Wish me luck.

Thanks

p.s I'll add some pics soon so you can see the extra fat I've gained.

What a shame. Sounds you gained fat quickly So MANS didn’t work for you. Are you sure you were not consuming too many excess cals. The MANS diet is designed for limit fat gain while gaining muscle. It's best to start with a 200 cal increase might be slower but always safer. So your back on the TSPA I wouldn’t do much cardio as you most probably haven,t gaind loads of fat and being recent will come off easier, just keep your workout under 45 min’s and keep strict with the diet. Like to say good luck.

krs wrote:What a shame. Sounds you gained fat quickly So MANS didn’t work for you. Are you sure you were not consuming too many excess cals. The MANS diet is designed for limit fat gain while gaining muscle. It's best to start with a 200 cal increase might be slower but always safer. So your back on the TSPA I wouldn’t do much cardio as you most probably haven,t gaind loads of fat and being recent will come off easier, just keep your workout under 45 min’s and keep strict with the diet. Like to say good luck.

Thanks for kind words.
Well I would probably have to put it down to the carbs, I read over and over that some people just dont believe that a calorie isn't a calorie. I ate alot when I came off TSPA, I started using MANS and wasn't gaining alot for the amount I ate but for some reason (boredom most likely) decided to give GLAD a go but I then started getting hungrier throughout the day and wasn't controlling calories as well as I should have. I then noticed a gain in fat weight but kept up with the higher carbs. I've had an eating disorder in the past and I've binge eaten in the past, reintroducing carbs seemed to reignite the binge eating until saturday night I thought I need to stop it.

I'm going to use a program by lyle mcdonald called Rapid Fat Loss to kickstart the fat loss and go from there. I'll do 12 days followed by a 2-3 day high carb refeed and then decide from there. One thing worth mentioning is the fact that I will only be doing 2-3max workouts during the 12 days as calories are very low and it would be too much for the body to take doing more, and no cardio.

thanks again

Looks like you have a plan good luck. Just downloaded the ebook Lyle McDonald - The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook will give a read later. Also searching for stubborn fat loss lyle mcdonald

You're not alone, friend. Just thought it might help you to know that.

marochka_raduga wrote:You're not alone, friend. Just thought it might help you to know that.

thanks for the support. it's disheartening usinng TSPA for 8 weeks only to introduce carbs and all the hard work disappears, my own fualt. I tend to be too unsure about what I want to do and this is what I tend to do with my diet.

Looking back at this year I have actually spent about 7-8 months (3x10 week tspa cycles) trying to cut fat, my no.1 goal was building muscle but this seems to have taken a back seat.
If I try to pinpoint why it's mainly based around me using high carb appraoches inbetween these cuts or using terribly dirty carb ups.

I just need to finally make a decision and stick with it for a long enough time to see results, weather it be higher carbs or low, strenght training or bodybuilding routines. It's been a year of learning and I'm sure I wont have a repeat of it.

cheers

WHO AM I wrote:it's disheartening usinng TSPA for 8 weeks only to introduce carbs and all the hard work disappears, my own fualt

WHO AM I wrote:It's been a year of learning

Then your hard work didn't disappear, did it? It just didn't take the form you expected it to... I'm coming to terms with this myself. I've gained back half the weight I lost in the past two years, which is kind of annoying, but I've learned so much about what my personal body needs compared to what the "gurus" say it needs. The low-cal crowd is horrified that I need 50 grams of protein per meal, and the low-carb crowd is horrified that I need whole grain carbs at every meal (and dessert too, at the moment), and the bodybuilding crowd is horrified that I need to eat exactly three meals and one carb snack at bedtime instead of 6 smaller meals and protein before bed. But they're not me and they don't have to live with the fallout if I deviate from what I know keeps me on a stable, functioning course. So f#*% 'em all.

What do you think about the carb-ups for you? Do you need to wean yourself off dirty carbs slowly (my approach) or go cold turkey, or do you think you can manage moderation (what helps you be the best functioning "WHO AM I" you can be)?

I've been sticking with what I'm doing diet-wise for at least three solid months now, so I know what to eat to feel good. I wouldn't dream of changing that now. Could you see yourself deciding on one goal (like building muscle) and not getting side-tracked by other goals like fat loss, for example?

The wonderful thing about life is, if you don't like the direction you're heading, you can change course. But sometimes you have to wait a little while to see that you are in fact heading in a direction you don't like. That's perfectly ok.

I do think I can focus on one goal but it's only after re-evaluatin of my progress this past year that it's become clearer, I'm sure there will be times of uncertainty but as I see it I can spend another year doing the same thing and get the same results. Adding muscle in my opinion should be my prority at the moment.

A quote from Albert Einstein 'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'. Thats what I've been doing to in repeating what I've already done. You pointed out that it's been a year of learning so in that sense it hasn't been waste of time.

In regards to the carb ups, just keeping my calories in check and fat low helps me to know I've kept it clean, so thats all I need to do, cals not so much worried about as much as fat intake as I in the past didn't gain much when they were clean. Also keeping my low carb days low carb.
Binge eating is also something I seem to have had many episodes of recently somthing I need to take a hold of.

Once I start a new path and stick to it I dont break it but it's when I listen to someone on another forum that i go to and get influenced to change what I'm doing even though I haven't given my own approach enough time, I probably do it becuase I think they know more, this needs to stop.

Gidday Who am I. One of the things I notice in training people is that the ones with the 'cycle' style of thinking have trouble. Yo yoing. The ones who actually, truly choose a new, permanent direction, who really embrace and accept a whole new way of life, including a whole new way of eating, who really have had it, and who are willing and keen to ditch the old story, do it easy. I agree, doing the same thing , expecting different results is doomed.

I guess I am biased, as I am a personal trainer, but I advise some people to find a really good one, it is so beneficial to many. A really good one, a true expert actually knows heaps, and has heaps of real, proven experience with situations like yours. No different to say, finding a gun mechanic, electrician, builder, whatever, compared to the average guy, or not so good trainers. A huge part of it is helping you get excited about change, and finding ways of keeping you fired up, motivated and excited about the long term. And in my experience results, pretty quick results, are crucial there, or people understandably lose motivation and interest.

Many people figure they know heaps, but if they were say, given the job of training and improving the performance of all the members of a top professional sports team, or the task of helping a chronically overweight and sick person lose weight and become healthy, would in reality soon be lost. Just like the average guy might be able to tinker with his motor, but a genuine highly experienced, gun mechanic, can diagnose, and repair and optimise any motor, in any circumstance and conditions, etc. Or a genuine, experienced, gun builder knows ways to overcome any obstacle, and build an incredible array of deluxe buildings.

I have seen so many people that don't get the results they want after years, and who are convinced that they know why, who change literally miraculously, when they actually learn to do the right things. Like, I have done really successfull, highly profitable building and development projects. I just contract everything out to proven experts, really do the work to seek them out. Its easy, the results of their long term experience and work over the years is obvious. I love it, I learn so much, everything flows beautifully, and if the unexpected pops up, when the majority are stumped, the experts, the guns, exude confidence and know exactly what to do. Just like top gun personal trainers. So, thats what I would advise, in this case, the easy, sure fire way. Maybe it will cost you in the short term, but, time is precious, valuable, so are real, lasting results.

I was having the same problems with MANS, no weight gain (got pretty ripped though)... but then at my college I started buying my own food instead of using the cafeteria and started packing on the pounds pretty quickly! Unfortunately, this means eating 4000 cals a day roughly... which includes a pound or so of beef and other nauseating things. But, it's definitely possible to put on lean muscle (and some fat) with MANS if you just stuff your face.

Good luck with the cutting cycle... just out of curiosity, why not TSPA?