Calorific intake. Advice wanted.

[MedicTrain]

Hey all,

Thought I'd seek some advice from you guys on this.

First here was my goal:

I was looking to gain muscle mass and lose fat - rather than using a 'bulking' and 'cutting' system I aimed at keeping my calorific intake at the recomended normal. Or slightly above. (2000/2500 cals except on days that had a lot of cardio). I knew it would likely be a slower way to go about things but I've done bulking and cutting before and wasn't keen on it...I was relying on the change in composition of my diet - which was now much lower in the 'bad fats' and increase in physical exercise to do that bit (i was taking in little fat (but above the daily minimum and enough that should be sufficient for steroid hormone synthesis) and only complex carbohydrates that caused the minimum insulin spike and consequently kept lypolysis high and lipogenisis low....)also my goal is slightly different. I've moved from ideal goal = Silverster stelone style to something in between that and bruce lee....

I covered all the angles. Which aminos were in my proteins, creatine supplementation, my zinc, magnesium, calcium, multivitamins, high complex carbohydrate low glycemic index food. Small more frequent meals. Protein at nights and immediately after training. Never took my combined ZMC at the same time as my creatine (same glucose co-symporter I believe). I managed hydration, allowed plenty of recovery time, aimed my more cardiovascular type exercise at 80% of my MHR for carb burning with only a little cardio chucked in for general health purposes. I aimed at 20 to 45 minutes with an average of around 35minutes. Enough to deplete liver glycogen reserves without too significant a catabolic cortisol spike., my sleeping times, sleeping nutrition...in short I looked at every concievable aspect I could think of....


Actually things were looking good just over a week ago. Good pec definition I was starting to see abs (just a wee bit). My weights were going up.

This week things don't look as good as last week....that was an alarm bell.

I've allowed more than adequate recovery time....was taking adequate protein....and thought my calorific intake couldn't be far out......something was up.

It was my calorific intake.

I discovered that the problem was relying on a friends advice about the calorific contents of Reflex Instant Whey....He'd said it was quite high cals at around 400s per dose.....I read the back today - it's far less than that. Closer to 100. (he read it per 100g rather than per 25g serving) Which made for a 900 cal deficit in my calorific intake per day...

Consequently when I allowed for three doses of reflex in doing my calculations I was probably on a diet with a substantial calorific deficit - certainly explains why I've been successful with bodyfat.

The problem:

I'm concerned that I may have made the mistake (unwittingly) of reducing my dietary calorific intake too quickly....Such that I may have caused changes in my adipose tissue that might predispose weight gain. I believe this is reversable.

Does anyone have any knowlege in this area? What is the best way to fix this. I suspect if I bring my diet right up to 2000/2500 calories now I'll gain fat due to storage in the adipose tissues. (some people refer to this as 'damaged metabolism' I think).

Should I slowly increase my diet? and over how long?

What's the distilled wisdom of the community on this subject?

Thanks for all your help folks!

[CHM]

If its only been a week, then your probably fine. Most people don't eat set amount of calories every single day. I would go up to 2000 calories for a week, and then add more. If this deficit was continued for longer, you could've messed with your metabolism, but 1 week probably won't make a difference.

[MedicTrain]

we're talking a month or so. It just happened that the fatloss was helping to increase my definition.

My strengh has increased although my last bench was had less of an increase than I expected.

Effectively I think that the time when it looked good was actually just a stopping point on my way past.