Took a year off lifting and let myself go, looking for advice

[mjh1294]

So I was regularly lifting for about two years straight. I was the leanest and the strongest I had ever been in my life at five foot ten and 173 lbs. I got into a relationship, got comfortable, stopped lifting, and started eating horribly for about a year straight. My weight shot up to 204 lbs, and my body lost all visible definition and just looked horrible. I finally got myself back to the gym and have been going consistently for about two months. Surprisingly, I hadn't lost all of my strength and what I had lost came back extremely quickly relative to the first time gaining it. I'm currently lifting heavier than I have ever previously lifted; deadlifting 275, incline dumbbell pressing 80, squats are weak but definitely not neglecting legs at all I've just always struggled with squats for some reason. I've definitely gained my strength back and my body looks much better because of how much larger my chest, shoulders, back, and arms are, but I am seriously struggling with the weight loss. I used to be extremely religious about my diet; eating mostly chicken and brown rice or sweet potatoes (I drank a lot of beer but this didn't seem to matter much).

This time around I have changed my diet, started eating my chicken and potatoes/rice again and have cut back portions, but the weight is sticking to me like never before. I have always struggled with weight, but once I started working out and eating healthier it would literally melt off me extremely rapidly. This time, it's not. While my diet is not perfect and I am not as strict as I used to be (too many cheat days), I would never have imagined that my weight would actually be increasing rather than decreasing (currently 206 lbs). Given that I have been eating less, eating much healthier, and having very regular and intensive workouts where I'm incorporating all the crucial compound lifts that are known as great facilitators of strength gain and weight loss, I just can't figure out what's going on.

Does anyone have any insight or suggestions? I know I have definitely packed on some muscle, but it's very hard to believe that I am gaining lbs of muscle and that's why the scale is reading higher than what I initially started at. I'm assuming that I have literally lost almost no fat, and I can't figure out why. My new plan is to cut out beer as much as possible, and stick to my diet on the weekends as well. I just can't stand seeing my friends eating entire large dominoes pizzas, not working out, and remaing skinner than a bean pole, whereas I eat 3 slices and know that I just ****ed myself; it is beyond frustrating.

And to anyone who says that it is physically impossible to lose weight and gain mass, I just want to say that this is completely not true from my personal experience. I lost 30 lbs the last time I got seriousy about working out, and throughout this whole time I was regularly making strength gains and reaching new maxes. I agree that I did not gain muscle at the maximum rate that I could have considering I was focusing on losing fat as well, but I can definitely tell you that I gained muscle while simultaneously losing weight.

[lmcfreekz]

It's as simple as eating at a calorie deficit... you're not. You can overeat 'healthy' food, it's just harder to do so since things like protein and fibrous vegetables are super high when it comes to satiety... a 1000kcal of that stuff, you REALLY feel like you've eaten... a 1000kcal in doughnuts, you barely feel it... you've also said it yourself, you're having cheat days (days, with an 'S') rather than a cheat meal here and there... you're knocking back the beers. You've pretty much spelled out the reasons you're not losing fat in your post. Discipline is your answer... but it also doesn't have to be as boring as chicken, broc**** and brown rice... there's a lot of more interesting ways you can go about hitting your macros and calorie intake target, and if you only ate the above you'd be totally ignorant of the fat macro that you also need to hit.

Are you sure you gained muscle? You need a calorie surplus... typically what happens when someone's new to lifting is that their muscle fibres start to get used to being stimulated in such a way by certain exercises, so your ability to lift more goes up without being linked to actually building muscle. 275lbs is also pretty light in deadlift terms for someone that's been lifting for 2 years...

Just sort your calorie intake out basically... get super disciplined for a couple of weeks so you understand what you're putting into your body and then you'll gradually have more awareness which means you develop an understanding, especially if you find yourself repeating certain meals over the weeks, which most people do... after that you'll find yourself slow able to ditch the spreadsheet... I did that, and quite a few people here did that too, to get themselves up and running on the right track.

[mjh1294]

Thanks for the reply man. Honestly, II could be totally reluctant to take responsibility as in the past I didn't struggle with the weight loss like I am now. And when I say 2 years, my inital year was my first jump into lifting. It was basically a half assed attempt at lifting and it was only after spending a large amount of time essentially jerking off during my lifting sessions that I finally did the research and got a really well rounded knowledge base regarding muscle growth, nutrition, and everything else that is encompassed within a proper bodybuilding lifestyle if that makes sense. Regarding me deadlifting 275 after 2 years, this is what I am currently at after taking an entire year off from lifting and just starting back up about 2 months ago. So for me, 275 is relatively high. Comparing this to someone who has dedicated 2 years of their life to lifting and rigorously training, 275 is mediocre at best.

I am positive I am making strength gains as I am consistently pushing more weight, and assuming that I can directly correlate this to muscle growth. Let me explain this a little bit better. 3-4 months ago, I began hitting the gym on a very unregular basis. Maybe 4-5 times a month. During this period, I was struggling to get 55 lb dumbbells up while doing incline dumbbell press. Today, after a solid 2 months of working out on average 4 times peer week (16 per month to keep units the same with my prior example) I am able to rep 3 sets at 80 lbs (generally need assistance getting the weights up on my last set). To me, this signifies muscle growth. Maybe it's not muscle growth and I'm simply reactivating the already torn muscle fibers that I had torn years ago rather than tearing new ones (not sure if this is scientifically correct, but based on common sense if I were to tear a fiber once, that fiber will remain torn but lose size). Regardless, I am lifting much more than I was 2 months ago and my body definitely looks much more toned.

Regarding my calorie intake. Some days I am at a very large calorie deficit, some days I'm not. During the week I tend to be at a deficit. On the days I work out I tend to be much less hungry than the days that I do not. Today, I ate 2 eggs and 3 turkey sausage links with a slice of wheat toast and half an avocado. Didn't eat lunch because I was busy and had just taken my protein shake after working out. For dinner, I had one chicken breast, and at most half of a sweet potato. Today I am at a calorie deficit, one that is definitely too large to be capable of making any meaningful strength gains. I am generally not at this large of a deficit, as I will have a lean sandwhich for lunch and snack on something like cottage cheese or eat some tuna out of a can however I still remain at a deficit. Weekends tend to be worse, but my main concern is that I don't feel that my weekend eating habbits are causing me such an insane surplus as to cause my weight to stagnate. Main point: I feel that there is no way my bad days are actually creating an over all surplus to basically negate the effect of the days that I am in deficit (days of deficit are much more frequent than my days of surplus). In reality, this must be the case if my weight is stagnating, unless I have managed to lose a lb or two of fat while putting on a lb or 2 of muscle.

[philgriffiths]

If your weight is staying the same after 3-4 weeks, then you are not eating at an overall calorie deficit for that period. Fact.

Strength gains and muscle mass gains are two completely different things. If you haven't lifted in over a year, of course you will gain strength. This is a good thing and you should continue to strive for it.
Without eating at a calorie surplus however, you will not gain muscle mass. Correction - you will not gain much muscle mass. Certainly not 1-2 lbs per week, which is the amount of fat you would be losing at a truly decent calorie deficit.

Ignore what you think you know and listen to the advice that every single (respectable) poster on here will tell you.
Want to lose fat? East less/move more. Want to gain muscle? Eat (marginally) more/lift more.
Want to do both at the same time? Want to win the lottery? Join the queue - it's not going to happen.

Tyler Durden: You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

The same laws of thermodynamics and principles of fat loss apply to you as they do everybody else partner. Go back to the drawing board, embrace the advice, and you'll see the improvements you deserve.

[lmcfreekz]

You just need to recalibrate...

You can still have a lot of things that you enjoy in your diet, you'll just need to exercise some portion control. I'm avoiding alcohol at the minute just because I feel I get more gains without... my body doesn't have to spend a day dedicated to flushing it out rather than focusing it's efforts on building... and a big night out with 10 beers, that's 2500kcal that would be better spent elsewhere in my nutrition... but if you want to include a beer here and there... no harm. I've lost weight with a solid program, eating at a deficit and having a night out every week or two...

I'd just get super OCD about it for a couple of weeks personally... the past is the past... it's obviously not working now for whatever reason, so to get yourself back on track just track the crap out of your calories for the next couple of weeks to get on top of things... look at your loss, if you're not losing then you'll want to turn the calories down a little more...

You've probably got a BMR around 1900 if I take an educated guess... look at your activity to decide on a TDEE level... if you're in the gym 3 - 4 times a week busting your ass, then work on the basis of a 1.5 multiple which will give you a maintenance just under 3000... eat at a -500kcal deficit from that... so you'll probably need to be eating 2300kcal a day assuming all the above, if you want to be losing 1lb of fat per week...

[EjnarKolinkar]

One that needs to lose 30 pounds should be able to create a calorie deficit and lose fat week to week. You can't gain 30 pounds of muscle as fast as you can lose 30 pounds of fat. Staying in a deficit and losing .5-1% of body weight a week in general is often advised for general fat loss.

And to anyone who says that it is physically impossible to lose weight and gain mass, I just want to say that this is completely not true from my personal experience.

Of course it's possible, but you have to address you had 2 years lifting experience and you seem to have a target weight is in the 170's? It's exceptional results to gain 30 pounds muscle in the first two years of training. Most people don't gain an additional 30 pounds muscle while dieting year 3. But it's good you started training again, and you have stopped gaining weight. That is a victory. Now just have to adjust eating and activity if you want to lose a little fat.