Coming back after illness

emmab0902

HI everyone

I had a bad kidney infection last week and couldn't eat at all for five days. Had IV meds for 4 days and couldn't exercise for over a week. Since getting the IV line out I had swum three times (6 miles total) and today was first day back strength training. Or should I call it weakness training

I have had four people this week tell me I look too thin, and my partner noticed on Wednesday when we were swimming that I look like I have lost muscle mass in my shoulders. Not that I had a lot to lose but it's really disheartened me to have lost so much so quickly.

So I am needing to gain muscle back but want to avoid gaining too much fat with it. Obviously good protein levels and sticking with my intermittent fasting eating will help get my condition back, but is there anything else I should or could do.

For the record I am 42, 164cm and about 47kg (usually nearer 50 but the infection stole a couple of kg) I am confident gaining won't be a problem as I have a pretty crap metabolism and am on beta blockers, but it's the composition of that gain I want to be careful about.

SideSteel

HI everyone

I had a bad kidney infection last week and couldn't eat at all for five days. Had IV meds for 4 days and couldn't exercise for over a week. Since getting the IV line out I had swum three times (6 miles total) and today was first day back strength training. Or should I call it weakness training

I have had four people this week tell me I look too thin, and my partner noticed on Wednesday when we were swimming that I look like I have lost muscle mass in my shoulders. Not that I had a lot to lose but it's really disheartened me to have lost so much so quickly.

So I am needing to gain muscle back but want to avoid gaining too much fat with it. Obviously good protein levels and sticking with my intermittent fasting eating will help get my condition back, but is there anything else I should or could do.

For the record I am 42, 164cm and about 47kg (usually nearer 50 but the infection stole a couple of kg) I am confident gaining won't be a problem as I have a pretty crap metabolism and am on beta blockers, but it's the composition of that gain I want to be careful about.

There's really a couple of things that I would like to comment on but I probably will end up talking in circles a bit.

First of all since you are recovering from an illness and went several days without eating it's likely that you're down a bunch of fluid weight and at least in the short term you're down a bunch of food weight (your system is basically empty). I would expect these variables to correct themselves.

That being said, if you want to gain and minimize fat gain then I'd generally recommend the following practices:

1) Read this thread and aim to eat about 10% above TDEE. If you already know your TDEE, use that information over a calculator but still check the thread out for macronutrient guidelines.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

2) Lift weights using a program with progressive resistance. If you'd like recommendations on this, we would need to know your current training experience and current programming. But generally speaking you should be using resistance training of some sort to build muscle.

3) Monitor gains and adjust. You really want to gain slowly to minimize fat gain if that is your goal. As little as 1lb/month, slightly higher, seems reasonable.

You can IF if that is your preference but that particular meal timing by itself is not going to contribute to whether or not you gain fat or lean mass as that will be determined by the variables listed above much more so than any specific meal timing procedure. That being said, if you enjoy IF, do it by all means.


EDIT: One last thing to consider -- since this seemingly was caused by this 5 day period of not eating (at least, that's what I'm getting from your post) you could just eat at your maintenance intake for a week or two and I bet this issue resolves itself. Whether or not you want to continue to gain muscle beyond that is your call and the advice above would still apply.

Sarauk2sf

Locking so we can keep track of active threads easier. If you have further comments, please feel free to PM either myself or SideSteel, including a link to the thread, and we will unlock so you can do so.