I have trouble maintaining a weight

sean0621

I have seemingly no trouble gaining 50lbs in a year. I also have very little problem losing weight. I lost almost 100lbs in 5 months two years ago. My problem is that I lose the weight and then I am at 8% body fat reach my goals and then it's like well now what? So then I typically will pick up the weights and build up again. Last time I increased my bench press from 125lbs to 325 lbs. In the marines I benched 450lbs. I can't do squats or deads anymore as my back can't handle them anymore. In boot camp I went in 202lbs and came out 135lbs. I broke my leg and went to 303lbs and then dropped to 215lbs. I struggled with alcoholism and went up to 275lbs and got sober picked up running and dropped to 177lbs. I am sick of having to maintain three to four sizes of clothes constantly. I have no idea how to maintain weight, all I know how to do is be super active until I burn myself out. Then life intervenes and I go to school and work and I gain weight like I did this time. I thought I was making permanent lifestyle changes and enjoying being healthy, but I think I will always struggle with food. I ran a 50k a full marathon and a 50 mile ultra marathon within three months of each other and gained 15lbs of fat and I was running 10 miles a day at a 9 and a half minute mile pace 5 times a week to train. i don't know anyone that gained weight under those circumstances. I just remember thinking I can cheat a little because I'm burning so many calories running. But its all or nothing with me. I can either eat all healthy or not at all. By the time I got the will to count calories and change my diet again, i had gone from 177lbs back to 231lbs which is closer to the 275lbs I started at over two years ago. I am motivated now to lose the weight and of course I have lost about tenlbs in the last month. I feel like I will have no problem getting down to 170lbs this time. But I worry about maintaining that. How to stay motivated and not burn out.

trigden1991

At what weight did you bench 450lbs?

You have fluctuated over 200lbs which is pretty extreme in my opinion. You need to find your TDEE and eat at that, it really is that simple. If you are extremely active (in the marines) then you'll need more, if you are sedentary (broken leg), you'll need less. Life and maintenance is about finding the balance and it is clear you have not.

rontafoya

It's something you have to stay on top of, and also adjust. Your metabolism continually adjusts to what you are doing. Check out Muscle for Life (Mike Matthews)--he has a lot of good advice about this stuff, and he maintains around 8% most of the time. I'm following much of his stuff and able to maintain around 11% in my 40s. Maintaining a low body fat percentage is kind of tricky, and it's not as simple as just eat your maintenance year round, while lifting weights. Your body adjusts and you have to fool it into keeping the fat off. So do your homework, and equip yourself with the knowledge you need to stabilize your weight.

JeromeBarry1

Knowledge is power. The myfitnesspal food diary is powerful. Use it. Screw eating healthy. Eat calories from a variety of vegetable, protein, and grain sources. Eat enough calories. Stop eating calories that day. Sleep. Wake. Start eating again.

sean0621

I was 258lbs when I benched 450lbs

sean0621

One thing I will stay away from is weight lifting and hopefully that helps. I always get caught in the cycle of bulking and then cutting. Then I watch my numbers deflate during my cut so I make it a very short cut and lose track of what I went to the gym for in the first place. So yeah I had a 325lbs bench press last time around, but I gained 20lbs right off the bat and at least 5%body fat gain as well. I went to the gym to further feel healthy. But I am obsessive with numbers. Such as I do the same with running. I am going to be attempting an 81 mile marathon in June and that's certainly a sign of compulsive behavior. Never a good sign for someone who has successfully quit drugs and alcohol. As balance is key to sustaining sobriety. So I am glad its food and then exercise for now. But I lose interest it seems when my numbers start getting stagnant. Weight loss is meaningless when I can watch my bench press go up. The amount of food I eat is meaningless if I can run one more mile per day or watch my pace get better due to better carb loading. I realize its not normal to lose 100lbs in five months or to bench press 450lbs or to run 50 miles. Its not normal to drink the way I did or to sometimes eat 10,000 calories a day without batting an eye. Certainly there is not much balance in any of that. My goal with fitness is to be healthy. But my right shoulder is so bad off after this last bout with weights that I have determined that it is not a healthy pursuit for me. My Achilles tendon on my left leg hurts so much at times that I know running this much is unhealthy to a point as well. But if i didn't push myself I'd lose interest and not do it at all. Plus running has been such a great social outlet, I don't think I could ever stop as I've met some awesome people on the trails. I guess I just need to get comfortable being wherever I am. I seem to get caught up in progress. To Jerome Barry, I agree with eating a variety of food, but its either all or nothing with me. If I am not making my own food and not eating processed crap I seem to be fine and don't even want it. As far as TDEE goes, I can stick with that concerning weight loss. Then before a race I have to carb load or I won't make distances and we are talking a 4lbs weight gain is a minimum standard for a marathon (26.2 miles) but you lose it all on the race course. The weight lifting is what really blew everything however. A standard bulk would probably look like this for me: 4000 calories, 200g protein, 100g fat, 300g carbs. Lets say my TDEE is 3250 cals well that's 750 cals a day over TDEE. But thats the point of weight lifting and muscle gain. Then the idea is to cut to 3000 calories a day for a month to cut all the fat off with minimal strength loss. Well once I stop eating 4000 cals I suddenly feel lethargic at the gym and weak and it becomes a going through the motions exercise. Eventually I lift so much weight that I end up with a decent injury and then I am used to eating 3000-4000 calories a day so I have no way to stop. It's a slippery slope with me. Its not so much that I don't have the knowledge. It is that balance that trigden1991 is talking about that I struggle with. How to just be.. That eludes me, that's when I am where I want to be and suddenly I am depressed because what now? Lol problems for a psychologist I know... but I reach my goal and suddenly my project is complete and its like well time for a new project. If I can't lose any more weight then let's put on muscle. Or how about run until you can't run anymore. Because my goal is a 100 mile marathon, who knows what I will do when I reach that level. Try one of those crazy antarctic races. I wish there was a happy medium between, climb a mountain or lay on the couch for me, but there is not. I can either do one or the other, I will never understand just going to the gym and doing a light workout or lets just go for a casual 2 mile run.

trigden1991

I am not reading the wall of text but I saw you said you were going to stay away from weightlifting. I strongly advise against this as you'll lose muscle mass when you cut.

amyinthetardis1231

OP, it seems like you're recognizing that your fixation on numbers isn't doing anything good for you--have you ever thought about seeing someone to help you with that? Obsessive compulsive behavior can show up in a lot of ways, including over-exercising, problems with eating, and ignoring physical health problems in favor of hitting a certain number of reps, increase in volume, etc. You joked about this being a problem for a psychologist, but that might be something to consider in seriousness. Congratulations on quitting alcohol and smoking, those are very hard changes to make--and sometimes when you remove one compulsive behavior (drinking) without addressing the underlying concerns, you just replace it with another (over-exercising/binge eating/food restriction). Mind and body strongly impact each other, and maybe working more with what goes on in your head will help you get a handle on what goes on with your body.