Failure to recomp; advice requested

FitAgainBy55

friedpet wrote: »

My concern is that I put in five months of effort last year for essentially nothing, and I want to avoid that again if I can.

Like others, I'm puzzled. My only explanation is you've under-eaten for so long that your body/mind is not giving any priority to your strength training.

My best guess is you are making 3 mistakes that are compounding:

1. You are undereating -- even to maintain you should be eating more. Your body has adapted by reducing energy expenditure. I'm 5 inches shorter, almost 20 years older and I eat 2000 calories per day to LOSE 1.5 lbs per week.
2. Possibly you have a misperception of what kind of effort should be required on a 5 rep set. You don't have to go to failure but it should be hard to complete.
3. Possibly you have form issues and simply aren't performing the lifts correctly.

If you want to avoid another wasted five months, I think you should:

• Slowly increase your calorie intake each week with the goal of getting to 2500 calories per day. This would be maintenance for someone with your stats in the moderate exercise category.
• Hire a trainer for a few sessions when you can get back to the gym. They can help your with #2 and #3. Don't pick someone skinny, pick someone with muscle and let them know you aren't trying to lose weight but build muscle. You really need to add another 10 - 20 lbs for your height, IMO.

sgt1372

Recomp - losing fat while gaining muscle at the same time - is a VERY difficult thing to achieve.

I tried to do it for 2 YEARS (not just a few months) by lifting heavy, eating a high protein diet and doing limited cardio.

Personally, I think the best way to achieve "recomp" is to do what pro body builders still do. Gain muscle by lifting heavy and eating A LOT and then "cutting" by eating less, doing more cardio and lifting only to try to maintain/limit muscle loss

This is the ONLY thing that worked for me.