To maintain or gain?

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Wavy1985
Wavy1985 Posts: 20 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi guys

This may be a long post so bear with me as I go on, but I think I may have a problem health-wise.

First of all I'm a 28 year old male who measures at 5 foot 8 tall, has quite an active job in doing white man van work part-time. And use running as a hobby, I've run 7 half-marathons (about to run my 8th) and find running therapeutic. I am currently training for the 8th race and am improving in terms of race pace (8.30 mins a mile). Oh and am single so would like to improve my chances of a relationship too.

In January, just after Christmas I discovered that I was 12½ stone (175lb) and felt disgusted while looking in the mirror as I had quite a gut on me. So I decided to go on a strict diet and go to the gym more than I did before. A personal trainer put me on a 3-day basic weight program, got myself to a weekly abs class, and got dietry advice online. This resulted in me losing about 1½ stone (20lbs) in 3 months, so I'm currently 11 stone.

But now looking in the mirror and constantly having my parents raise concern, I look skinny in an unhealthy way. I still have a little gut, but my rib cage is showing and have bony shoulders and back. It seems that I have been stuck in a rut with eating healthy food and haven't touched anything like chocolate, chips, etc.

So my aim originally is to MAINTAIN weight, but using the MyFitnessPal app and finding maintaining really hard with attempting to raise my calorie intake, yet putting myself under pressure due to sugar, fat and protein intakes.

If you can, take a look at my diary to see if I'm doing anything wrong:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/JonG1985

I put in dairy entries from Monday 31st March - Wednesday 2nd April (today)

My personal trainer was saying that eating Bran Flakes for example is a bad idea due to the sugar intake, even though I love a bowl every evening, it puts me under pressure in terms of food to eat.

Body-wise I'd like to look more toned but don't want to go back to being fat if I am to gain weight.

Can anyone help me out with this? Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    First off, if you're upping your calorie intake to maintenance you're likely going to put some scale weight on...you glycogen stores have been chronically depleted and they will restore themselves first and foremost...you're also going to retain more fluids to help metabolize more energy.

    Since you haven't successfully maintained weight I wouldn't go into a gaining/bulking phase just yet...you should get your maintenance calories down first. Also realize that you are going to have a range...you aren't going to be exactly 155 Lbs every day...your weight isn't static and thus you need to establish a reasonable weight range and track trends and averages. Example for myself, My average weight this passed 11 months is around 183...but I can get up to 185 and sometimes dip down to 180.

    Personally I'd continue hitting the weight room and eating at maintenance...you can make some headway in RE to you body composition there. Then, after you've successfully maintained for awhile and have a good feel for your maintenance calories you can do a bulk cycle for muscle.
  • Wavy1985
    Wavy1985 Posts: 20 Member
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    Thank you cwolfman, my weight does go between 154-158 during the day so this I'm happy with scale-wise.

    On my diary, I don't know what my actual sugar intake should be. Not sure if it's 90 or 120. My personal trainer has told me to increase my complex carbs but the sugar intake puts me under pressure because I know I have to go over it.

    Also I need to do cardio at least a couple of times a week in order to train for my running.

    I'm also finding it difficult to reach my maintain calorie target.
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
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    Most trainers know diddly squat about nutrition and often they subscribe to very out of date views.
    There is nothing wrong with branflakes and imo, any trainer that tells you there is, is an idiot.
    Many here do not even bother to track their sugar intake. Of course, it is best to not be inhaling large quantities of refined sugary products, but there is nothing wrong with sugar in branflakes, fruits etc.

    Also, to add calories without too much fullness, just add in some healthy fats like avocado, nuts, seeds, full fat yoghurt, cheese.
  • Wavy1985
    Wavy1985 Posts: 20 Member
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    Thank you for your reply Graelwyn75

    My personal trainer was telling me to reach a sugar intake of 90, because if I have too much sugar I can get fat. But the GDA says 120 so confused as I ideally want my body to be toned rather than rib cage showing.

    In my diary http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/JonG1985?date=2014-04-02 , I usually take a 25g portion of mixed nuts (mainly almonds) to work with me, was considering increasing the portion to 50g but unsure of what will happen in terms of fats. I also have a third of Total 0% yoghurt with about 20 grapes and a teaspoon of flaked almonds after my dinner (or in the UK known as tea). The Bran Flakes I mention about I have usually around 8pm-9pm as I have a bowl of instant oatmeal for breakfast, and as my Mum has bought loads of non-concentrate orange juice in the fridge, I have to drink one 200-250ml glass with it. Tonight for now I'm replacing the bran flakes with 3 weetabix as a late 8pm-9pm snack. Maybe add a mug of decaffinated coffee into my diet too?

    Any other suggestions would be welcome.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    My personal trainer was telling me to reach a sugar intake of 90, because if I have too much sugar I can get fat. But the GDA says 120 so confused as I ideally want my body to be toned rather than rib cage showing.

    Your trainer is clearly a fool - please don't take diet advice from him! Does he actually have any qualifications in nutrition?

    Sugar (or anything else for that matter) can only make you fat in a calorie surplus. Unless you have medical issues around sugar there's really no point in tracking sugar as it's just a sub-set of carbs. The only real issues around sugar are if it puts you into surplus or if it stops you having a balanced diet.
    Would suggest reading this:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    Just eat a balanced / varied diet of foods you enjoy and make sure you hit your protein and fat minimums.

    Agree with cwolfman about finding your true maintenance calories and lifting.
  • sarahslim100
    sarahslim100 Posts: 485 Member
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    I eat weetbix with fruit (eg. banana, kiwifruit, berries or pineapple) and oats (with fruit eg. apple/pear) for brekky. nice and filling. I find all the information on the 'mayoclinic' website to be very practical. if your parents are worried, I would go and just double check with your GP when you next visit, to make sure no low iron etc
  • Wavy1985
    Wavy1985 Posts: 20 Member
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    Well according to my MFP app, my maximum fat intake is 88 (Saturated = 30) and I'm near enough half that. And my protein goal is 132 where I usually go way over that, about 180.

    Though I've been advised by people to have my carbs double my protein and have 2 fruit a 3 veg a day to help the muscles build. I will need carbs especially if I want to improve my running leading up to my half marathon in a few weeks time.

    What I'll do for now is stick to the GDA of 120g of sugar per day even though it's coming from mainly fruit, veg, cereal and a bit of dark chocolate.

    Thank you sijomial for making me feel better on the sugar department. I did find it impossible to reach the past target considering I need to have complex carbs and fruit.

    I weighed myself today and I'm still losing a pound each day. So I think I'll take Sarah's advice to see a GP.

    I've also considered treating myself like one day a week and say have either a fried breakfast, or a steak dinner, or a dessert. But not sure if that's a good idea long-term.
  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
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    First question first. What are your main fitness goals? Are you planning to continue regularly running half marathons or are you inclined to put those aside for a bit and work on muscle mass gain? (not saying give up running, I did cardio throughout my bulk). If you are inclined to keep running as your primary goal, then you're going to have more difficulty adding lean mass than someone who simply tries to gain. You will need more food. It won't really interfere with anabolic growth unless you overdo it.

    I agree completely with cwolfman that you should go to maintenance before you attempt a bulk. Give yourself a month or longer at maintenance so you can get used to eating a stable calorie intake. Then I would recommend a long, slow bulk, half a pound a week, until you start attaining the muscle mass you're hoping for. While you are in maintenance, you will have some body recomposition, but you are very unlikely to see any change - it's just a very slow process. You'll gain weight as you replenish glycogen, but that evens out and sometimes even goes away.

    Have you adjusted your macro settings in MFP? You should be eating about a gram of protein per pound of lean body mass, or even a gram per pound of body weight. 180 grams is great. I am in the low 130s and aim for 170 a day. I've had great mass gains this year, so if it ain't broke...And as to your fat grams, treat the number as a minimum, not a maximum I sometimes hit 100 grams a day and it hasn't had any negative impact on body composition. I've never monitored sugar intake, but common sense about too many donuts does apply.

    You need to eat back all of your cardio calories. You're running a lot, and those will create a greater deficit. You need to get out of the deficit.

    Wishing you lots of success.
  • Wavy1985
    Wavy1985 Posts: 20 Member
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    Hi Galatea

    I have a half marathon in 3 weeks and want to train for that, so running at least twice a week. But I also want to achieve a toned body (especially the abs) yet maintaining my weight, hence the weight training.

    The settings I mentioned I haven’t adjusted, they were automatically done by MFP.

    I’m currently 153-157lb, so that would be the same for g of protein at least, right? It does put me on 88-90g of fat, but the saturates is a maximum of 30. I shouldn’t be too ashamed if I get to that.

    I just had some ham and only just discovered it had a lot of sodium which rapidly increased my sodium intake which annoyed me. As ham I had before had a lot less.

    That’s the thing with sugar, I’ve not touched any ‘fatty foods’ for a few months accept a slice of cake and a couple of chocolates on Sunday due to Mothers Day. Though that Sunday, I burned 1500 calories doing a 11 mile run. On MFP I do include any exercise anyway, even warm up treadmill and abs class cardio.

    So the only things with sugar I’m touching on a normal day now have been cereals, fruit and vegetables. I’d love a doughnut but my mind has succeeded in telling me not to.

    I've been researching the possibility of giving myself a treat each week but not so sure.

    Are you able to look at my diary to see if I'm doing things right?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/JonG1985

    I've not had dinner or the bran flakes/milk yet.

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