Stupid question ouch
tec9goo
Posts: 119 Member
I've been trying to bulk for quite some time now and my eating disorder and unhealthy relationship with the step counter has hindered my progress and I lost more weight. This was because I was really chubby beforehand. Today j saw my kidney doctor and he said that even though it's not his specialty, that the whole hardgainer thing or slow metabolism due to genetics is a myth. I found this completely bogus because just look at society today. You've got computer geeks who eat 3 boxes of pizza yet rain nothing. Anyways he said that even though I was chubby, that I wouldn't pack weight easily because I'm 18 and hormones and all that. He said the same to my 2 brothers who are 16 and 17. Also formerly chubby. Is this guy bogus or is he right about previous endomorphs being able to attain super metabolism?
Question 2: when bulking do the weights that you feel were heavy get lighter when you get heavier? So Benching 135 at a bodyweight of like 150 would be harder than if you became 160? I ask this because my lifts have all gone down and stalled for over a year! So if I eat more and gain weight, will the weight on the bar be easier to lift or is it all mental? I ask this because I see guys who barely push themselves but progress on their lifts and get massive while there's me who tries to push himself and I've stalled and also my lifts eventually went down. Deloads.... well let's just say I did my fair share and the days/weeks following deloads were when my lifts all went down and then stalled again. Oh yea here's a Reddit thing about this
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/5147mn/if_you_work_out_do_heavy_weights_feel_lighter_or/
Question 2: when bulking do the weights that you feel were heavy get lighter when you get heavier? So Benching 135 at a bodyweight of like 150 would be harder than if you became 160? I ask this because my lifts have all gone down and stalled for over a year! So if I eat more and gain weight, will the weight on the bar be easier to lift or is it all mental? I ask this because I see guys who barely push themselves but progress on their lifts and get massive while there's me who tries to push himself and I've stalled and also my lifts eventually went down. Deloads.... well let's just say I did my fair share and the days/weeks following deloads were when my lifts all went down and then stalled again. Oh yea here's a Reddit thing about this
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/5147mn/if_you_work_out_do_heavy_weights_feel_lighter_or/
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Hm. Don't know.
Back when I was a teenager I never had a problem with weight and I could eat like a maniac. Today, unfortunately, I no longer can do that.
As for the weights feeling lighter, personally for some lifts I felt like I had improvements when I was heavier than lighter. Like right now i've started cutting weight and already something simple like dumbbell shoulder press has actually done down from 16kg for 8 reps to today was 15kg for 5 reps and the 5th rep was hard.0 -
The metabolism thing is indeed largely a myth. Sorry.
What happens is that the guy who eats ‘3 boxes of pizza’ is actually eating almost nothing the rest of the time, or is fidgeting and getting up constantly, or doing a whole load of cycling at weekends. The main reason that people gain weight as they age is that they aren’t as active.30 -
Considering that your Renal Specialist has to go through something like 7 years of medical school then many years of internship, residency etc before he opted for his specialty I would be hugely inclined to trust that he knows what’s he’s talking about.
Certainly I’d trust that before I took the word of accountants, construction workers, child care providers, hospitality workers, bank clerks etc etc on the internet!
Anecdotally, there are so many people who can eat as if food was going out of fashion in their teens and early twenties but begin to notice that changes as they approach 30. That does give some weight to the idea that hormones play a part in metabolism as you doctor suggests.
I have no clue re weightlifting but common sense and logic would suggest to me that a weight that is a larger proportion of your body weight will be harder to lift than a weight that is a smaller proportion of your body weight!
It’s possibly not what you want to hear, but not everyone has an identical capacity to build muscle past a certain point. Genetically some are more inclined to be ‘wiry’ rather than ‘bulked’. Built for speed!4 -
I am not an expert but I wonder... If you have gotten very thin perhaps some of the weight loss is muscle? In that case instead of building muscle you are losing it. That would explain why your lifts are suffering. There are a bunch of strength training experts on here who could direct you better. Perhaps they'll chime in soon.6
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Genetics also plays a role in how you store fat, which is why some people are heavier than they look. But yeah, dude who eats 3 pizzas typically eats less the rest of the time and has a higher NEAT.1
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How often are you lifting? You might not be recovering between.0
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The metabolism thing is indeed largely a myth. Sorry.
What happens is that the guy who eats ‘3 boxes of pizza’ is actually eating almost nothing the rest of the time, or is fidgeting and getting up constantly, or doing a whole load of cycling at weekends. The main reason that people gain weight as they age is that they aren’t as active.
I've had numerous sleepovers with this dude and even asked him. He does 0 exercise and plays league of legends all day. If you know, you know😂.
Plus whenever he finishes the pizza and the round of the game is over, he pulls out candy and he has a stash of candy boxes. Hes honestly superhuman. I dont know how he has that metabolism
[edited by MFP mods]15 -
Genetics also plays a role in how you store fat, which is why some people are heavier than they look. But yeah, dude who eats 3 pizzas typically eats less the rest of the time and has a higher NEAT.
He plays the computer nonstop and does this on a regular basis because his parents are rich5 -
While there's some variance in metabolic rate among individuals, there's a reason why some people gain fat and others don't - and it's about the calories.0
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I've been trying to bulk for quite some time now and my eating disorder and unhealthy relationship with the step counter has hindered my progress and I lost more weight. This was because I was really chubby beforehand. Today j saw my kidney doctor and he said that even though it's not his specialty, that the whole hardgainer thing or slow metabolism due to genetics is a myth. I found this completely bogus because just look at society today. You've got computer geeks who eat 3 boxes of pizza yet rain nothing. Anyways he said that even though I was chubby, that I wouldn't pack weight easily because I'm 18 and hormones and all that. He said the same to my 2 brothers who are 16 and 17. Also formerly chubby. Is this guy bogus or is he right about previous endomorphs being able to attain super metabolism?
[snip]
So he said "the whole hardgainer thing or slow metabolism due to genetics is a myth". Agreed.
Where did "previous endomorphs being able to attain super metabolism" come from? Did he actually say that or is it some spin you put on his words?
Don't worry about pizza guy. You have enough going on. What specifically did he tell you?6 -
Genetics also plays a role in how you store fat, which is why some people are heavier than they look. But yeah, dude who eats 3 pizzas typically eats less the rest of the time and has a higher NEAT.
He plays the computer nonstop and does this on a regular basis because his parents are rich
Nevertheless, that's genetics not metabolism. Metabolism is how you burn energy. Genetics determines how its stored/whether you stored it to begin with.
No point in worrying about it, since those aren't your genes and you can't change what you are. You have to play the hand you're dealt.6 -
kshama2001 wrote: »I've been trying to bulk for quite some time now and my eating disorder and unhealthy relationship with the step counter has hindered my progress and I lost more weight. This was because I was really chubby beforehand. Today j saw my kidney doctor and he said that even though it's not his specialty, that the whole hardgainer thing or slow metabolism due to genetics is a myth. I found this completely bogus because just look at society today. You've got computer geeks who eat 3 boxes of pizza yet rain nothing. Anyways he said that even though I was chubby, that I wouldn't pack weight easily because I'm 18 and hormones and all that. He said the same to my 2 brothers who are 16 and 17. Also formerly chubby. Is this guy bogus or is he right about previous endomorphs being able to attain super metabolism?
[snip]
So he said "the whole hardgainer thing or slow metabolism due to genetics is a myth". Agreed.
Where did "previous endomorphs being able to attain super metabolism" come from? Did he actually say that or is it some spin you put on his words?
Don't worry about pizza guy. You have enough going on. What specifically did he tell you?
I wanna know more about pizza guy but he told me "it doesnt matter that you were chubby before! You're growing and your hormones and all that will allow you to eat 5 times more than the average adult" he basically said due to hormones and all that typical stuff you hear about teen bodybuilding that I should eat copious amounts of food5 -
This is the 2-cups-of-cinnamon-in-my-oatmeal person. This is also the eats-salads-while-walking-around-the-house person. Let’s all take this post with a big pinch of salt.25
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gallicinvasion wrote: »This is the 2-cups-of-cinnamon-in-my-oatmeal person. This is also the eats-salads-while-walking-around-the-house person. Let’s all take this post with a big pinch of salt.
What kind of bias is that?11 -
I'm losing faith in small sections of internet based humanity.3
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I have seen your other threads were you are constantly struggling with bulking. I have also seen that you are Asian. You’re very probably struggling against genetics here that want to keep you lean muscled rather than bulked. To liken it to horses (I’m a horse person) it’s like trying to make an Arab look like a Quarter Horse, no matter how hard you try genetics dictate that a good percentage of arabs will always be lithe and lean. So you may eventually have to accept that your body may never look like other bodies that work as hard or even less hard than you. My Asian friend is having a similar issue as you right now. This isn’t to say that it’s not possible but from what I’ve read it could be part of your problem.
And yes, your doctor with years of medical training is correct.15 -
What eating disorder? What unhealthy relationship?I've been trying to bulk for quite some time now and my eating disorder and unhealthy relationship with the step counter has hindered my progress and I lost more weight.
Eating disorder + Can't bulk + seeing a Renal specialist is an enormous red flag to me.
Just a humble suggestion that we get more, honest information before offering any other advice.
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Hannahwalksfar wrote: »I have seen your other threads were you are constantly struggling with bulking. I have also seen that you are Asian. You’re very probably struggling against genetics here that want to keep you lean muscled rather than bulked. To liken it to horses (I’m a horse person) it’s like trying to make an Arab look like a Quarter Horse, no matter how hard you try genetics dictate that a good percentage of arabs will always be lithe and lean. So you may eventually have to accept that your body may never look like other bodies that work as hard or even less hard than you. My Asian friend is having a similar issue as you right now. This isn’t to say that it’s not possible but from what I’ve read it could be part of your problem.
And yes, your doctor with years of medical training is correct.
Do you have peer reviewed studies to back this up?11 -
In struggling to make sense of our own difficulties, we often "see" evidence that others are getting away with some violations of the laws of physics and want to shoehorn ourselves into an alternate reality where we are gaining weight because we're not eating enough, or it's our somatotype, or age to blame. In reality, for 99% of people who pass through here, I'd bet cash money that if they stopped focusing on how others are getting by and were honest and thorough in reviewing their own habits, they'd find the simplest answer to be true: that they are eating more and moving less than required to achieve weight loss. The power of the brain to preserve our sense of self is strong, and until we're able to get a handle on actual reality and be truthful with ourselves and admit those donuts we didn't log or that we let our fitness tracker tell us we burned 300 calories doing a 10 minute stretch, nobody can help because they'll be trying by reasoning with irrelevant and faulty data.
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The metabolism thing is indeed largely a myth. Sorry.
What happens is that the guy who eats ‘3 boxes of pizza’ is actually eating almost nothing the rest of the time, or is fidgeting and getting up constantly, or doing a whole load of cycling at weekends. The main reason that people gain weight as they age is that they aren’t as active.
Ok, you are the first person who posted metabolism thing is a myth. I am not sure exactly what is meant by that. People do burn fuel at different rates. How is that a myth?2 -
Hannahwalksfar wrote: »I have seen your other threads were you are constantly struggling with bulking. I have also seen that you are Asian. You’re very probably struggling against genetics here that want to keep you lean muscled rather than bulked. To liken it to horses (I’m a horse person) it’s like trying to make an Arab look like a Quarter Horse, no matter how hard you try genetics dictate that a good percentage of arabs will always be lithe and lean. So you may eventually have to accept that your body may never look like other bodies that work as hard or even less hard than you. My Asian friend is having a similar issue as you right now. This isn’t to say that it’s not possible but from what I’ve read it could be part of your problem.
And yes, your doctor with years of medical training is correct.
Do you have peer reviewed studies to back this up?
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/athleticperformance
https://blog.helix.com/actn3-muscle-contraction-twg/
and a visual https://www.europuppy.com/blog/the-worlds-worst-genetic-mutation-in-a-dog/4 -
The metabolism thing is indeed largely a myth. Sorry.
What happens is that the guy who eats ‘3 boxes of pizza’ is actually eating almost nothing the rest of the time, or is fidgeting and getting up constantly, or doing a whole load of cycling at weekends. The main reason that people gain weight as they age is that they aren’t as active.
Ok, you are the first person who posted metabolism thing is a myth. I am not sure exactly what is meant by that. People do burn fuel at different rates. How is that a myth?
I second this0 -
The metabolism thing is indeed largely a myth. Sorry.
What happens is that the guy who eats ‘3 boxes of pizza’ is actually eating almost nothing the rest of the time, or is fidgeting and getting up constantly, or doing a whole load of cycling at weekends. The main reason that people gain weight as they age is that they aren’t as active.
Ok, you are the first person who posted metabolism thing is a myth. I am not sure exactly what is meant by that. People do burn fuel at different rates. How is that a myth?
Reference to myth is that's it all about metabolism and only metabolism. Metabolism being the basic metabolic functions, not the all day burn some people mistakenly think of it as.
The variances for BMR for equal gender, height, and weight, and not being currently in a diet or some medical issue - are vastly within the 5% of predicted. Bell curve is not a huge spread.
Shoot, even those with missing thyroids are close to or within that range (sadly they are massively tired all day, not metabolism issue, daily burn issue).
So a 5% difference potential doesn't explain away the stated idea "they can eat anything all day long and not gain weight therefore their metabolism must be special".10 -
The metabolism thing is indeed largely a myth. Sorry.
What happens is that the guy who eats ‘3 boxes of pizza’ is actually eating almost nothing the rest of the time, or is fidgeting and getting up constantly, or doing a whole load of cycling at weekends. The main reason that people gain weight as they age is that they aren’t as active.
Ok, you are the first person who posted metabolism thing is a myth. I am not sure exactly what is meant by that. People do burn fuel at different rates. How is that a myth?
BMR is really where you would see what most people think of as the difference in metabolism. But where most people's numbers diverge from the "norm" is in NEAT and TDEE, or in other words in activity level and exercise exertion. Add to that people who don't log but assume they eat either a lot or little, and other people seeing a snapshot of a person's day and thinking they can determine from that how much they eat, and it's far more likely that people who seem to have a high metabolism are really just eating less than you think and moving more than you think.
Most of the articles out there about how to increase your metabolism are false advertising. They basically come down to ways to get more energy, thereby moving more, thereby increasing your TDEE. It has nothing to do with some inherent need for more or less calories to do the same things.
Most people we think of as having a "higher metabolism" are just more active during the course of their day.
I used to assume I had a slow metabolism - I was fairly active and eating @ 1400 cals per day and maintaining! Then I got a Fitbit and discovered I was barely getting 4000 steps per day. Then I got a food scale and started choosing database entries more carefully and discovered I was really eating 1700-1800 cals per day. I didn't have a slow metabolism, I was inactive and eating too much. Now people credit my "fast metabolism", but it's really that I'm getting 8000-10,000 steps per day and fitting treat foods in my calories. They just see me nibbling treats all the time and working a desk job.
I'm sure there are small differences in BMR between people who have the exact same stats, but my understanding is that the range is simply not as wide as people would like to believe. BMR can be tested in a lab, and people's BMR's are generally what the calculators say they would be when they are tested.9 -
If you don't feel you can trust this doctor, get a new one. A bunch of online forum strangers who don't know you, haven't examined you, and have no medical training cannot possibly pass judgment on whether your doctor's advice is "bogus".5
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Hannahwalksfar wrote: »I have seen your other threads were you are constantly struggling with bulking. I have also seen that you are Asian. You’re very probably struggling against genetics here that want to keep you lean muscled rather than bulked. To liken it to horses (I’m a horse person) it’s like trying to make an Arab look like a Quarter Horse, no matter how hard you try genetics dictate that a good percentage of arabs will aways be lithe and lean. So you may eventually have to accept that your body may never look like other bodies that work as hard or even less hard than you. My Asian friend is having a similar issue as you right now. This isn’t to say that it’s not possible but from what I’ve read it could be part of your problem.
And yes, your doctor with years of medical training is correct.
Do you have peer reviewed studies to back this up?
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/athleticperformance
https://blog.helix.com/actn3-muscle-contraction-twg/
and a visual https://www.europuppy.com/blog/the-worlds-worst-genetic-mutation-in-a-dog/
None of those address the idea that Asian people will have trouble "bulking" and only one of those is peer reviewed. I suppose I'll be more clear than the bolding of the quote. Do you have any peer reviewed articles that backup your statement that because the OP is Asian, their genetics "want to keep [them] lean muscled rather than bulked."?3 -
Hannahwalksfar wrote: »I have seen your other threads were you are constantly struggling with bulking. I have also seen that you are Asian. You’re very probably struggling against genetics here that want to keep you lean muscled rather than bulked. To liken it to horses (I’m a horse person) it’s like trying to make an Arab look like a Quarter Horse, no matter how hard you try genetics dictate that a good percentage of arabs will aways be lithe and lean. So you may eventually have to accept that your body may never look like other bodies that work as hard or even less hard than you. My Asian friend is having a similar issue as you right now. This isn’t to say that it’s not possible but from what I’ve read it could be part of your problem.
And yes, your doctor with years of medical training is correct.
Do you have peer reviewed studies to back this up?
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/athleticperformance
https://blog.helix.com/actn3-muscle-contraction-twg/
and a visual https://www.europuppy.com/blog/the-worlds-worst-genetic-mutation-in-a-dog/
None of those address the idea that Asian people will have trouble "bulking" and only one of those is peer reviewed. I suppose I'll be more clear than the bolding of the quote. Do you have any peer reviewed articles that backup your statement that because the OP is Asian, their genetics "want to keep [them] lean muscled rather than bulked."?
No I don’t, hence me not claiming it as fact but rather a possibility. Anecdotal evidence is all I have.6 -
Hannahwalksfar wrote: »Hannahwalksfar wrote: »I have seen your other threads were you are constantly struggling with bulking. I have also seen that you are Asian. You’re very probably struggling against genetics here that want to keep you lean muscled rather than bulked. To liken it to horses (I’m a horse person) it’s like trying to make an Arab look like a Quarter Horse, no matter how hard you try genetics dictate that a good percentage of arabs will aways be lithe and lean. So you may eventually have to accept that your body may never look like other bodies that work as hard or even less hard than you. My Asian friend is having a similar issue as you right now. This isn’t to say that it’s not possible but from what I’ve read it could be part of your problem.
And yes, your doctor with years of medical training is correct.
Do you have peer reviewed studies to back this up?
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/athleticperformance
https://blog.helix.com/actn3-muscle-contraction-twg/
and a visual https://www.europuppy.com/blog/the-worlds-worst-genetic-mutation-in-a-dog/
None of those address the idea that Asian people will have trouble "bulking" and only one of those is peer reviewed. I suppose I'll be more clear than the bolding of the quote. Do you have any peer reviewed articles that backup your statement that because the OP is Asian, their genetics "want to keep [them] lean muscled rather than bulked."?
No I don’t, hence me not claiming it as fact but rather a possibility. Anecdotal evidence is all I have.
Ok. I asked because the idea that you posed was really charged. I'm assuming (hoping) you didn't realize that.4
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