I just realized something... duh!!!

I like eating vegie chips (counted out in a bowl) and salsa at night. Great resting snack. I also discovered recently Soy Fudge bars at Trader Joe's. Only 90 calories of chocolaty goodness. (Not everyone likes the taste of soy though.)

hi Jason,

From a guy that has actually added muscle in the last 6 months, I can relate.

I started almost 2 years ago about 55 lbs overweight, and it took me about 15 months to lose it, then I maintained about 3 months to get my body into the shape I wanted to build muscle back, now I am gaining (I have gained about 5 lbs in the last 6 months so it's working well, that's a decent amount for 6 months believe it or not).

The last 10 is usually the hardest, even for guys. One thing to note, I didn't even worry about my weight for the last 15 or so pounds, I was far more focused on dropping Body Fat % and I think this should be your focus too. Body Fat % is a huge indicator of overall health, far more important then your weight.

for a healthy guy, 15% is very good, for an athlete 12% is good but 9% is phenomenal(about 8% is the lowest you can ever expect when you are 30 or older).

Why do it this way? Because lean tissue is active tissue, no matter what weight you are, lean tissue (muscle and the like) will participate in health, where body fat just drains the system.

So with all that said here is my opinion on how you should focus, assuming you are healthy (I'm 35 and have an athletic build so I think our body types are relatively similar)

find your maintenance calories, and create a very small deficit say 200 calories. when you work out, diligently record those calories and eat them. Keep your body very close to maintenance. This will allow you to build muscle. Incorporate some weight training (PX90 is fine for that) but mix it up too, do some straight cardio, change your routine once every 6 weeks, and work yourself to exhaustion at least once a week (I mean muscles burning, from something other then the normal routine).

Also, plan your food so you eat a carb/protein mix within an hour after a heavy workout. It doesn't have to be a full meal, just enough to alleviate the burden of your body for supplying protein to build muscle and to facilitate the release of HGH and Testosterone to counteract any cortisol in the blood.

One other thing. MAKE SURE YOU GET 8 HOURS OF SLEEP. The body goes into muscle building overdrive in sleep time. this is when you primarily repair and build most of your muscle, if you don't get enough sleep you are sabotaging your muscle building activities.

hope this helps.

-Banks