Calories & carbs oh my

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hi, im new ^^
I did some searching throughout the forums, and couldnt really find an answer here. If this has been answered before im sorry.

Anyways, i’ve been overweight (and not working out at all) for about a year now. I had a disc herniation, and after PT failed me (it made nerve damage worse) I just gave up & in. I did manage however in the last year to do one thing my doctor said(besides loose weight…) quit smoking… so wee, this didnt help with the weight issue.

I had been fiddling with the induction part of the atkins way of eating, and just couldnt hack it. To hardcore for me. Before atkins, i only ate once, max twice a day. Not very large meals either. I realize now why i craved junk food so bad. Not just the flavor, but, fast & easy… drive to the store, eat a bag of chips, a 20oz of soda. Or 20oz of soda & some ice cream = instant energy…(since i was eating barely nothing - not that this was totally concious, i knew i wasnt eating enough, but i THOUGHT i was doing ok)
Fast forward, i started atkins induction. Cut out all soda, drank tons of water, Ate food as much i felt hungry for… Which was still - 1-2 meals a day. during the first week for a day or two i’d get incredibly hungry & eat tons of meat all day (cooking all day is such a drag)…

Fast forward some more, i found the calculation to calories to lose weight calculation on a female lifters site (after becoming interested in lifting) and it said 10-13 times your body weight. Upon reading how much calories a 3oz serving of chicken has i go “OMG, while i was on atkins, i couldnt have been eating anywhere close to 1500 calories a day, nevermind 10-13x my bodyweight”… So now im trying to do the right thing, keep junk out, refinded carbs out, lots of protien still, more calories & getting carbs from things that are more “natural” (bring on the wild rice again… mm mmm)

I wanted to know however what to expect. Being that my metabolism came to a screaching HALT probably for a very very long time, will i gain fat before i loose it (not weight, fat)? Will i potentionally gain inches before i loose them? Either way, I’m sticking to this, I just dont want to get freaked if i start getting bigger first.

On another note, how do you all eat so much. I feel like im force feeding myself, Although this morning i was hungry for the first time in… months?.. Would a low carb protien shake be a good option for me as a meal replacement since im having a hard time doing 5-6 small meals?(ie, Low carb GROW or something to that effect)

Sorry this was soooo long, i wanted to give decent background information…
Thanks!

Lauren

2

Lauren,

Given your history, I’d say that you may have to endure a period of ‘force feeding’ in order to get your metabolism back to a normal state. I know that even I have to force breakfast down in the morning. If I do, my metabolism maintains a fairly high rate. Once I skip breakfast, things can come to a stand still.

I’ve also read that people that eat breakfast burn more calories throughout the day when compared to people who skip it. I may have read that on this very site.

Seems to me that a good morning plan would be a protein shake and a fish oil supplement. There are a bunch of other things you could eat, but fish oil tends to be a ‘cure-all’ for metabolic issues and the protein will help because of it’s thermic effect, among numerous other things.

Drink lots of water, concentrate on healthy sources of protiens and fats and eat as frequently as possible. Smaller meals up to 8 times a day will work best.

Last thing is that you need to train. Try Meltdown training and the recommendations in Running Man. Just type both into the search engine and you’re on your way.

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Well I guess that all depends on how you are eating your 10-13x bodyweight, but if you are doing it in a tdawg2.0 method there is no way you will get fatter.

Only difference you may notice is water gain after something like atkins induction is stopped and normal eating resumes.

Now, with that said, you still may have a slower metabolism than you should, so stick some exercise in there. Wont take long for your appetite to come back, but in the meantime just stick in small meals at the right times when you aren’t hungry.

4

Lauren,

I’m quite sure the other expert T-Vixens would give you great advice, but here’s my two cents.

Atkins’ induction is just that. INDUCTION. You shouldn’t do it for more than 2 weeks. It’s good for people to ween themselves off of refined carb though. Please note that any starchy carbs (such as pasta, potatoes, yam, rice, etc) tend to have higher GI than veggie carbs.

Your metabolism is not as good as it should be right now, and when you force feed yourself as Rob suggests, you may feel bloated. It’ll go away as it has happened to me before, and it’ll take some time for it to go away. BTW - NEVER skip breakfast. I used to not eat breakfast myself, but now I REFUSE to work without breakfast, so yes, my co-workers wait for me to get my breakfast when we have a super early morning meeting.

Something I’d suggest that you do is to weight train and do HIIT. If you’re a newbie it doesn’t matter what program, but you’ll see great results.

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if you havent been exercising in a year the meltdown and running man may be a bit full on to start with, unless you are still quite fit from previous exercise regimes. but yeah they are gret routines.
ease you self into it for the first couple of month and learn to enjoy it. this should be a lifstyle change not a quick fix.
use the resources here. there is so much info floating around current and back issues check em out
Good luck

6

If you have breakfast (which by the way SHOULD NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER be a question), your metabolism will be 25% higher.

Also, it’s not about being hungry. You eat what you need to eat when you need to eat no questions asked.

I recommend getting your RMR taken to find out exactly how low your metabolism is - and you can bet it more than likely will be extremely low.
RMR will account for up to 75% ofr your total caloric expenditure. If for example your RMR is 1050, then your total caloric expenditure in one day will be somewhere around 1400 cals.

Caloric intake in the evening should always be lower than in the morning. Carbs should never be consumed in the evening unless you’re having a post-workout drink - and even then you’re better off simply adding glutamine to your drink with no carbs at all.

You have a lot to learn. MAKE SURE you read T-Mag’s previous articles.

7

"Also, it’s not about being hungry. You eat what you need to eat when you need to eat no questions asked. "

I’ve sure as hell noticed this!! OMG Its going to take a while to get used to.

Thanks for all the help! Yeah i’ve known that breakfast was always the best meal to eat, but always the hardest for me to eat(i sometimes tend to even get sick after eating breakfast) my trick has been waiting about an hour after i wake up these these last few days before eating.

Other than force feeding, preperation of food seems hard too. Anyone have some tips/tricks or large recipes to package up for afew days? lol
I think im going to end up buying some low carb grow or something like it to use as at least 1 meal a day, so im not stuck in the kitchen allll day lol

And on to answer the Meltdown/Running man thing, so far my beginners(spellcheck) regime has/will included unweighted things(using my own bodyweight as resistance) i can do in home (pushups, squats, lunges etc) I havent been fit in 3 years, and in the last 2 i’ve confined myself to doing next to nothing because of a herniated disc(although i now realize that was more of an excuse then a setback). Its alot better now. Anyways, my at home plan might seem really weak to everyone here, its the only way i believe i can start (i did 2-4 sets of 10 of these along with walking up & down my stairs for 3 min then some stretching and my body felt like jelly… boy was i sore yesterday!)

My long term plans are basically getting my stregnth and endurance back, and hopefully being stronger than i’ve ever been. Lose lots of fat(and pant sizes), gain some good muscle, throw my scale out the window… and have fun doing it (hence the switch from cardio to wanting to weightlift…)

Thanks again !
Lauren