Hi. I just finished a program I love for the second time. (I did it once last year). However, I’m running into the same problem - coming off the program I seem to always gain fat back without any increase in scale weight or strength.
I would like advice on a program to transition off it and avoid this fat gain.
The program was hard and involved 1 heavy leg lift followed by 3-4 superset pairings that I did all in a row with almost no rest. I would be POURING sweat after these workouts. Every workout I would increase weight or add a rep. I was at failure by the end of the 4 week cycle, although I had added like 25lbs to my lunge and squat.
I did workouts 4 days a week, starting at 6 full body sessions a week (am, am+pm, off, am, am+pm, off, off) and then going up to 8 a week.
Now I am coming off it and I want to gain mass and size but I feel LAZY taking 60 sec. rest periods and I’m putting on fat, so I don’t know what the problem is. I have been trying to do this schedule:
5 total body:
am
am
am
off
am
am
off
I use 8x3, 3x12, 4x8, 8x3, and 3x16.
Do you have any suggestions to improve this scheme?
Do you burn significantly less calories when you rest between sets? Maybe that is the simple difference of why I’m gaining fat? But my scale weight isn’t really up much.
60 is perfect for strength and size. 2/3 of the exercises should have 60+ second rest or you’re not optimal for strength and size.
Probably the reason you gain fat coming off it is…well, first off, you’re female, so it may be mental. No offense, but don’t obsess if it’s minor.
If it is significant, I’d blame diet. That’s what others will say too. You probably are burning tons of cals, in fact I know you are, working out 6-8x per week. The thing is if you leave your diet the same and reduce frequency and intensity, you’re gonna gain weight…if it isn’t dialed in just right, that’ll be fat weight.
Coming off it you should gain size and strength. If you aren’t I’d blame diet. That, or you may not be advanced enough for 8x week sessions. Are you doing BB’s next frontier? If so, congrats, you are badass. But listen to your body. I promise it is one of the things I listed.
Check the diet. 33-33-33 P-C-F is great for starters. If you are gaining unwanted fat after that, increase fiber/veggies and lower cals slowly; time carbs sensibly (mostly para-workout, some morning)
If you are still stagnant, first examine your recovery. 4x week is a bit much for most people if it’s AM-PM sessions, if they are students or full time employees. It’s more of a summer break kinda thing.
If recovery is good, diet is good, and you are stagnant or worse, just cut back and do 3 total body sessions per week. It’s a proven method and it won’t “make you fat.”
Seriously though, that “LAZY” that you typed about 60 second rest periods, and the preoccupation with gaining fat despite scale wt remaining the same…sends up some red flags. You may just need to relax, seriously.
You are contest ripped. Maybe that IS a pre-contest shot, but if you are going around like that year round you really should add some fat. You aren’t gonna be healthy if you go around like that constantly. Your body may be putting on fat because you NEED it to be healthy.
Weren’t you receiving some dietary help from Tampa-Terry? She was asking you to increase your calories if I remember correctly. I hope you’re not borderline anorexic, sister.
EDIT:
Are you lifting heavy enough (for you). Are you progressing on all the lifts? Just because youre lifting weights doesn;t mean you’re going to add muscle.
Try doing a 60 second rest interval lifting schedule with ACTUAL overload from week to week, and you will soon find that 60 seconds is PAINFUL. From your comments it seems youre just focussing on the movement and not on raising volume/intensity.
u_mombooto is right, and I think he is especially right in his first paragraph.
I didn’t wanna lecture too bad because you’ll just stop listening (you may already have) but the problem isn’t with your training, it’s with your diet. And you aren’t too fat…you’re too thin. I don’t really think you’re 5’7 115. You look 5’7 105.
Please just listen to this. If you don’t care about your health, do it for your looks…please put a little weight on!
You are obviously a committed, dedicated individual who knows what she is doing. No one in their right mind would tell you you are fat. You have a great body type, just like my girlfriends. You could be a model with bone structure like that.
Just, for the love of god, eat a 33-33-33 diet with more calories!!!