[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
I want to start off by saying that had I known about your depression issues earlier, your entire situation would’ve been addressed slightly differently (the advice given and the approach, somewhat).[/quote]
Sure, no worries.
Have you ever seen The Biggest Loser, where a 460-pound guy gets on the scale for the weekly weigh-in and he’s dropped 30 pounds in a single week? Super-skinny guys (like you) are kinda like that in reverse. Nevermind the physiological explanation, but by being on the far end of the bell curve, your body is capable of gaining significantly more than a half-pound per week.[/quote]
I see what you mean. I’ve always been told that any rapid gains or losses are “unhealthy”, so I was trying to be conservative on the gains. Not that anyone ever could explain WHY it was unhealthy. Then, based on forum threads about 20rep squats, a lot of people gained 12-18 pounds in 6 weeks, so it seemed that I was on target with my 2-3lb/week gains.
(Just to qualify, the people saying that it was “unhealthy” were MDs. While that’s somewhat more credibility, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right. I’ve learned enough about how medicine really works to take [certain] things with a grain of salt.)
[quote]If you and I were working one on one, and at the end of the first week, you said you gained two or three pounds, I’d be like, “Okay, it’s a start, let’s bump up the calories some more each day and see where that takes us next week.”
At the end of the second week, when you came to me and said, “Hey Chris, up another two or three pounds. Cool, right?” I’d be thinking, “Geez, two or three pounds, huh? I was hoping for a little more, especially since we already tweaked the diet. Let’s bump the daily calories again and get some significant results for next week.” [/quote]
I understand now. It just didn’t jive with a lot of other stuff I’d read and heard. Disregarding body composition, what do you see as a good weekly gain, based on where I am? 5lbs a week? And at what bodyweight should I look at tapering off a bit? I’m guessing around 170ish.
I know I should keep gaining until I hit my desired body weight dieted down… it’s more, at what point should I stop expecting to be gaining so rapidly.
Those last reps are pretty tough 
It’ll probably take several weeks to transition my diet, but I think I can do it a little at a time. Too much too soon, you know? It shouldn’t be too hard to move away from the fast food/sub sandwiches, especially since I only recently added that in. First step is to change that out, then I’ll work on transitioning the milk out of there.
The holiday and travel this week kind of messes everything up, but I’ll get back to it next week.
[quote]I think maybe 5 years is too far off to really grasp, for most people really. People can make some dramatic changes in even 90 days, so you might want to break down the long goal (5 or 6 years, whatever) into smaller, easier to visualize segments.
Check out some of the before and afters…
Point is, it’s not going to take five years for you to get to a good place, goal-wise. One step at a time, get things dialed in as soon as possible, and you’ll be back on track.[/quote]
Some of those are pretty impressive (and motivational). I’ve been told I can realistically hit 170 by the end of the year, so that’s something I can break down into more manageable chunks.
I agree that 5 years is about impossible to grasp. It’s more that in 5 years, I don’t want to be thinking “I wish I wasn’t so skinny/I wish I was in better shape”. It’s that concept that I can use as motivation to change.
Maybe this analogy works, maybe not. I see it like someone imagining that at some time in the future, they’re no longer living paycheck to paycheck. They can’t really relate to what it would be like, and they know it will be a long long time before they get to that point. They’re not even sure they believe it’s possible. But because they have that vision, it sets of a cascading set of minor changes that get them there. If they tack on a number (say, 5 years), it adds a little more pressure to actually do something, instead of just dreaming about it.
That’s basically what I’m trying to do here. I really can’t relate to what it would be like to not be skinny, for instance; it’s been a part of my existence for so long. And I’ve always gotten the contradictory “wow, you’re so thin” with “I can’t believe you ate that much”. I guess I should be happy for that metabolism.
But, I agree, I really don’t think it will take anywhere near 5 years to get there.
Thanks for the help here.