That’s good advice right there. The solution to “small stomach” and not liking food is to eat more, past the point where you’re full and past the point where you really don’t want to eat any more. You just have to force it. Pick the high calorie foods you like best and go all out on them. Once you can force yourself to eat 4-5000 in one day, sticking to 3000 will be easy because your sense of hunger will adjust and you will NEED those 3000 cals.
Just some thoughts.
I actually DISLIKE food and eating. (I always have. Probably why I used to weigh 115.) If I could take some kind of awesome concentrated food pill, I would do it in a heartbeat. In addition, I don’t have a very strong stomach at all. I often have to take breaks in the middle of meals to keep from throwing up.
So here’s some tips that help me. There seems to be some kind of mental time threshold on feeling full. If you can get most of your meal in within 20 minutes or so (don’t gulp things down unchewed, cause then you’ll feel even worse) then you’ll be much better off. This means you have to concentrate on eating, never let your mouth be empty, take fairly big mouthfuls, don’t let your chewing slow down, and choose easy to chew foods. (This sucks for me because I love to meet new people at the Caf. But I usually can’t sit with people when I eat, cause I’d have to talk and I wouldn’t be able to get in enough food. Too bad.) You may have to take breaks to keep from throwing up. Close your eyes, think about something else, don’t let yourself smell the food.
Also, put cold things and liquids at the end of your meal, cause they seem to make you feel full faster which you don’t want early in a meal, obviously. Also you can eat them even when you’re full. (Not sure why both of those are true, but it works somehow.) I also can eat a lot of non starchy vegetables and fruit even when I’m full. So put them at the end of the meal too.
Pour oil, grated cheese, peanut butter, cream, butter, etc on things. Boom. Easy calories.
The more meals you can spread out your food over the easier it’ll be. Always have something easy and quick (peanut butter and milk are good, cheap examples) with you. People’ll stare but fuck them.
This is psychologically hard for people like us and your mind will make excuses. IGNORE them. You must eat a lot and at every meal. Don’t let yourself say (even subconsciously), “I ate lots last meal so I can take it easy at this one.” Fuck that. Feel sick after every meal.
If you want to eat enough without eating utter junk then life’ll suck for a month or so until you get as used to it as you’ll ever be. Then it’ll just kind of suck.
Or you can just take baby steps and acclimate yourself. But if you do that you’re wasting time that you could be building muscle in. Maybe you have that time to waste and your goals aren’t all that high. That’s fine if you want that. I don’t want that so I don’t do it that way.
Well that was all over the place. I don’t want to set myself up as a know-it-all or something but I think I can help you since we seem to struggle with the same trouble with food. Just be consistent and don’t pay any attention to the ILLEGITIMATE excuses. Training is fun (usually), but meals are when the real hard work gets done.
That was good advice all around, thanks all of you for it. I definitely appreciate it, it’s helpful. I’ve been more watchful of my eating recently, and plan on ramping it up little by little. I don’t want to overwhelm myself and burn out by trying to get 4-5K calories in there, although I’ll definitely do it if I can.
My back pain is essentially eliminated although sometimes I get a slight pang to remind me it’s still a bit off. As a result, I’m pushing back the reintroduction of Deadlifts to January. Calf Raises may also very well be replaced by a different leg exercise depending on my resources at the college gym.
Going to the gym again now. I’ll edit this post with the results.
Edit: Here it is
Bench: 100 lb
6/5/5
Going to lower to 95 and try for the 8/8/8 again.
Rows: 60 lb
8/6/5
Skipped Calf Raises. It’s just too much work to set them up on the Smith and I got really hungry. I’m going to just lay off of them until I go back to college, as they have machines I can use there for a quicker setup, and to ensure I’m doing them with a proper ROM.
I’ve started working on my eating. Shared a pizza with my girlfriend, and was shocked that there was no more after the fifth slice. See, there’s this point where mentally I’m convinced I’m full based on the food I’ve eaten. This usually kicks in around 2-3 slices. And so it was kind of an unreal process to just continue eating anyway and not feel horrible afterwards. I got it all in at around 7-8 minutes, so it’s nice to know that I’m capable of eating an okay amount quickly. This isn’t an immense amount, but it showed me I’m more capable than I had thought.
As for today’s actual gym log, it was a good day- which isn’t something I normally post. It was a good confidence booster to see my warm up boxing improving too.
Pull Ups: 30 lb
10/4/4
My form may not have been completely perfect. I know the last one or two on the first set weren’t, and to be honest I just wasn’t paying close attention to the rest of the reps because I was trying to crank them out as quickly as possible while remembering to keep up my leg drive. Still, I’ll count it as a victory and go on to 35 lb next time, if for no other reason than because the spacing of the plates (25 and 5) puts more weight on one of my hips and it’s uncomfortable as hell. I’ll be more careful with form while working at 35.
Military Press: 75 lb
3x4
3x4 isn’t anything to be excited about when my goal is 3x5, but it isn’t degrading like my military press had been before and is slightly better than the last few weeks.
Squats: 105 lb
3x8
These are why I consider this day a good day. I remembered to keep my weight on my heels, and the bar felt a lot more weightless than usual. I managed to keep the bar more on the back of my shoulders and kept my chest out, and it just felt like I was squatting better, and not only that- with more weight than the time before and absent of any knee pain. I did feel what could almost be described as an itch around my knees closer to the end of my sets, but I believe I may have been putting a bit more weight on my toes there than regular, and it wasn’t painful- slightly uncomfortable and a definite improvement from before. I think the knee pain will be eliminated altogether soon although I’ll tone it down if it gets worse. I feel like I can progress regularly now, especially with the bar feeling light.
Have you tried holding back more on your first set of chins? I found that doing that helped me immensely. If you do 10, 4, and 4, that’s 18 in three sets. You probably would have been able to do 7 on the latter two sets if you just did 7 on the first set, which would be 21. More chins, less fatigue. It might be at least worth a shot.
Maybe I’ll try that.
Today:
Rows: 60 lb
6/5/5
Bench: 100 lb
6/5/2/4
Did an extra set because the third sucked so hard. Forgot to lower to 95. Will do next time.
Edit: I noticed my back’s been bothering me more than usual today. I’m starting to think the pain is related to squats rather than deadlifts. I’m going to see how it goes and adjust as necessary.
Fucking A about the pizza!
Video yourself on the squats and see if your back’s rounding. Chest up and shove your knees out/spread the floor apart with your feet are two good cues to keep your back flat.
Alright, so not this Saturday but the one after that is when I go back to college. This comes with the typical warning of “gym visits may be sparse and eating may be low” but with the important addition of “by next Sunday I’ll be seriously training again.”
I went to the gym today after getting another filling done (new dentist. You know what’s miraculous? The numbness in my mouth has vanished after only an hour or two- as opposed to the six or more needed by the last dentist, and it was much, much, much less painful.) I hadn’t eating much but felt energetic enough to head to the gym.
Pull Ups: 35 lb
4/3/3
Focused on form. I don’t think I quite go high enough- only my chin is going over the bar here, but I am going low enough for sure now. Felt a lot better than 30 lb due to the weight distribution of the weights.
Military Press: 75 lb
3/3/–
Military Press: 65 lb
5
My shoulders just weren’t lifting much. I may have to bump down to 65 for the third time or so, but hopefully for the last time.
Squats: 115 lb
3x8
I was definitely rounding my back slightly. I focused a lot on my back and felt for the rounding and found it, but it was something I had never noticed before. It was a curving right above my glutes. Leg strength imbalance may have been why it’s only on my left side, or my pelvis being rotated or a combination of the two. Squats felt much better this time though.
So with that news, I WILL be resuming deadlifts when I head back to school- but with a harsh eye on form. I plan on looking for any kind of weight lifting group or club to train with me, and if I can’t find one then I’ve heard there’s a free personal trainer I’ll chase after for no other reason than to watch my form.
Good that you caught that. Hopefully that was the source of all your back troubles. Stretching your hamstrings is another good thing to do to help with it.
My physical therapist recommended some hamstring stretching when I saw him way back, so that’s something I will definitely be doing.
Updating this post, not because of another gym visit- but to list some rather important information and schedule changes.
I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I get off class at about 3:30 PM Thursday evening. Tuesday is my busiest day however due to the presence of a lab at 4, which will take me 'till 6. Tuesday is the problem day because of this lab because I may not have enough time to get back to the cafeteria of choice, and may have to eat out. I’ll have a bike though, so I should be able to make it work.
As a result I’m debating a Wednesday/Friday/Sunday gym schedule. This means school wont interfere nearly as much, I’ll only have to go late once a week, and so on. I will be visiting the girlfriend at least once a month, and will miss a few Fridays. If I miss a Friday, I’ll simply go an extra day M/R/S.
Now as for eating. Eating wont seriously begin for me until Sunday just because I get there halfway through tomorrow and the fridge wont be ready for milk. Milk wont play a proper role until Monday as a result. However!
The new dorm is next to another dining center. A center with less variety, but more ways to become a fatass (in other words, more variety FOR ME.) I can now stick about 1400 cals in the same amount of food that got me 1000 last year. And breakfast is almost 1k in itself. WITHOUT LIQUIDS, OR A FOURTH MEAL (my car is now loaded with kitchen supplies and food. It’s literally about half of what I’m bringing.) In other words- I’ll be able to not only succeed at my 3Kcals goal, but I’ll be able to PILEDRIVE THE LITTLE BITCH.
A fourth meal and liquid intake should net me another 1K. It’s possible for me to get about 5000 cals a day then, on a bulk, without absolutely destroying myself.
With that said, I don’t know the portions on all this food. I don’t know when this dining center closes (I’m assuming 7 pm, but I have no idea.) And I know that food status on Tuesday is especially tight, so there may be a lower day in there. I also don’t know how accurate the website is- the last dining center was a bit inconsistent.
So the goal is still 3k, however this goal ONLY APPLIES TO THE FIRST WEEK. I’m going to verify the numbers and find out what’s actually reasonable. 3K is my baseline goal. I know it’s hittable because I can and will go to a different dining center if I can’t hit 3K on this new one. However I may inflate this goal based on how the first week goes eating and gym wise.
The second part of this post is the new workout schedule. I’ll be taking new progress pics today as well, and post them soon enough.
Day A:
Rows
Bench Press
Deadlift
Day B:
Military Press
Pull Ups
Squats
Alternating.
I’ll be deadlifting starting with 115 lb, and then increasing from there to avoid injury. Form is going to be watched like a motherfucker for squats and deadlifts alike. Hopefully, there wont be any more back pain.
Have you restarted deadlifting yet? How did it go?
Today was my first day back. First workout details, and after that some general notes, on my back, on deadlifting, a couple notes on the attached progress pictures, and on my diet.
Weight: 115.8 - 117.9 pounds
The difference is probably due to the quarter gallon of milk I had mid-workout. I didn’t think a quarter gallon of milk weighed that much, but hey, who knows. I knew I’d lost some weight, and am kind of sad it hit about 116 lb, but I did it to myself and so I’ll have to work against it.
Cybex Low Row: 6 Plates
3x8
A few things. Firstly, I don’t know how much the plates weigh. I went in assuming 10 lb, and on their website they don’t come lower than 9 (often being 12.5-20 lb). HOWEVER, these assuredly felt lighter than the 60 lbs at my previous gym, and because it’s a machine set up I lose a certain amount of the weight that “I’m lifting.” With that said, I don’t think my back will allow for dumbbell or barbell variations of rows with comfort and this machine is superior in build to the one I was using at home- it’s seat and handlebars make it harder to cheat any reps.
Deadlifts: 115 lb
3x8
These sucked. I felt them in my legs, and tried to keep my back as straight as possible but I felt them low back too. I actually had to try to lift it for my first rep twice, after being unsure I could do it at all the first time. On the other hand, I’m happy to be doing these again.
Bench Press: 95 lb
8/5/5
Reduced the weight and decided to come back from here seeing as I made no progress here all summer.
Now for some general notes.
My diet’s cleaned up to a proper bulking diet. On a bad day I’m getting in about 140 g of protein a day and 3000 cals, and on a good day I’m hitting upwards of 200 g of protein. Hitting 3000 calories isn’t a problem, and I’m having a half gallon of milk per day- whole milk. I would have more but just finishing the half gallons is sucking right now- although it’s definitely easier on gym days.
However my hunger is essentially defeated. I’m not eating all that much for lunch, but the addition of all the milk has been devastating to my appetite. I’m guessing it’s the “cold liquids keep hunger down” thing. I’m sure it’ll get better, and I’m getting in at least three meals, but when Lunch and Dinner are at least five hours apart it makes a guy worry. This could be a carryover from my Summer though.
I also have access to a stove now, which means on the few days I can stay up a bit later I’ll be able to cram in extra calories more easily. I’m really, really happy about that.
3000 isn’t a lot, but it’s still about 30 calories per pound and by the time it stops being sufficient enough for a pound a week, I should either be better at drinking milk or hungry enough to cram in more food.
Now onto other matters-
Firstly, my back. I felt a slight pain for a good ten minutes after the gym where my back was bothering me, but it seemed more centralized, like it was a joint. It was kind of… limpish for lack of a better word. If this results in pain throughout the day tomorrow- and not a sore kind- I’ll talk to a physical therapist this weekend.
Secondly, as to the attached progress pictures- I did lose some weight, but that wont account entirely for how drastic the change in physique seems to be. Let me assure you it isn’t as large as it looks- some of it is a result of physique deterioration but most of it is due to lighting.
Thirdly, deadlifting. I can tell where I may have been putting too much on my back and am definitely in the process of correcting my form- although it isn’t perfect. If it ends up giving me back pain again I am going to drop it, and then see a physical therapist. However it was good to realize how weak I am in that respect- my deadlift is lagging horribly.
Lastly! I’ve begun taking yoga every Monday and Wednesday as part of a fitness requirement for a mandatory college health class. (It was that, walking, or running. I chose the one with the least cardio and best ass.) I thought it would be relaxing. It isn’t relaxing. It’s like hell. I’ve never had my ass kicked so hard. So my Wednesday workouts will be slightly fatigued, because yoga reduces me to a shaking mess. The Wednesday workouts should also be the busiest as I have to go AFTER all my classes until I can wake up early enough to go mornings without disturbing my sleeping schedule, and therefore there will be a lot of downtime there too.
This is gonna suck but you’re need to condition yourself to take in more food. Eat when you’re not hungry and pick the food options that provide the most calories and protein for their cost. If the milk is having a negative impact on your appetite, then drink it later at night. Hope that helps. What kind of meal plan are you on?
Start pushing the weight more on your exercises too.
I’m on the most basic meal plan, but if I need more I can always upgrade it.
I do agree I need to up my hunger, but I’m not terribly worried about it currently. It’s obviously an issue, and possibly a serious one, but my sometimes I actually do want to eat and due to the new color, shape, texture, sizes, and frequency of my stool I think it may be linked to a digestion issue that will pass.
I’ll be adding weight to the bar again. I don’t really have an excuse not to- on the worst days I’m getting in at least 140 grams of protein and on the best days around 220 grams and with the calorie counts as they are I should be getting bigger and stronger. Any failures past this aren’t on the diet but a result of my own efforts.
[quote]Reygekan wrote:
I’m on the most basic meal plan, but if I need more I can always upgrade it.
I do agree I need to up my hunger, but I’m not terribly worried about it currently. It’s obviously an issue, and possibly a serious one, but my sometimes I actually do want to eat and due to the new color, shape, texture, sizes, and frequency of my stool I think it may be linked to a digestion issue that will pass.
I’ll be adding weight to the bar again. I don’t really have an excuse not to- on the worst days I’m getting in at least 140 grams of protein and on the best days around 220 grams and with the calorie counts as they are I should be getting bigger and stronger. Any failures past this aren’t on the diet but a result of my own efforts.[/quote]
Keep an eye on your sleep patterns. They can affect your appetite a great deal.
Hey dude,
just wanted to say I’m on roughly the same journey as you, started about the same weight, and I’m now up to (roughly) 160lbs. I’ve been training for about a year and a half, but only “properly” for a few months. Reading your first posts about being, for lack of a better expression, spazzy noob, reminded me so much of me!! Brilliant. I’m just sharing as I know I took some strength from hearing your story, and hoped you would from mine too. maybe?
My one bit of advice is this: don’t weigh yourself too often. That way, you won’t notice tiny little increments, you’ll suddenly see massive leaps! THAT has helped me no end. Going from weighing week to week, it makes it (for me, anyway) feel like I’m barely achieving anything, but when I get a big jump, I’m much happier.
So, yeah, sorry for the ramble, but well done fella, sounds like you’ve really changed yourself.
Same here. Iv been training for 14 months now but the first 6-7 were spent doing ridiculous things. Im at about 156 pounds right now and hoping to continually get stronger.
I don’t know if its been said already but you should strive to get strong first. Eat like hell and do big movements. And train with strong people with positive attitudes. My mistakes were doing machines ONLY and doing dumb stuff like going to train abs and biceps for like 2hours. Lets not forget eating like a little bird. I was such an idiot.
All the best dude.
Sounds like everything’s pretty well dialed in. Great!
Lack of appetite sucks, but whatever. Just another challenge to dominate. Keep hammering away!
You’ve got a lot of people who want to see you succeed. You’ve done good in pushing through setbacks. But you need to get your priorities straight. Over a year in, you’ve dipped under 120 at 5’11". That’s just not the place to be concerned with “cleaning up” anything or gradually increasing calories. This is what your body is used to. You need to shock it with more food than it can stand. The lifting is just a bonus at this point. Obviously getting proficient at the exercises will help you down the road, but you can’t be strong at 5’11", 120 lb. Add weight to the scale. The bar weight will take care of itself.