T-Dawg Weight Gain?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

First off, here are my stats:
Male, 34, 5’10", 248, Cutting

My typical caloric intake is around 2000-2200 calories. Lots of good fats (monos, polys, omegas)

I’m taking in 1 to 1.5g of protein per lb of bodyweight.

Carbs are limited as the diet prescribed, all fibrous veggie carbs (unless PWO).

Eating balanced meals 5-6 times daily. Water intake @ 130ozs per day.

My question to the group is this: I have been on the T-Dawg for about a week and actually GAINED weight. How the hell does that happen? I thought I was suppose to lose weight. Do I actually need to take in MORE calories to lose?

2

What kind of changes are these from your previous diet?

3

[quote]zarro wrote:
What kind of changes are these from your previous diet?[/quote]

I was originally on a reduced carb diet. Low fats, fibrous carbs, plenty of protein. Making the switch to T-Dawg, there was an increase in fats and proteins. Carbs have remained low (unless PWO).

I was apparently taking in a very low amount of calories prior to T-Dawg (around 1000-1500). My fats intake was minimal. Advice on the boards has been to increase calories and fats, and bump my proteins to 1g per lb of bodyweight.

My Workouts are done at home, for now. I have a bench set and stick with maybe about 15 mins of cardio on training days.

4

Well, if you’ve increase calories significantly quickly, I’m not surprised about the weight gain. Get to a real gym asap, in the mean time put in bodyweight exercises in place of stuff you can’t do at home now.

For long term success I’d reccomend, when you get to a gym, bump up the calories to about 3000 for a little bit so you can possibly put on some lean mass, but more importantly get your metabolism up to snuff.

When you’ve gotten to 3000 calories and stay there for a couple months, then cut about 500 cals and concentrate on weight loss. You can’t lose weight if your metabolism is damaged already.

5

[quote]fenrael23 wrote:
<<< I was apparently taking in a very low amount of calories prior to T-Dawg (around 1000-1500). My fats intake was minimal. Advice on the boards has been to increase calories and fats, and bump my proteins to 1g per lb of bodyweight.

[/quote]

Why God, WHY?! APPARENTLY?!?!?! That wouldn’t sustain a moderately muscular gerbil friend. My very likely correct guess is that you have screwed your metabolism up to the point where it will probably take months of solid eating to repair itself.

One week on T-Dawg and you’re ready to panic? I can feel it in my bones, you are not going to want to hear this, but take your daily intake up to a bare minimum of 3000-3500 cals, six meals a day, get on a decent beginners weight training program and lock the scale in a cabinet and give someone else the key. Once a week weigh yourself.

Do this for a few months and watch the magic happen. I hope I’m wrong, but you really sound like one of these guys who will be struggling with physique issues 10 years from now.

YOU ARE STARVING!!! YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR BRAIN!!! IT"S GOING TO HANG ON TO EVERY LAST STORED CALORIE OF FAT IT CAN WHILE YOU CONTINUE TO HANDCUFF IT LIKE THIS!!!

We need national TV ads for this stuff already and that probably wouldn’t even help.

6

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
fenrael23 wrote:
<<< I was apparently taking in a very low amount of calories prior to T-Dawg (around 1000-1500). My fats intake was minimal. Advice on the boards has been to increase calories and fats, and bump my proteins to 1g per lb of bodyweight.

Why God, WHY?! APPARENTLY?!?!?! That wouldn’t sustain a moderately muscular gerbil friend. My very likely correct guess is that you have screwed your metabolism up to the point where it will probably take months of solid eating to repair itself.

One week on T-Dawg and you’re ready to panic? I can feel it in my bones, you are not going to want to hear this, but take your daily intake up to a bare minimum of 3000-3500 cals, six meals a day, get on a decent beginners weight training program and lock the scale in a cabinet and give someone else the key. Once a week weigh yourself.

Do this for a few months and watch the magic happen. I hope I’m wrong, but you really sound like one of these guys who will be struggling with physique issues 10 years from now.

YOU ARE STARVING!!! YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR BRAIN!!! IT"S GOING TO HANG ON TO EVERY LAST STORED CALORIE OF FAT IT CAN WHILE YOU CONTINUE TO HANDCUFF IT LIKE THIS!!!

We need national TV ads for this stuff already and that probably wouldn’t even help.

[/quote]

Dude. I really do appreciate the advice, but lay off the assumptions a bit. I am just starting out. Hence, a post in the “Beginners” thread.

The problem is, I have read every blasted forum in this site and get a different result each time I do so. Jesus, it took me two days of reading to figure out what should go into a PWO drink because everybody and their grandmother has a different take on it.

And if you can aptly deduce the character of a person from reading a thread on the internet, you should go into showbiz.

You were a beginner at something once before. Expect “stupid” questions here.

7

No offence intended, but we get a parade of guys through here who have it in their mind that food is their enemy and when I see a guy who was eating 1000 calories a day the usual response to anything we say (9 outta 10 times) is “cool, thanks, but I was actually looking for advice on how to starve myself further.”

I know exactly what you mean by there being so much information available that it’s easy to just hold your head in your hands, numb from the onslaught.

In a case like yours there are only a very few things that will matter for a while.

1 Eating too little will put into starvation where your metabolism slows to counter the lack of dietary energy and at very best you wind very small and very soft.

2 Gaining lean mass (read, lift weights) is the unrivaled means by which a permanent solution to every physique issue you have will be solved. It raises your resting metabolic rate and produces more of you to feed.
2a You cannot gain lean mass while starving.

3 Your body will conserve whatever it thinks you are not giving it enough of. Don’t drink enough water and it will retain water. Cut waaay back on the fat and it will hang on to fat etc.
3a Conversely it will generously donate whatever it feels it has plenty of to the cause of keeping itself running. Wanna get rid of water? Drink lots of it. Wanna shed some fat? Give it a plenteous yet sane amount and it will give up it’s stores.

4 None of this happens overnight, but doesn’t have to take the rest of your life either.

If I were independently wealthy I’d pay you to do exactly what I tell you for one year after which you’d be begging me to take your money out of gratitude for the life changing principles you’d learned. Principles which are not mine and are sitting there for all the world to freely partake of.

Getting from where you are to where you want to be is not nearly as complicated as it might appear, but you have to forget every idiotic thing you’ve ever heard in the mainstream media and be willing to defy some faulty instincts here and there.

This is the Reader’s Digest condensed version of how to conquer your body problems for the rest of your life.

8

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
I know exactly what you mean by there being so much information available that it’s easy to just hold your head in your hands, numb from the onslaught.

In a case like yours there are only a very few things that will matter for a while[…]
[/quote]

Well said.

Would you recommend a gradual increase in calories? Over what length of time should this increase take place? How should I calculate my needed calories? Is it BWx12?

9

[quote]fenrael23 wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
I know exactly what you mean by there being so much information available that it’s easy to just hold your head in your hands, numb from the onslaught.

In a case like yours there are only a very few things that will matter for a while[…]

Well said.

Would you recommend a gradual increase in calories? Over what length of time should this increase take place? How should I calculate my needed calories? Is it BWx12?[/quote]

If I were 5,10 and 248 I’d shoot for about 3000 a day and have someone rig a 50,000 volt security device to the scale for a month so I couldn’t use it. I’d stick with that come hell or high water and reevaluate after 4 weeks. The scale can be the deceiving, mocking bane of your life until you get a handle on where you’re going. Would you care if you weighed 248 if you were 6% bodyfat?

I’m on the anabolic diet which is relatively close to T-Dawg. Check the hyooge “my experience on the anabolic diet” thread in supplements and nutrition for lotsa low carb/high fat info which BTW is a miracle worker of almost Biblical magnitude for a guy in your position who is otherwise healthy. In a nutshell I would eat as if I were already close to my target body composition for a while and composition is what matters much more than raw weight. Your body will get the message though it will take several weeks to a few months for it to settle in.

Whoever above told you to join a gym was right on or get enough equipment to do meaningful work at home. This isn’t just because this is a bodybuilding site and we all are going to tell you to workout because that’s what were into. It also isn’t just another way to do this. It is BAR NONE the best way.

Pick just about anything at this point designed for beginners and stick to it while you’re getting your metabolism back in order. If you pay attention and begin to learn to read the signals your body sends you in several months you will start to develop an intuition about where to go next.

Consistency, commitment and PATIENCE are the holy internal trinity during this time. I promise you, you cannot fail unless you get yourself awash in a whole bunch of technical minutia that won’t become even remotely useful until you’re far removed from all these initial obstacles.

The ironic thing about the human body is that everybody’s is generally exactly the same which is the level of information you need to worry about now. Everybody’s is also utterly unique and responsive to an equally unique set of fine tuned details which is the level so many jump to way before they’re ready.

10

Tiribulus is giving some solid advice brop youve gained becsue you wrecked your metabolism eating less then a lil school girl needs to maintain you need to not worry about BF so much as of now and concentrate on nailing a smart intake and fixinf what you have depressed,

Phill