Hey guys,
I need one of the veterans here to answer a question. I’ve been hitting the gym for almost 2 years now, 3 to 4 times a week. Recently, I lost almost 6 pounds in 2 weeks, for no goddamn reason. Very few things changed during that time period, other than a slight increase in workload and my allergies (autumn makes my nose run like crazy).
For a while, I suspected parasites were the cause, since I’ve been living abroad for a while and have been eating food of questionable quality…however, when I went to get myself checked out, they were able to rule out parasites. In fact, the only abnormality was high levels of eosinophils, which apparently are triggered by allergies.
Since then, I’ve gained the weight back, but only by eating like a motherfucker. And I mean like an entire deep dish pizza with chicken and vegetables on the side for a single meal. Now before anyone rips on my diet, I gotta tell you that before this happened, my diet was almost perfectly clean. Yams, brown rice, steamed chicken, asparagus.
I also take a spoonful of creatine every day. But since that shit digests so fucking slowly, I couldn’t manage to cram in more than 3000 calories of it per day (I’m not a huge guy…5’7" and only 140), which seemed to be enough to maintain body weight.
Now, by my estimation, I intake almost 4000 calories on off days, and on work out days, over 5000. I’ve replaced half the complex carbs from before with simple carbs, like bread and noodles, and more than doubled my fat intake. Protein intake all-round has stayed the same, roughly 130-140 grams a day.
It took me two weeks on this kind of diet to gain back my 6 pounds (surprisingly little fat gain, comparatively). Now I’m stuck again at 140 and haven’t been able to top that, even on my looser and dirtier diet.
Now, regarding my workout, I was afraid I was overtraining, so I made a change last week; still waiting to see how it pans out. I used to do full body workouts on a 4/3/2 cycle, and now I’ve decided to conserve my energy expenditure and switch to a split routine with back, chest, legs rotating every other day.
I also do some swimming, although going to quit that for a couple weeks and see how that shit works out. Other sources of energy expenditure include work, sports, and sex, in that order. I did notice that I’d been playing more tennis and badminton during that two week period where I lost weight.
Dunno if something like that would have such a drastic effect though.
I also smoke bud everyday and especially before workouts, although that has never affected my ability to bulk before.
So…any ideas, guys?