Bad Metabolism or Freak of Nature?

Hello. I’m just curious as to how many of you might share in my situation. For someone of my size, it’s always recommended that I should be eating like a horse, but no matter what, when I eat for what seems like it should be sufficient for growth, I end up getting fatter as well! I don’t know why, but at my current size (6’ tall, 232 lbs., somewhere now around 13-14% bodyfat) I seem to be able to maintain on a mere 2700-2800 calories per day, with minor growth occurring at only in the low 3000’s. Once I go past around 3500 calories per day, I tend to get bloated and become visibly fatter after a few weeks. It’s a tough thing, because in my time with bodybuilding, I’ve tried all diets and all macronutrient ratios, and nothing seems to ever get past this problem. I’m not really looking for suggestions, as I doubt that there is much you can offer that I haven’t tried before, but moreso I’m just looking for info on others who have had the same thing happen to them. I don’t know what the deal is, as it just seems far too low for my calories, but for some reason it’s the way it works. So, if anyone else suffers from this bizarre metabolic freak-out, I’d like to hear about your experiences. Later!

Flax

Get to a doc and have your thyroid function checked. I had a similar problem after I stopped competing and taking cytomel.

Flax,
I am in the same boat, sort of. I am currently 6’1", around 260lbs, roughly 15-18% BF. The only time I ever really notice great growth and fat loss combined is when I am training very intensively, combining a great deal of short-duration, extremely high intensity weight lifting and speed training workouts. I play football, and this I feel I should mention because in these intense workouts I do a multitude of multi-joint exercises like cleans and squats and snatches, and a typical speed training routine will involve no more than 25 minutes of assorted high intensity running/‘aerobic’ exercises. Last summer I was doing this type of program three times a week, for about 70 minutes per wqorkout, maximum. I was also (no sales plug intended) supplementing with methoxy 7 and ZMA, both of which I find make me lose bodyfat and add weight at thte same time, which can really only mean lean mass. I would say you should look into a few of Charles Poliquin’s thoeries, because I found that following the workouts my strength coah gave, which incorporated a lot of these ‘Poliquin Principles’, really helped me. As for the bodybuilding routines, I have always found them very hard to lose fat on, simply because the diets and such advertised by most of these type of programs are simply unrealistic. I think that if you train like a strength athlete, as opposed to a physique athlete, you are doing more to lose fat from the entire body, as well as increasing the amout of muscle thereon.
PEACE, PBD

I am just like that. Once I put on 86 pounds of fat, water and muscle in 10 weeks. I am not kidding. My maintenance is somewhere around yours and I have a very slow metabolism. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is “normal” way of eating for guys like us. We will have to stay forever “in control”, yoyoing up and down, bulking up and cutting. :frowning: And probably we will never look good or as we’d like to look. I simply can’t drop bf% below 11 %. I am 5 11", once I weighed 152 pounds and still had a safety belt around my waist… No, you are not alone… but keep on going!

I am in the same boat as you. THe only way i can get cut is by keto diets and if i go over 2000 calories i get fat. I am 6’ 212 now and i just started dieting again. The good thing though is that i gain and retain muscle really well but i have to constantly monitor what i eat or that’s all she wrote.

It comes and goes in waves. I go 228 (as of 15 min. ago) at 6’3" and about 10% (I’m guessing, you can see 2 abs and a shadowed outline of the rest), but I’ve been cutting for about 9 straight months. I fell off the wagon a few times, but stay at it. Oh, and does anyone else gain ten pounds of fat just by saying “Dorito’s” out loud?

I here ya man.In my case I think it mite have to do with Estrogen levels.When I use Methoxy7 I don’t have so much fat going on when I overfeed witch leads me to beleave that it has a anti-estrogen effect. Have you given a try yet?I only use it when bulking because of the price. When they get the improved version out I’ll be sooping it up.