I’d like to share this just to put it out there, something i found out and i think some other people might benefit or like to explain what might be happening.
For the longest time i was paranoid about eating, fast metabolism person so i felt i needed to pound back food or i would waste away. i ate at least 6 times a day for years and went from 110 pounds at the same height to 190 (Pretty short in stature). Anyways i was always about 11% BF even though i would try dieting by eating smaller meals, it worked, but i never got all that lean (Maybe 8%). Now in Highshool i was a competitive rower, was tested at 6%BF so i know what that looks like.
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease last year and fumbled around with it for a little bit. FInally i decided to go on a restrictive diet (Specific carbohydrate diet) to try to reduce my symptoms. This diet demands that you pretty much premake everything, including yogurt! My Daily diet is now only 2 meals because i am a busy guy. Eggs and a 600 calorie yogurt smoothie in the morning, and about 1.5lbs of meat and another 600 calorie smoothie at night. I eat a few cooked vegetables and can no longer tolerate any supplements. That is eating 2x per day, which should have caused my muscles to shrink during the day and atrophy away (I thought). What ended up happening is me being LEANER than 6%BF and stronger than ever. I honestly don’t fully get it but i am not complaining.
I cant be sure my BF but i’ve got veins in my lower abs, shoulders, arms, lower legs. Places i never had any definition before. I dont pretend to be a good bodybuilder or anything but it is pretty amazing. Yes i did lose quite a bit of weight i am about 166 now, small i know but still a long way from 110lbs i used to weigh! My Strength is actually higher than ever, and i dont feel that i really lost very much muscle if any.
This info is kind of null and void because of my condition, its not exactly anabolic to have crohns haha. I was wondering if maybe someone else had a similar experience or if i should just chalk it up to the flare-ups (Periods of not eating burning off my BF).
BTW i am much better now and my weight is creeping back up slowly, Numbers are improving and i am not seeing a difference in my leanness. I dont mean do go against the grain but being forced to eat infrequently has done more for me than eating so the usual 6-7x per day. A side note i eat very few carbs (A little honey and 2-3 fruits a day)
Glad to hear that you’ve found a way to eat “around” the disease. Crohn’s can be miserable, but you seem to have a very positive attitude and that’ll go a long way towards how you handle it. My aunt has Crohn’s and it’s really messed her diet up, but I think part of that is that she doesn’t have the discipline you have to find what she can / can’t eat and stick to i
When I was diagnosed with IC, the first thing I had to learn was to take control of the situation instead of letting the disease control me. Sounds like you’ve done the same. t.
I think it was CT who mentioned that eating every couple of hours is not necessarily required and that some studies have suggested it is the total amount of food consumed in the day that is the important variable in terms of body comp.
Yah the new thing these days is that is it’s actually more effective to just have a couple huge meals a day instead of many smaller ones, mostly because it allows the levels of amino acids in your blood to drop low and then get a huge spike producing a large anabolic response. I would guess you are experiencing something like this, although your meals aren’t exactly “huge”
