Stop me if this is a dumb question…
The basic information: 23 yo, 5’9" 144 lbs.(for a limited time only)
I’m just finishing up a long string of 60 - 70 hour work weeks. Needless to say my “diet” hasn’t really existed for the past two months. Whatever I could eat, whenever I could eat it. I figure it’s safe to speculate that everything (metabolism, insulin sensitivity, ect) are just out of wack. After Saturday, it’s back to just full time work so that I can focus on getting back to where I need to be so that I can get back to it. I’m going to enter a PLing meet at some point this year and I would really like to be able to hang with the guys in the 160 lbs level.
What I was wondering was, and I think I saw something about this somewhere, how is the best way to “reset” everything (metabolism, ect) so that I can make the quickest recovery? Or is it just as simple as Start eating the right thing and the body with fix itself just as quick.
Generally a rest is used in the context of after serious dieting.
If you’ve just been eating “whatever” you probably haven’t been wasting away, probably. There’s nothing to really reset.
What, precisely, makes you feel like anything about you is out of whack?
What started this whole thought process in the first place was my weight. I’ve been 148 lbs for as long as I can remember. When I weighted myself two days ago (morning time, shortly after I got up, as always) I was 144. I’m skinny to begin with and didn’t have 4 pounds to loose. I’ve always been able to see at least some of my obliques and the separation between, what I’m assuming is, my lower abdominal and leg muscles. I’ve lost some of that and gotten softer looking.
I tried to look at it from a “What’s different internally” angle. I figured since these kind of changes are happening now, Something is obviously different with the way my body is using what I put into it. I wasn’t sure if it was just the fact that I have been eating less and the wrong food at the wrong time (macaroni before bed many times).
a 4lb fluctuation really doesn’t mean shit. It’s average to fluctuate + or - 5 lbs just from water weight. Sounds like you need to pack on some muscle, though. I would strongly suggest stocking up on whole food, i.e. chicken, tuna, Tilapia, turkey (for protein), Oatmeal, greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, banana’s, other fruit (carbs), almonds, olive oil, walnuts (fats). Toss some whole milk in there too. Go for at least 1g protein per pound of body weight, and you’ll be on the right track.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with your metabolism, you just haven’t been giving your body the right nutrients. I would feel like shit too if I ate “whatever” and worked 60-70 hours a week =p.
One of the great things about working that much is the paychecks that roll in from it. I’ve been filling my freezer with ground beef, chicken, and whatever fish looks good. Now that the crazyness of working two jobs is over, I’m going to go back to what I was doing and shoot for about 1.5g protein per pound and I actually love the gallon of milk a day thing. I love milk and have no problem drinking.
Now that I think about it, I think that I just got nervous because, before I knew better, I was on like 5 different newsletters of fitness gurus and that’s where I got all my information from. I remember reading about “cleanse diets” and how eating poorly can crash your metabolism. Basically I need to just start thinking less, eating more, and moving weight.
Thanks for the answers though guys. Appreciate it.
Has the extra work been particularly stressful?
Not mentally stressful. More so physically. I went from being on my feet about 23 hours a week, most shifts were 5-7 hours, to being on my feet 60-70 hour weeks, usually working consecutive 13 hour days with a total of about an hour, sometimes two, of sitting down. By the end of the second week, my legs felt like I just tried to figure out my 1RM for squat and deadlift on the same day. It really sucked. But then they figured something out and don’t hurt at all anymore. Defiantly tighter but barley ever sore. I’m actually really curious to see how they are going to respond to the shift back and with 3x the calories. My guess is that they are either going to do really well, or I might have a lot of stretching/warmup work to do because they are tighter.
Yeah bro, if you’re skinny and got skinnier, don’t reset anything, just eat. And I think working on stretching/mobility for your legs sounds like a really good idea.
I started the Stronglifts 5x5 today and I can feel how tight they are. My left leg was actually tight enough to mess with my bench press. I could lay back with my legs out straight but as soon as I tried to set my feet and arch my back, the side of my left leg just tensed right up to the point of having to stand back up it hurt so much. I think I’m gonna try and walk then stretch a few times each week.