Per authors on this site I’ve started taking Surge Recovery 30 mins before workouts (rather than after) and am using Surge Workout Fuel with every gym workout. Atypically, I’ve had trouble losing weight that I put on while on creatine a couple months ago. Creatine mono typically causes me to put on 10-15 lbs which, when I stop taking it, I drop in a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, this time I haven’t even given my high level of activity as I prepare for the football season (8-10 gym/field workouts per week). I’m currently sitting at 230 lbs, which is 15-20 lbs heavier than normal and the only change I’ve made to my diet is taking Surge Recovery before workouts and using Surge Workout Fuel more frequently. Could these products be keeping on my weight?
[quote]btemp wrote:
Per authors on this site I’ve started taking Surge Recovery 30 mins before workouts (rather than after) and am using Surge Workout Fuel with every gym workout. Atypically, I’ve had trouble losing weight that I put on while on creatine a couple months ago. Creatine mono typically causes me to put on 10-15 lbs which, when I stop taking it, I drop in a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, this time I haven’t even given my high level of activity as I prepare for the football season (8-10 gym/field workouts per week). I’m currently sitting at 230 lbs, which is 15-20 lbs heavier than normal and the only change I’ve made to my diet is taking Surge Recovery before workouts and using Surge Workout Fuel more frequently. Could these products be keeping on my weight?[/quote]
What does the rest of your food log look like for typical day?
I don’t know all that much about you so I can’t say what is going on. I can say that it is possible to lose weight while using surge recovery and workout fuel. I currently use two scoops of each with some MAG-10, and creatine and I am dropping some weight. It is not fast, but still not gaining. I also haven’t done any cardio in about 4 months.
9:30 am Surge Recovery Pre-workout
10:00 Lifting w/SWF
12:30 pm Chicken, Spinach, and Quinoa
2:00 protein bar
3:00 More chicken, spinach, and quinoa (I typically double a recipe and either save it as leftovers or it eat it twice in a day) w/multivit
5:30 Football training
8:30 recovery bar (immediately following workout)
9:30 shake (protein, spinach, other healthy stuff)
[quote]btemp wrote:
My food log for a typical day:
9:30 am Surge Recovery Pre-workout
10:00 Lifting w/SWF
12:30 pm Chicken, Spinach, and Quinoa
2:00 protein bar
3:00 More chicken, spinach, and quinoa (I typically double a recipe and either save it as leftovers or it eat it twice in a day) w/multivit
5:30 Football training
8:30 recovery bar (immediately following workout)
9:30 shake (protein, spinach, other healthy stuff)[/quote]
I don’t see how you could do anything but lose weight eating like that. Unless by chicken you mean KFC and spinach is loaded with tons of cheese and butter and by quinoa you mean lots of ice cream. Seriously, it doesn’t look like many calories.
It looks like you are basically substituting breakfast for recovery/workout fuel. I don’t know how much of everything you are eating, but if you are eating the same thing every day it might be worth your while to figure out what you have going in for macros and calories. This way you can adjust if need be. I don’t think that is a lot of calories considering the level of activity you have. If anything I would be worried about not eating enough. Normally I cut extra calories throughout the day and save cutting around the time I workout as a last resort, and will only do that for a short time. I honestly don’t see where you could cut a lot of calories there.
I would also check to see that you are getting enough fat in your diet. Between chicken, spinach, quinoa, recovery, and workout fuel (which is making up the bulk of your calories) you are not getting much fat at all. The protein bars and shake are a ??? so you may be okay, but still something you should check.
[quote]btemp wrote:
My food log for a typical day:
9:30 am Surge Recovery Pre-workout
10:00 Lifting w/SWF
12:30 pm Chicken, Spinach, and Quinoa
2:00 protein bar
3:00 More chicken, spinach, and quinoa (I typically double a recipe and either save it as leftovers or it eat it twice in a day) w/multivit
5:30 Football training
8:30 recovery bar (immediately following workout)
9:30 shake (protein, spinach, other healthy stuff)[/quote]
Just shooting from the hip here, but I would try 3 more things:
Get up earlier and add a protein pulse with an easily digested breakfast at 8 a.m.
Take SWF during football training. (Drink 1/2 as you begin, 1/2 during)
Add Extra Virgin Coconut oil to each main meal, 1 tsp.
Yeah this looks like a solid diet for losing weight, especially considering your high activity level. The only thing I can imagine is that every weekend you are eating burgers and killing a 12 pack. If that’s not the case, I am not quite sure why you can’t drop weight. I highly doubt that surge workout fuel and recovery are keeping weight on. This is my typical diet when dropping weight:
Even though there are a high level of carbs in that diet, it’s about 2200 calories (180 g protein, 220 g carbs) and I always drop weight only training once a day.
The only other thing I can think of is that I’ll occasionally have a bowl of ice cream. But even then, its not in the evening and I’m by nature an ectomorph.
Seeing as SWF/Recovery doesn’t seem to have anything to do with weight gain I’m wondering if it perhaps has something to with gluten sensitivities I developed about a year ago. To try and isolate the Surge Recovery, I’m going to start taking it after workouts instead of before, and only using it after lower body workouts to see how that goes. Anything anyone could temporarily recommend instead of Surge Recovery pre-workout, or am I better off doing nothing?
Something else that occurred to me, is that I have been using Animal PM before bed after Defranco recommended it. I’ve cut that as well, but if anyone has ha any experience with it, or knows if it may play a role, let’s hear it.
One more thing that I thought of, have you been dieting for a long time? I went on a very long diet last year and totally killed my metabolism. I got to the point where I was eating 1200 calories and having a hard time losing weight.
If you have dieted for a long time (ie 4-5 months) I would recommend trying to fix your metabolism by eating normally for a month or two, then try hitting the diet again. You may put on a couple of pounds but in the long run it’s worth it because when you start dieting again you’ll be able to drop 1-2 lbs per week on a 2000 calorie / day diet.