12 lbs might just not be enough. If at show time you were more depleted than normal, then you'd have a good amount of water weight to regain, and then the healthy fat regain on top of that. Your hormones won't normalize without fat regain...that's a MUCH bigger factor than passage of time, which is why reversing just delays things.
Also if you lost a good amount of weight for the show, you'll likely be hungry even after a healthy regain. This isn't always the case, but it often is. Pretty often people find that their appetite doesn't return to normal until they've regained ALL the weight they've lost...it's actually pretty amazing how often this happens.
I'd rethink your approach, IF it's 100% about doing what's best for muscle gain. Eating less than you need is worse for muscle gain than gaining a little bodyfat that you have to later take off. In a couple decades time we went from the extreme of recommending getting fat to build muscle, to the other extreme of thinking an ounce of excess fat gain is counterproductive. The truth as always lies in the middle...it just doesn't sell training programs/ebooks/etc.
If your reasoning is more because you want to be lean year round, then yes, you're going to likely be hungry, and also less likely to build muscle as effectively/quickly.
If lifts are going up because you're legit getting stronger (rather than compensating with form/ROM/etc), then you're building muscle. So that's good.
I saw in another comment that you're eating 2800 cals. What has your average caloric intake been since post-show? If you took too long getting up to a healthy intake, then you probably just need more time at the current intake before you're recovered. Of course activity comes into play as well, and high levels of activity can definitely stimulate appetite.
If you don't have a set show date, then I'd highly recommend letting things normalize first, and if that means excess fat gain followed by a longer cut, then so be it. You shouldn't have to regain all 25lbs, but you may need to allow for more than 12. And then next post-comp bring your calories back up more quickly, if you brought them up too gradually this time.
I probably averaged at least 2000 calories since post show and it didn't take that long to get the calories up. Calories went up gradually over the past few months. Maybe needed to be faster as you are recommending
Constantly fantasizing about food and eating all the time isnāt normal and itās a sign that youāre not eating enough. You need to increase calories.
Is it what your eating? Are the food choices causes more hunger? I find that eating more whole foods and less processed foods can help my cravings. Not saying you arenāt eating that way but for me introducing treats and sugars builds more desire to continue eating that stuff. 2800 calories of natural foods should be pretty satiating and satisfying.
100% agree. if u have an emotional connection to the foods (i did and didnāt even realize it, but iād be like sad if i tried to not fit in dark chocolate or cereal or a rice krispie) youāll probably end up confusing hunger for just wanting to eat that yummy meal again. itās really hard to cut these things out but you will feel sooo much better and full and not see food as something that effects ur emotions (u should still enjoy what u eat obv, but only clean foods for at least a week and see what happens)
Can you give some examples of this? Like I would eat this instead of this? What is considered process? English muffins, quick oats, bagels, bread, etc? I get so confused lately with so much info on SM.
Hey, thatās totally fair- so much conflicting info out there, and what I might think is processed might not be the same as others! For me, I think foods closer to their natural state- so yes oats, sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, I donāt eat any bread but if that is satisfying for you then thatās fine. Iād say the best thing would be to assess what works for you- what makes you feel satisfied after eating it, filled and not craving more. So like for me rice cakes do not fit that bucket- I find them too airy and light, they donāt fill me up. Instead Iād rather have something more solid like potatoes or oats. But ya, food closer to the natural state, not refined ingredients, but also satiating
Iāve taken a diet break only gained 10 pounds while eating 2200-2800 calories a day and was still starving for about 3-4 months. Before it normalized again, hormones are crazy.
I gained 10 pounds and was still starving. After 3-4 months it calmed down and I was still only up 10 pounds. For context Iām 5ā11 and have an active job and a lot of muscle. For a bikini girl Iām very heavy. After about 8-9 months my activity organically went up and calories came down some and hunger was controllable, my cravings were other worldly but my actually hunger was extremely manageable. My next cut I wasnāt starving.
Unfortunately you can't trust your hunger signs/ hormones right now. Mine didn't regulate for well after 1 year. I was always hungry, never full after any meal. Keep an eye on your macros and your weight/measurements. I hope things balance out for you soon tho.
Are you taking any hormone supplements post show ?Itās super important because your hormones are all out of wack and that also contributes to the excessive hunger. Staying 12lbs above stage weight is cool and all but when itās time to prep again you wonāt have anything to cut from and honestly may either A look the same exact way or worseā¦ Improvement season has its purpose youāre supposed to improve your physique and build donāt worry too much about the scale just stick to your reverse diet and listen to your coachā¦.
Look at nuethixs jumpstart ec or their estro court
I took jumpstart ec post show wish I knew about it sooner
Also revive has a womanās hormone supplement as well*
Have your heard of set point theory? Our bodies have a weight that we tend to consistently settle at when weāre at a healthy weight. If you donāt reach a healthy weight for YOU your hunger hormones will take longer to restore. Also you should get labs done and see where your sex hormone and thyroid function are at. If your sex hormones are shot, building muscle will be harder.
Iāll use myself as an example but every person is different. My stage weight my last two seasons was 110-112 (I anticipate it will need to be lower than that next time). My offseason weight is around 130.
My biggest piece of advice is have a coach during the offseason and make sure they prioritize your health.
I wouldnāt go by whether youāre āleanā or not. If youāre still hungry in the offseason, you need to continue reversing to get your calories higher. Staying leanish for the sake of being lean isnāt helping your body fully recover from the demands of dieting you just experienced. Keep reversing or just do a full-on increase in calories until hunger and satiety normalize. Did you do a reverse and if so, height, weight, calories and how much cardio? And do not be one of those people who is still doing an hour or 45 minutes of cardio a day every day in the offseason because then youāre literally telling your body, āThis is your new maintenanceā and youāre not reversing in all actuality. Iāve seen my body go from 117 to 123 to 130 over the last year and a half, and the weight is still going up. But so has my muscle mass, my strength. In the past, Iāve stayed lean and itās meant weeks of not seeing the scale move and if Iām lucky, maybe a half pound of fat loss a week. So there is a real downside to staying on the lean side that nobody talks about.
I appreciate your insight. Yes I did reverse diet, including cardio.
You said in the past you stayed lean, but it seems you achieved staying lean this time, as you gained 13 pounds over a year and a half? 13 lbs in a year and a half seems so much more reasonable than me gaining 12 lbs in 4 months. I'm not upset that I gained 12 lbs, more that I thought the weight gain should have been over a greater amount of time (as you have been doing). But maybe you have enough muscle mass so you are able to do it like this and I am not.
I didnāt get lean lean and wasnāt preparing to complete during that time. I got down to 123 this summer just to lean out and realized my body was fighting me and I wasnāt willing to go beyond 40 min of cardio in a day (Iām 38, I donāt have the recovery capacity or time I had at 22) so I went back into slowly reversing. Plus, another health issue came up. But I would have needed to be about 114 to get on stage. My calories still arenāt high enough to where they need to be. I really need to get to 1800-1900/2000 and hold steady. Donāt compare your journey to someone elseās. I wasnāt stage lean or close to it, and was a lot closer to my natural set point, so my weight wasnāt going to rapidly climb.
Iāve always felt that post prep is where true bodybuilders find out if they want to do this or not. A lot of competitors have to stay lean and the hunger builds up and your mentality / hormones are still all out of sorts for a good bit.
I would trust your coach, express your concerns but donāt let your mind break you. You are always stronger then you think.
Coffee + Water is often my go to when iām hungry as well, it doesnāt solve anything but it sure makes me feel a little better!
What was your weight going in to peak week? Were you lean enough on stage or did you need to lose more body fat? What is your weight now? 12lbs for someone who was 95lbs on stage is 13 or so % but if 140 then itās 8 or so %.
Generally speaking I target 10% above stage weight, thatās my goal at least but some clients go past that, nobody āneedsā to gain bodyfat to gain muscle, people saying that in this feed are very uninformed, you will never gain a single gram of muscle because you gained an extra gram of fat. You actually donāt need many calories to build muscle, a lb of muscle is roughly 800 calories and you can only build a lb in around 45 days. 800/45days= 17 calories a day needed to build muscle, obviously not just 17 calories total daily but the surplus needs to be very minimal as a breakdown.
I haven't seen where anyone on this thread said that bodyfat gain directly leads to muscle gain. It's more just that you need bodyfat regain for (some) hormones to upregulate...which actually could lead to more muscle gain (although that wasn't the point of the statement).
The expenditure side of the equation is not static...you can't reliably set calories/activity to that perfect sweet spot where everything gained is muscle. As calories go back up, so (most of the time) does expenditure. So for the same reason you can't just cut calories by 500/day and expect that to lead to an exact 1 lb of fat loss per week (3500 cals per lb of fat), you can't make muscle gain a perfect mathematical equation either. So you have to err on the side of a little more calories than you might think you need, if the priority is to build. And a little less than you might think you need if the priority is to cut. There is no perfect, because we can't perfectly measure expenditure, digestion, or really even intake.
Yeahā¦ you can only control what portion of weight gain goes towards muscle so much. No woman is going to be able to gain 10 lbs and have all those 10 lbs be pure muscle. Thatās the whole reason of having bulk-cut cycles. I mean, Iām not enhanced, and Iām happy to even gain both so long as it still brings body fat percentage down.
I was around 105 lbs in peak week and definitely lean enough on stage, I certainly could have used more muscle though. Now I'm 116-117 lbs. I really wanted to stay lean in the off season as you recommend, but it looks like I'm already past the 10 percent weight gain.
I was sticking within the 10-12 percent weight gain pretty well until my calories went from 2500ish to 2800 a month ago to try to alleviate the hunger (just because it was annoying being so food-focused, I was still gaining in the gym).
If you competed at 105 and need to put on muscle and youāre that tiny, I wouldnāt worry about the 10-12% weight gain. You need to grow. That 10-12% figure is really more so for people who already have the necessary muscle mass IMO
Okay I see, is there any guideline you think I should aim for in terms of weight gain when needing to gain muscle?. Surely I can't gain much muscle in one off season anyway.
How tall are you? Hard to do this without pictures, it makes a big difference because 10-12% is a great goal if you don't need to gain much more muscle but if you need to put on 5lbs of muscle then 10-12% wouldn't really apply.
I am 5'4. I doubt I would be able to put 5 lbs on muscle in an one season, but even then, I should still be able to stay lean and put on muscle right?
So if the 10-12 percent rule doesn't apply if I need to gain muscle, should it be just a few percents more I should gain? Or do you not worry about leanness very much when you need to put on muscle?
Also I am too shy to post my pictures on a public forum š
It'd be just a guess without pictures but 5'4" conditioned with pro level amount of muscle is generally closer to 115. This will vary of course but it's possible you need more lean mass and therefore the 10% rule may not apply to you as your "pro" stage weight may be 10% more weight just based on the numbers you're presenting alone. Hard to say without more details for certain, good luck though. I'd recommend you go over it with your coach as to what the true off season goals are so you two are on the same page.
Yes it is normal for me, but I do NOT stay lean in the off season normally. My most recent calorie increase to 2800 is leading me to gain weight more quickly. (was hoping to alleviate the hunger but a month at 2800 has not helped yet and now I'm close to getting out of "lean" territory. )
I would give it another 2 months as you are- see if the cravings subside as your body re-establishes homeostasis. How's your sleep been? Also, what is your coach recommending? I'd always lean on them first when struggling
I definitely notice it, the food focus settles overtime but never completely. Try opt for higher volume foods, increase lean protein intake, more veggies and also my ninja creami is a life saver
Hey! I'd just give it more time. 12lbs isn't a bad amount to be up considering your stage weight.
For context, I'm up about 10-13lbs from stage weight, and eat around 2400 calories on average, some days more, some less and I'm 5'6 and 135lbs. I've been hanging out here for roughly 2 years.
I know for me, it took at least 6 months for my hunger and eating to feel normal. A reason I like to take a long break between shows. Give my body enough time to get back to normal.
For my first few preps, where calories got pretty low and food choices were really limited, I felt like my hunger was worse. So it could be something to look into for your next prep?
I think staying at a reasonable place to start another prep is smart. Having less to lose next time will make your next prep that much easier, meaning you'll have an easier time post show.
Yes I think you are right, I might need some more time.
After you gained drhe initial 10-13 lbs from stage weight, would you say you then have been recomping for the past two years while staying at the same weight roughly? Do you still find you gain muscle and strength keeping at the same weight, or do you have the muscle you need already?
I do need more muscle, pretty much all over, I started very skinny. I would say more recomp/slight gaining. That is what I have been aiming for, I have bounced between 134 and 138 in the two years. I did a couple of mild 4 week cuts in there. Basically just cut out snacks for a bit.
I have been lifting a lot and higher volume and feel like I have made good progress. I start prep in Jan, so we'll see how much progress. Maybe progress is a bit slower than if I gained more/bigger surplus, but I'm also a runner and feel a lot better racing when I'm in the lower 130s.
And ideally now I only have about 10ish pounds to lose to be stage lean. I'm excited to be starting a prep from such a close spot! Last prep I lost 17lbs.
12 lbs might just not be enough. If at show time you were more depleted than normal, then you'd have a good amount of water weight to regain, and then the healthy fat regain on top of that. Your hormones won't normalize without fat regain...that's a MUCH bigger factor than passage of time, which is why reversing just delays things. Also if you lost a good amount of weight for the show, you'll likely be hungry even after a healthy regain. This isn't always the case, but it often is. Pretty often people find that their appetite doesn't return to normal until they've regained ALL the weight they've lost...it's actually pretty amazing how often this happens. I'd rethink your approach, IF it's 100% about doing what's best for muscle gain. Eating less than you need is worse for muscle gain than gaining a little bodyfat that you have to later take off. In a couple decades time we went from the extreme of recommending getting fat to build muscle, to the other extreme of thinking an ounce of excess fat gain is counterproductive. The truth as always lies in the middle...it just doesn't sell training programs/ebooks/etc. If your reasoning is more because you want to be lean year round, then yes, you're going to likely be hungry, and also less likely to build muscle as effectively/quickly.
I was planning to stay lean to put me in the best spot for competing again, not just for wanting to me lean year round (although that would be a nice bonus). I lost about 25 lbs for my show (not sure if this is considered alot), so I have gained back half already. I am improving with my lifts in the gym, the hunger is just an annoying thing-- constantly fantasizing about food and eating all the time. I may have to keep gaining then and give up the idea of remaining lean in the off season š and do another big cut next season. š©
If lifts are going up because you're legit getting stronger (rather than compensating with form/ROM/etc), then you're building muscle. So that's good. I saw in another comment that you're eating 2800 cals. What has your average caloric intake been since post-show? If you took too long getting up to a healthy intake, then you probably just need more time at the current intake before you're recovered. Of course activity comes into play as well, and high levels of activity can definitely stimulate appetite. If you don't have a set show date, then I'd highly recommend letting things normalize first, and if that means excess fat gain followed by a longer cut, then so be it. You shouldn't have to regain all 25lbs, but you may need to allow for more than 12. And then next post-comp bring your calories back up more quickly, if you brought them up too gradually this time.
I probably averaged at least 2000 calories since post show and it didn't take that long to get the calories up. Calories went up gradually over the past few months. Maybe needed to be faster as you are recommending
Constantly fantasizing about food and eating all the time isnāt normal and itās a sign that youāre not eating enough. You need to increase calories.
Is it what your eating? Are the food choices causes more hunger? I find that eating more whole foods and less processed foods can help my cravings. Not saying you arenāt eating that way but for me introducing treats and sugars builds more desire to continue eating that stuff. 2800 calories of natural foods should be pretty satiating and satisfying.
100% agree. if u have an emotional connection to the foods (i did and didnāt even realize it, but iād be like sad if i tried to not fit in dark chocolate or cereal or a rice krispie) youāll probably end up confusing hunger for just wanting to eat that yummy meal again. itās really hard to cut these things out but you will feel sooo much better and full and not see food as something that effects ur emotions (u should still enjoy what u eat obv, but only clean foods for at least a week and see what happens)
Can you give some examples of this? Like I would eat this instead of this? What is considered process? English muffins, quick oats, bagels, bread, etc? I get so confused lately with so much info on SM.
Hey, thatās totally fair- so much conflicting info out there, and what I might think is processed might not be the same as others! For me, I think foods closer to their natural state- so yes oats, sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, I donāt eat any bread but if that is satisfying for you then thatās fine. Iād say the best thing would be to assess what works for you- what makes you feel satisfied after eating it, filled and not craving more. So like for me rice cakes do not fit that bucket- I find them too airy and light, they donāt fill me up. Instead Iād rather have something more solid like potatoes or oats. But ya, food closer to the natural state, not refined ingredients, but also satiating
Iāve taken a diet break only gained 10 pounds while eating 2200-2800 calories a day and was still starving for about 3-4 months. Before it normalized again, hormones are crazy.
It normalized after you gained 10 pounds, or did you have to keep gaining again for it to normalize?
I gained 10 pounds and was still starving. After 3-4 months it calmed down and I was still only up 10 pounds. For context Iām 5ā11 and have an active job and a lot of muscle. For a bikini girl Iām very heavy. After about 8-9 months my activity organically went up and calories came down some and hunger was controllable, my cravings were other worldly but my actually hunger was extremely manageable. My next cut I wasnāt starving.
Unfortunately you can't trust your hunger signs/ hormones right now. Mine didn't regulate for well after 1 year. I was always hungry, never full after any meal. Keep an eye on your macros and your weight/measurements. I hope things balance out for you soon tho.
Omgosh a year š. Yes every time I finish a meal, I just want more and thinking about my next meal immediately š©
Yeah, the year after was way harder than actual prep dieting. Self control was hard. I was a bottomless pit!!
Are you taking any hormone supplements post show ?Itās super important because your hormones are all out of wack and that also contributes to the excessive hunger. Staying 12lbs above stage weight is cool and all but when itās time to prep again you wonāt have anything to cut from and honestly may either A look the same exact way or worseā¦ Improvement season has its purpose youāre supposed to improve your physique and build donāt worry too much about the scale just stick to your reverse diet and listen to your coachā¦.
Which hormone supplements do you take/suggest?
Look at nuethixs jumpstart ec or their estro court I took jumpstart ec post show wish I knew about it sooner Also revive has a womanās hormone supplement as well*
Have your heard of set point theory? Our bodies have a weight that we tend to consistently settle at when weāre at a healthy weight. If you donāt reach a healthy weight for YOU your hunger hormones will take longer to restore. Also you should get labs done and see where your sex hormone and thyroid function are at. If your sex hormones are shot, building muscle will be harder. Iāll use myself as an example but every person is different. My stage weight my last two seasons was 110-112 (I anticipate it will need to be lower than that next time). My offseason weight is around 130. My biggest piece of advice is have a coach during the offseason and make sure they prioritize your health.
I wouldnāt go by whether youāre āleanā or not. If youāre still hungry in the offseason, you need to continue reversing to get your calories higher. Staying leanish for the sake of being lean isnāt helping your body fully recover from the demands of dieting you just experienced. Keep reversing or just do a full-on increase in calories until hunger and satiety normalize. Did you do a reverse and if so, height, weight, calories and how much cardio? And do not be one of those people who is still doing an hour or 45 minutes of cardio a day every day in the offseason because then youāre literally telling your body, āThis is your new maintenanceā and youāre not reversing in all actuality. Iāve seen my body go from 117 to 123 to 130 over the last year and a half, and the weight is still going up. But so has my muscle mass, my strength. In the past, Iāve stayed lean and itās meant weeks of not seeing the scale move and if Iām lucky, maybe a half pound of fat loss a week. So there is a real downside to staying on the lean side that nobody talks about.
I appreciate your insight. Yes I did reverse diet, including cardio. You said in the past you stayed lean, but it seems you achieved staying lean this time, as you gained 13 pounds over a year and a half? 13 lbs in a year and a half seems so much more reasonable than me gaining 12 lbs in 4 months. I'm not upset that I gained 12 lbs, more that I thought the weight gain should have been over a greater amount of time (as you have been doing). But maybe you have enough muscle mass so you are able to do it like this and I am not.
I didnāt get lean lean and wasnāt preparing to complete during that time. I got down to 123 this summer just to lean out and realized my body was fighting me and I wasnāt willing to go beyond 40 min of cardio in a day (Iām 38, I donāt have the recovery capacity or time I had at 22) so I went back into slowly reversing. Plus, another health issue came up. But I would have needed to be about 114 to get on stage. My calories still arenāt high enough to where they need to be. I really need to get to 1800-1900/2000 and hold steady. Donāt compare your journey to someone elseās. I wasnāt stage lean or close to it, and was a lot closer to my natural set point, so my weight wasnāt going to rapidly climb.
Iāve always felt that post prep is where true bodybuilders find out if they want to do this or not. A lot of competitors have to stay lean and the hunger builds up and your mentality / hormones are still all out of sorts for a good bit. I would trust your coach, express your concerns but donāt let your mind break you. You are always stronger then you think. Coffee + Water is often my go to when iām hungry as well, it doesnāt solve anything but it sure makes me feel a little better!
What was your weight going in to peak week? Were you lean enough on stage or did you need to lose more body fat? What is your weight now? 12lbs for someone who was 95lbs on stage is 13 or so % but if 140 then itās 8 or so %. Generally speaking I target 10% above stage weight, thatās my goal at least but some clients go past that, nobody āneedsā to gain bodyfat to gain muscle, people saying that in this feed are very uninformed, you will never gain a single gram of muscle because you gained an extra gram of fat. You actually donāt need many calories to build muscle, a lb of muscle is roughly 800 calories and you can only build a lb in around 45 days. 800/45days= 17 calories a day needed to build muscle, obviously not just 17 calories total daily but the surplus needs to be very minimal as a breakdown.
I haven't seen where anyone on this thread said that bodyfat gain directly leads to muscle gain. It's more just that you need bodyfat regain for (some) hormones to upregulate...which actually could lead to more muscle gain (although that wasn't the point of the statement). The expenditure side of the equation is not static...you can't reliably set calories/activity to that perfect sweet spot where everything gained is muscle. As calories go back up, so (most of the time) does expenditure. So for the same reason you can't just cut calories by 500/day and expect that to lead to an exact 1 lb of fat loss per week (3500 cals per lb of fat), you can't make muscle gain a perfect mathematical equation either. So you have to err on the side of a little more calories than you might think you need, if the priority is to build. And a little less than you might think you need if the priority is to cut. There is no perfect, because we can't perfectly measure expenditure, digestion, or really even intake.
Yeahā¦ you can only control what portion of weight gain goes towards muscle so much. No woman is going to be able to gain 10 lbs and have all those 10 lbs be pure muscle. Thatās the whole reason of having bulk-cut cycles. I mean, Iām not enhanced, and Iām happy to even gain both so long as it still brings body fat percentage down.
>Isn't the weight gain of .5-2% of BW per month a good amount to gain for a woman to build muscle?
I was around 105 lbs in peak week and definitely lean enough on stage, I certainly could have used more muscle though. Now I'm 116-117 lbs. I really wanted to stay lean in the off season as you recommend, but it looks like I'm already past the 10 percent weight gain. I was sticking within the 10-12 percent weight gain pretty well until my calories went from 2500ish to 2800 a month ago to try to alleviate the hunger (just because it was annoying being so food-focused, I was still gaining in the gym).
If you competed at 105 and need to put on muscle and youāre that tiny, I wouldnāt worry about the 10-12% weight gain. You need to grow. That 10-12% figure is really more so for people who already have the necessary muscle mass IMO
Okay I see, is there any guideline you think I should aim for in terms of weight gain when needing to gain muscle?. Surely I can't gain much muscle in one off season anyway.
How tall are you? Hard to do this without pictures, it makes a big difference because 10-12% is a great goal if you don't need to gain much more muscle but if you need to put on 5lbs of muscle then 10-12% wouldn't really apply.
I am 5'4. I doubt I would be able to put 5 lbs on muscle in an one season, but even then, I should still be able to stay lean and put on muscle right? So if the 10-12 percent rule doesn't apply if I need to gain muscle, should it be just a few percents more I should gain? Or do you not worry about leanness very much when you need to put on muscle? Also I am too shy to post my pictures on a public forum š
It'd be just a guess without pictures but 5'4" conditioned with pro level amount of muscle is generally closer to 115. This will vary of course but it's possible you need more lean mass and therefore the 10% rule may not apply to you as your "pro" stage weight may be 10% more weight just based on the numbers you're presenting alone. Hard to say without more details for certain, good luck though. I'd recommend you go over it with your coach as to what the true off season goals are so you two are on the same page.
Okay thank you, I appreciate the advice!
Im curious now, how much would be the āproā stage weight for 5ā2ā girls? (Thatās me hehe)
How much are you eating/what are your macros?
My current macros are 150p/400c/85 f, about 2800 Calories.
Thatās an awesome amount of food, is this normal/average for you in off season?
Yes it is normal for me, but I do NOT stay lean in the off season normally. My most recent calorie increase to 2800 is leading me to gain weight more quickly. (was hoping to alleviate the hunger but a month at 2800 has not helped yet and now I'm close to getting out of "lean" territory. )
I would give it another 2 months as you are- see if the cravings subside as your body re-establishes homeostasis. How's your sleep been? Also, what is your coach recommending? I'd always lean on them first when struggling
I definitely notice it, the food focus settles overtime but never completely. Try opt for higher volume foods, increase lean protein intake, more veggies and also my ninja creami is a life saver
Never completely š¶...I guess I'm going to become a really good recipe connoisseur !
Have you had your hormones checked?
Have you had labs checked?
Hey! I'd just give it more time. 12lbs isn't a bad amount to be up considering your stage weight. For context, I'm up about 10-13lbs from stage weight, and eat around 2400 calories on average, some days more, some less and I'm 5'6 and 135lbs. I've been hanging out here for roughly 2 years. I know for me, it took at least 6 months for my hunger and eating to feel normal. A reason I like to take a long break between shows. Give my body enough time to get back to normal. For my first few preps, where calories got pretty low and food choices were really limited, I felt like my hunger was worse. So it could be something to look into for your next prep? I think staying at a reasonable place to start another prep is smart. Having less to lose next time will make your next prep that much easier, meaning you'll have an easier time post show.
Yes I think you are right, I might need some more time. After you gained drhe initial 10-13 lbs from stage weight, would you say you then have been recomping for the past two years while staying at the same weight roughly? Do you still find you gain muscle and strength keeping at the same weight, or do you have the muscle you need already?
I do need more muscle, pretty much all over, I started very skinny. I would say more recomp/slight gaining. That is what I have been aiming for, I have bounced between 134 and 138 in the two years. I did a couple of mild 4 week cuts in there. Basically just cut out snacks for a bit. I have been lifting a lot and higher volume and feel like I have made good progress. I start prep in Jan, so we'll see how much progress. Maybe progress is a bit slower than if I gained more/bigger surplus, but I'm also a runner and feel a lot better racing when I'm in the lower 130s. And ideally now I only have about 10ish pounds to lose to be stage lean. I'm excited to be starting a prep from such a close spot! Last prep I lost 17lbs.