"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall." - Vince Lombardi

Friday, December 7, 2007

Day 88 - Transformer: Hard Gainer in Disguise

I hit a new milestone today, but not necessarily one I was looking for. Today I hit a new low on the scale, 133.4 lbs. Of course, I thought I was now on a strengthening and muscle gain program. I guess I've just fallen into the classic "but I don't want to get fat again" mode. Even though I was trying to eat more, I just haven't been able to get myself to really put myself in a surplus. I mean, I kind of pigged out a bit last weekend. After doing so, I sort of had that fat bloated and gross feeling, and backed off a bit. Maybe that is what I'm going to have to do to gain some muscle back? I mean, I did see my weight go up a bit this week only to have it rocket back down the past couple days.

Maybe, even after those years of packing on the fat, I'm a hard-gainer in disguise? Back when I was lifting heavy before, I don't think I was ever really able to put muscle on before. I might get a bit more definition, but my weight would go down. Well, at least I know a bit more about this stuff now. I only had my bf tested once before up until this past year (I was about 16% back when I was 18). I've done some reading that puts reasonable muscle gains in the range of 0.25-0.5 lbs a week (I'm not a genetic freak so I'm going to aim for the average). That's lean muscle tissue. With that muscle tissue comes about an extra 0.25-0.5 lbs of glycogen and water. So a gain of about 0.5-1 lb of lean mass should be possible in a week with little fat gain.

Ok, well, I know I'm really good at pigging out, but can I pig out on good clean food? Maybe. We'll see. Maybe I just need a good binge fest to spike my muscle growth to go with my weight training. Hmmm, I'm just about to head out to my gf's Christmas work party w/ plenty of free food provided. Will I live to tell the tale? Tune in tomorrow and find out if Raiden managed to gain muscle, or gain fat, or through the miracle of the Hard-Gainer in Disguise, actually lose muscle and fat after pigging out!

Until next time, Transformers, transform and roll out! (apologies to Optimus Prime and Hasbro)

Day 88

4 comments:

Sammy said...

Hi raiden... just would like to share my 2 cents worth.

I was pretty much in your situation awhile ago. Even the same body size and shape you are in now. That was after I lost 20kg. I thought I needed some muscle and started to eat alot more (clean foods even)

What I wanna say is, just take it slow. Muscle will come slowly but don't screw your diet by eating overly much because it's easy to lose what you've gained and fall into another trap.

Adam Waters said...

Hi Raiden, I'm finding this myself. Its too easy too fall into the trap of overeating for muscle gain as Sammy said. But if you continue to eat clean and more that your BMR the muscle will come.
BTW, your back pic looks great!
Adam

Otter Christy said...

Transformer quotes! My brother would love you. I just think it's funny transformation journey transformer quote. I liked your gun show, too. I've gotta try on some of my fat pants. I had no idea those photos were obligatory. lol How was the party? Andrew went to a Christmas party and we haven't seen him since. I'm getting a little wary of those parties. lol :)

Raiden said...

Sammy:
Thanks for the heads up. I need those reminders that the muscle will come slowly. The initial changes I made didn't happen overnight, and this new focus won't make changes overnight either.

Adam:
Thanks for the heads up as well. I was starting to head down the road of supercompensating (overeating), but thanks for the help of keeping me steady.

Christy:
I am definitely of the Transformer generation. They were my life when I was 5 years old. The movie re-sparked a lot of good memories for me. I think I came up with the blog post title simply because of the adverts for the movie dvd on tv. I just had the theme song in my head. I thought it was pretty clever myself, not to be overly boastful.

The fat pants pics aren't obligatory, but I laugh everytime I see the ads on tv for this and that exercise machine and diet pill. I kind of want to make a spoof with my pics.

"I lost 18 lbs in 12 weeks by eating regular food from the grocery store and exercising regularly. Now, for the first time ever on tv, you can too! Call now and join the millions of people who have benefitted from eating natural real foods and exercise regularly!"

Yes, there is good reason to be wary of these office Christmas parties. I faded, but did not disappear completely! Now, to get through the rest of the holiday festivites, that is the real challenge!