Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any helpful suggestions for me, my situation is I'm male, 20yrs old, currently about 155lbs, 5ft9in. I used to weigh around 180lbs (being an extreme endo my weight is very erratic! also I had/have rounded features - wide hips, rounded stomach, large thighs). Being unhappy with my bodyweight and more specifically, bodyshape, I underwent a 2/3month cutting phase during which I lost around 20-25lbs through strict dieting (11-1500cals) and occasional cardio.

My weight then settled around 150-154, and I was pleased with this, however, I felt that I was becoming a little TOO lightweight. And although I lost a lot of weight, I'm not too sure how much of it was actually fat, and how much was muscle. Post-cut I was definitely slightly leaner and tighter in all the right places, but I now have a lack of muscle size/definition.

Now I want to re-gain some of the lost mass, through exercise and dieting, and I want it to be muscle rather than fat. However, my diet is posing a huge problem for me as I can put on weight by just looking at food!.. My metabolism is THAT slow. I'm not a compulsive junk-food eater, I lost all those compulsions a long time ago. I recently started a bulking diet, it was very clean, contained a lot of protein and very little fat, yet the simple number of calories (around 2k) was enough to bring back a hint of a pouchy stomach. I stopped the bulking diet about a week in as I was apprehensive of how far the stomach fat would progress.

If I can tweak my routine somehow to allow for a bulking phase, I'd like to continue weights for a year or so, primarily as an experimental exercise - I enjoy exploring what happens to my body when I try new things!!

I have a fairly well-rounded weights program set-up and I am confident on that front, however I have a few, mainly diet-related questions I hope someone can answer for me!!..

1) What (approximately) would be an ideal weight for me to stop at, once I've bulked - I'm 5.9, small frame, currently 155ish lb. I don't want to be popping out of my shirt or anything - just want to have a medium-sized upper body and a trim mid-section.

2) How on earth do I tweak my diet to stop the fat piling on?!, esp to my midsection (I am aware of the dangers of complex carbs n certain sugars late in the evening and I try to only have them post workout - I think the problem is just that my body metabolises food so slowly??)

3) What foods would be best during my bulking phase, considering I have a requirement of the absolute minimum amount of fat with high protein. I have down chicken breast, nuts, protein shakes (2 a day),peanut butter - but I feel I need more to chose from.. I have a very basic pallette so I won't be eating anything fancy, I just would like more basic meal-options!.. And again, fats, at least, saturated fats are an absolute no-no for me!..

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/hints/criticisms!..

Kal

I will speak in general terms, as I dont know heaps about this subject, nor have you provided enough information, but, as you may know...

When you severely restrict your consumption of calories for an extended period of time there is a risk that you will lower your metabolism to a point where the body is able to continue functioning with the lower food intake you are providing.

While this will lead to fat/muscle (weight) loss, as you have seen, once you are done loosing the weight your body is extremely vulnerable to putting the weight back on, especially if you attempt to bulk.

Metabolism repair is a micro-discipline of the larger fitness world that I am becoming very familiar with, and one that you will need to research. Some of its strategies are:

** Frequency of meals, 6-7 meals per day, about 3 hrs apart
** Eat substantial breakfast and post-workout meals
** High-intensity cardio (don't use excessive durations)
** Weight training
** Maintain a small caloric deficit (this is hard because, BMR formulas may give you incorrect numbers if your metabolism is severely slowed)

Its essentially a framework that, ideally, will allow you to slowly bring your calories up by bringing your metabolism up with it. Member the leip is someone to talk to in this area