[benbodybuilding]

Likely hood is you will require 500 to 1000kcals more so do as the others have mentioned and increase as needed.

Thanks Ryan. Bodyweight is now trending down. It initially went up with fatigue. Would you recommend adding 500 cals in one go on work days? Or make a smaller adjustment initially? [/quote]

I would take it up by 300kls and see how it sits [/quote]
Thank you

[benbodybuilding]

Likely hood is you will require 500 to 1000kcals more so do as the others have mentioned and increase as needed.

Thanks Ryan. Bodyweight is now trending down. It initially went up with fatigue. Would you recommend adding 500 cals in one go on work days? Or make a smaller adjustment initially?

[benbodybuilding]

Thank you everyone. That makes sense. I will see how the new role goes and assess from there!

[benbodybuilding]

Thank you Phoebe and Kamara. I’ll definitely keep that in mind and make adjustments accordingly

[benbodybuilding]

I like it a lot , still do quads in posterior and lower the back work volume to 1 set of each instead

Thank you Jordan. I’ll get those changes made

[benbodybuilding]

Thanks everyone, was down weight again today so have upped 200 cals in carbs, during a bulk when do ye usually increase protein/fat rather than carbs? I’m aware I’ve a long way yet in terms of increasing carbs first

Hey Kieran,

Protein will naturally go up slightly as food increases, due to trace protein from other food sources.As long as you have your protein set for your bodyweight already, I wouldn’t be looking to add any additional protein from direct sources, as it can potentially affect digestion.

Fats could come up a touch, as 50g is still quite low in my opinion. If it were me I would slowly work up to somewhere in the range of 60g-70g fat (more just down to preference and digestion and to help with hormone function).

I would then keep prioritising carbs when making increases. If you are struggling to get food down at peak bodyweight, that’s when you may look to add additional fat. Again, this will be down to digestion, as it’s person dependent.

Aim to gain no more than 1% of your bodyweight per month (for you, roughly 1.8lb per month). This rate of gain may be slightly higher initially.

If bodyweight stalls/decreases consistently for at least a week or two, add 200cal (roughly 50 carb).

If rate of gain is too slow for a period of time, add roughly 100cal (roughly 25 carb).

I hope this helps.

[benbodybuilding]

Thank everyone for your feedback. Definitely looking to pull back steps gradually, as it also takes up a lot of time! Hopefully gym performance should improve too

[benbodybuilding]

At this stage your body will be in a very responsive state. As you start to reintroduce food, you will likely see a drop fatigue. The increase in food can in turn increase your output, e.g. increase in gym performance, you might walk slightly quicker due to increase in energy etc. If you are seeing a decline in bodyweight, I’d be keen to add an additional 200 cals in the form of carbs and see how that goes. You can then assess again when bodyweight stalls.

Take your time with food changes as you will want to minimise body fat gain and keep appetite in a good spot.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by  benbodybuilding.

[benbodybuilding]

Depends if you feel like it’s impacting your recovery. A small amount of LISS cardio on rest days can usually aid with recovery, so long as your lifestyle isn’t super active.

Only you know how you feel though. Maybe drop the cardio on your upper day and keep some LISS cardio in on rest days.

Thank you Clare! I’ve currently got steps at 17k daily however I would like to bring these down. It initially got that high coming out of my dieting phase due to having a new job that required it. Now I don’t have that demand at work. I’m struggling to let go and bring the steps down without ‘getting fat’.

[benbodybuilding]

Thank you everyone. It’s interesting to see what everyone’s opinion is. I’ll use this data going forward. My protein seems to have been too high.

[benbodybuilding]

Thank you everyone. All really helpful

[benbodybuilding]

Have you changed anything around the time this started?

The only change I can note really swapping stir fry veg for a Mediterranean veg mix and adding some extra sauce. I have been highly stressed the last month or two, so not sure if that plays a role.

What would you recommend as a guide for amounts of fruit and veg?

[benbodybuilding]

First questions are

How long has the issue been going on?

When it started has you changed anything just prior to this ?

We’re is your fluid intake day to day.

Could be several things causing the issue but most direct way to finding out initially is seeing if you can remember what you changed that caused the issue

It’s been going on maybe a month or two. I can’t remember exaclty when unfortunately.

Fluid is always set at 6ltrs per day.

I will try to look back at my Google sheets to see what may have caused it. Thank you.

[benbodybuilding]

Hello mate. Clare said it perfectly, but as an exemple, my adherence is 100% on meal timing, and all the other factors, except my sleep which is hard to “force” if it makes sense.

I am not a super stressed person but I like controlling things, u see. If things don’t happen as they should, then my stress is high.

It can be mental, organizational or just contest related.

Even while having everything 100% controlled except sleeping hours; my body can change drastically just with sleep and stress.

I can have -2kg on the scale in 2h with the same meals, same water, same routine, but just one stress episode and a bad night and I start burning everything.

It’s barely the opposite for me, barely take water retention, but stress/fatigue on me is like a diuretic, dry and flat.

So the biggest picture is to observe as other said.

If for exemple digestion is messed up; some people get water retention.

When thet get super mentally exhausted from work, they can get water retention.

So first of all, I would hit 100% all the factors you can control and observe if the weight is going down after. If not, do a blood work to see if anything else is happening. We never know

Thank you Allison. That’s really helpful and a good insight to how stress affects people differently. I do tend to hold water pretty easily. Trying to get a blood test booked to dig a little deeper and see if anything else is going on.

[benbodybuilding]

Thank you everyone. It’s really interesting to hear everyone’s thoughts and all makes sense