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Always putting on too much fat


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Hey all, long time no post.

 

I've always struggled with gaining weight, and if I do gain weight it primarily comes on as fat, and only VERY slowly as muscle. I'm really struggling to find a balance where gain weight without putting on lots and lots of belly fat.

 

My diet currently is around 2800 calories at an approximate 50/25/25 split. Not totally clean eating, but certainly on the good side of healthy. Very rarely have any processed foods and usually home cooked food. I do enjoy a nice hoppy ale at the weekend, which I'm sure doesn't help with the body fat.

 

My workout routine is 4 days a week Wendler 531 using the triumvirate accessory model. I've been doing this for around 8 months now and my numbers are still going up, but I'm definitely starting to plateau.

 

Currently weighing in around 78kg at approx 20% body fat. 5'11" and male, 38 years old.

 

Basically, in an ideal world I'd like to lessen my body fat percentage but still be able to continue the strength gains I'm achieving with the Wendler programme, but I'm really struggling and my gut is just getting more and more pronounced.

 

- Should I adjust my diet?

- Should I add some cardio in to my workouts?

- Is it worth getting a testosterone check? I've always struggled to put on muscle mass, at 38 I still can't grow a beard and have no chest hair. I might be over thinking this part, but it does seem that I fit most of the symptoms of this. In the UK, can I just go to my GP to ask about this?

 

Any thoughts or comments would be hugely appreciated.

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Hi Andi, hows it going?

 

Nice ratios, just the calories, id recommend very slowly descending your calories. I dont believe in "cardio", its an extremely ineffective way for lose fat, given that a single pound of fat can fuel the body for up to 10-12 continuous hours of steady state activity.

Yes, ask your doctor for a test reading, I had it check a year or so ago, think we talked about it before?

 

On a side note, look into Dr Goldbergs research on hypertrophy from the university of london, he proved (in mammals), even in the absence of insulin, sleep, and even on a starvation diet, if muscle is properly stimulated, it WILL grow, its a biological necessity. So, even with lower test levels, if your preforming a great amount of muscular work in a given unit of time...the body WILL response with an adapted response.

 

Hope this helps

Rob

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Yes, we might have talked about test readings before. It's been so long since I posted here and I can't remember. It's always been a worry of mine, but I very rarely go to the GP for anything, so it's something I've just been putting off for absolutely years now!

 

I'll try dropping a couple of hundred calories per day from my diet, to see if that helps anything. A general day is as follows:

 

Breakfast shake:

40g oats

2 bananas

30g peanut butter

30g protein

5g creatine

5g L glutamine

 

Mid morning:

75g oats

200ml almond mild

25g peanut butter

 

post workout:

200ml orange juice

30g protein

5g creatine

5g l glutamine

 

lunch:

something homemade, e.g. lentil and spinach soup, and a slice of bread, or perhaps chilli and rice

 

mid afternoon:

green shake:

1 banana

80g mixed frozen fruit

30g protein

5g creatine

5g l glutamine

4g chlorella

4g spirulina

 

dinner:

something similar to lunch (lunch is usually the same as the previous days dinner)

 

 

It might be time to start a new journal on here.

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Cheers buddy. It does seem to be quiet here now, but hopefully enough posts to keep it worthwhile.

 

I've been enjoying the programme I've been doing for the last 6 months, but I'm starting to get a little bored of it now, so I've decided to do a slight varient of it. Namely this one:

https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/531-beach-body-challenge

 

Ignore the name, it's got barely anything to do with a beach body. It's got a lot more volume than my previous workout, which should hopefully help. I'm also getting super bored of the assistance work I was doing, so again I'm hoping that changing it up to this will do.

 

Journal starts Monday.

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