Thanks Melissa, that means a lot to me.
In the past 2 years I've come to realize that
- my body wants to do more (training volume/intensity) than it is actually capable of recovering from , which can result in either overeating or illness
- if I want to create a deficit, I've got to do it by means of diet and cut back on volume
I've cut back on volume quite a bit in order to get to my desired (very modest) bf% (26%). By October I finally had reached my goal, but apparently still did too much as I got shingles. So, cut back more in Nov & Dec and even skipped all cardio in order to recover. But.. alas, bf% is creeping up a bit.
As I wasn't planning on starting a cut again before March, I thought it would be enough to increase volume a bit more again and use the 'G-Flux'. Seems that all it does, is make me overeat.
Sigh.. so eating at maintenance is really an art on its' own. And not surprising really: back in 2005 and part of 2006 when I was spinning my wheels, I'd restrict calories, but train too much and then overeat so much that I'd end at maintenance after all.
Right now I'm on a tiny unintended bulk. It *is* disheartening a bit though that not working out at all, but just being ill burns 2300 kcal on average, while being healthy and working out EOD burns just around 2000-2100 kcal, viz. 200kcal less.
Yet, I'm still happy at where I am. Contrary to some here, I'm really happy with being 'normal' and for the first time in my life, not feel (so) fat. But strong & generally healthy. Healthy to some extent, as Julie and I have a lot in common. I scored a 'yes' on most of the points in the following table for 'adrenal' type.
Matrix of Signs and Symptoms of low adrenal and thyroid function
In case Julie watches this thread , I'd urge her to take a look.
It's really interesting as I was almost thinking I was hypo-thyroid and since I still had low T3 levels back in April while eating at maintenance (approx. 2200kcal) , I was put on Cytomel after some delay because of a cardiovascular problem that had to be sorted out first. I'm now on 25mcg of Cytomel (T3)/day and the amazing effect has been that rather than feeling 'hyper' I've started feeling very calm and peaceful. Didn't change anything either about my maintenance levels. Considering that I feel so much more peaceful, this isn't really surprising me. It's just that the fuel I'm using doesn't 'cost' as much energy (adrenaline!) anymore.