Quote:
Originally Posted by PROfb03
I see what you are saying about shortchanging something. I am just able to start running again (knee problems) so I will be changing up the cardio routine to allow for it. I will drop some of the cycling and the HIIT for running (little bit at first). I am also starting to build up my caloric intake a little each week. Averaged around 2500 last week and going a little farther this week, around 2600. do you think I should jump up more than that at a time? I already feel stuffed all day.
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Yes go slow BUT it won't feel good to you. In order to get the food intake up you have to essentially force feed yourself. I was able to raise my calories by about 150kcals a week pretty comfortably. I would do a bi-monthly gain of 300kcals. The first days of this added food were horrible for me. I felt so fat and sluggish. By the end of the second week I started to get hungry again as my metabolism rose to meet the calories that I was taking in. I am 133lbs right now at 5,4" and I eat 2400 kcals a day just to maintain. I don't do quite as much cardio as you. In Janurary I was eating 1400 kcals a day and doing at least as much cardio as you.
You really should do a mini-bulk for a month or two just to give your mind a bend about this whole thing. If you make it your intent to gain and try to do it by eating whole, clean food (not Burger King crap) you will find it deadly hard to gain or "get fat" as you fear. In fact if you can gain 10 lbs in 2 months of lean mass, you will be a hero. Don't worry about looking fat with 10 more pounds on your frame. It isn't going to happen. Your fear is making you enjoy all this cardio because it allows you to get small instead of fat. Your fear is telling you that your frame is good. Now teach your fear the truth about eating and about what a healthy weight is.
I am in this process myself and have just come off my first bulk ever. I used to run myself into the ground with cardio and tell myself that I liked it. I was skinny and skinny fat and thought that was okay. Was there something wrong with me? Yes. Was it something I could repair? Yes. It is hard but very possible. Today I have more body weight but my body looks the best that it ever has. And I didn't have to get all big and muscular to do it.
Now I am finished my bulk and have a whole new relationship with food, I begin a healthy and clean cut to get to a level of lean that isn't skinny fat.