post diet advice

[Nathan]

I finished my diet about a week ago and have gained back about 5 lbs. of water I think. Also, I've noticed that I've smoothed out a bit and gained back about 0.5 inches on my waist. Will gaining back water do that or have I maybe overestimated my maintenance calories? I have gone back to bulking (eating only clean foods), but I started out by first eating at maintenace for a few days, slowly introducing back carbs (I was low carb dieting) for about 3-4 days. What do you guys think?

 

[Nathan]

BUMP. Doesn't anyone have any experience with this? I'd really appreciate some feedback.

 

[keiko]

How high is your fat intake? If you're introducing carbs, you'll prob. need to cut back on the fat, I would think.
The carbs will make you retain water--are you still drinking the same ocean-size amount of water?

 

[Nathan]

Yeah, I'm still drinking as much water. I did cut back on the fat intake. Mostly though, to get my calories back up I just reintroduced the carbs (I upped protein a bit for about 3 days so I was eating at maintenance and reintroduced the carbs over that period). After that reintroducing carb phase, I began eating at about 400cal above maintenance again to gain more mass. I was eating at about 2100-2200cal/day and losing about 1.5-2lbs./week doing cardio 4 times/week. From a few tests on the web, my maintenance seems to be about 2700cal/day (I weigh 156 a week after my diet ended and was at about 8%bf or a little less even). So, now I'm eating about 3100cal/day. What do you think? I'm still trying to get to better understand how water retention works and how water can effect the way your body looks. Thanks.

 

[JB3]

Nathan,

I've had similar experiences. I've never been on a hard-core, low carb diet (ketogenic or not). The lowest I've ever taken carbs, over any period of time on a consistant basis, was 150-200g. I have no energy on anything less.

When returning to higher carbs (normal, 300-400g) I gained a noticable amount of weight and smoothness in the first week.
A) Make sure you keep drinking lots of water.
Since I was eating more food, I was more full, and drank less water. This, undoubtably, caused a lot of retention. I was bloated as hell, as a matter of fact. Returning to drinking water helped a lot.
B) Keep in mind that anything more than a one-pound gain over a week's time is water (assuming no AS use, etc). Even if you DID over-estimated your maintenance calories, there's no way you'd gain 5 pounds in one week.

What can you do? Make sure to drink plenty of water. That's pretty much it. Carbs tend to bloat me a little no matter what I do. Diuretics such as caffeine seem to help a little, but that can't be maintained over any length of time. When you're bulking, I guess you just have to accept a more-smooth look.

Any other p.o.v.?

[This message has been edited by JB3 (edited April 24, 2001).]

 

[BigAndy69]

Nathan, 0.5 inch is not that big a deal. However, I would rather wait a couple of weeks before starting a bulking diet. 3100 cals that's around 20cals per lb of bodyweight. Some ppl will disagree but I think its too much. Again I have never really had trouble gainning mass. If you have a fast metabolism that could be ok, but I have a 165lb friend with a very fast metabolism and I put him on 18-19 cals per lb of bodyweight and he is gainning nicely. I would advise you to decrease your caloric intake to 2960. If after a couple of weeks, you don't see results add a 150 cals or so.

Again that's just my opinion. What is your macronutrient breakdown?

 

[Nathan]

Thanks guys. I've taken my calories down to about 2900/day. I figure better safe than sorry (just my opinion). I've also started loading creatine just to try and drive myself absolutely nuts with the smooth look. My God, I'm gaining like 10 lbs. in 11 days or something. It's almost traumatizing psychologically to go from being able to see my abs with very little to grab anywhere to feeling bloated with a very noticeably smooth look, especially right before summer too. Whatever. I figure that getting to your ideal body takes years and to try and do it all at once is counterproductive. I'm just taking comfort in the fact that the smooth look is mostly due to water and hopefully in a year or so I'll be closer to where I want to be. It takes time. Who am I talking to? I'm not crazy I swear.
BigAndy, my macronutrient breakdown is roughly 40p/40c/20f, with probably a bit more carbs than that actually, but that's pretty close.

 

[keiko]

Well, you could try a chick trick and try dandelion root tea. You will piss like a racehorse, too. It's not a long-term solution, but might make you feel better for a little while, so you're not glum about all your hard work.