Nahuel’s BodyBlog

My scale is acting under the weather. Literally.

You see, I live in an apartment with centralized heating, so the temperature inside goes from too hot to slightly cold, depending on the day and the mood of the super. I’ve recently noticed that my scale, which is in the bathroom, needs to be adjusted when the temperature fluctuates. For instance, if I tune it to have the dial on "0" in a hot day, it will keep like that as far as the temperature keeps high inside the apartment. However, if the temperature drops some 10-15 degrees, then the dial will position itself in -2 lbs. And the opposite is also true, if I calibrate it to 0 in a cold day, it will move to +2 lbs as soon as the room temperature rises. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that it is a cheap spring scale, the temperature affecting the elastic properties of the springs. Additionally, if I step in on the scale several consecutive times, I will get readings that are some 2 pounds apart each other (which I solve by taking as valid the intermediate value; i.e. if the scale reads between 146 and 144 lbs. I will consider the correct weight being 145lbs). And, independently from scale issues, my own body weight can variate about 3 or 4 pounds along the day (I tend to be the lightest when I wake up in the morning, and the heviest right after diner, which happens around 10-11 PM for me -so, guess at what time do I record my weight every week?)

I only can hope that the reading when I weight-in is not affected by 2 pounds by the temperature differences, but it might not be the case. I guess that the only way to be sure about any gain is to wait a few weeks and observe changes that are more significative… or get a new, more accurate scale. On the meanwhile, I’m very envious when people here reports gains of 0.2 lbs on a given day.

11 days and 2 pounds after my last entry, I feel it is time for an update. Well, about two weeks ago I ran out of supplements, what has required me to be even more careful when planning my meals. As it coincided with my planned transition of 2 lbs per week gains to 1 lb per week gains, I didn’t worried too much. I proved myself I can still gain weight without supplements (that is, about 1 pound per week). However, I’m starting to get concerned about the nutritional balance of my diet. Having an adequate PWO meal has  proven to be quite complicated without my whey/malto/dextrose shakes. Also, with supplements, it was easy to add protein and carb grams to my intake without adding fat. Now, most protein sources come with extra fat, and I’m affraid it will change my gains from mostly muscle to mostly fat. Not that I aim to gain 100% muscle and no fat during a bulk, but I want to keep my BF as low as possible, so I can keep most of the muscle when the time for a cut comes (Wow, I NEVER had to go into a -voluntary- cut, I wonder how well will I do). I am still progressing on the weights and volume lifted, so it has to mean I’m adding quality mass to some extent. However, I also feel that I have been packing more fat in this last two weeks than in the previous month. As soon as I get a little extra cash, I’ll get my supplements and hopefully it will fine-tune my growing.

On another line of things, one of the guys that most inspired me on this website has signed off. I hope he will do well. I still have some people around who added good muscle on their late 30’s, and other people that is doing it right now, so my support network has been hurt but not destroyed.

Well, as unimpressive as my goal might sound to most big guys around, I got back to 143lbs today, 4 days before the deadline. I’m again just 3 pounds below my all-time max (which I hit on March 2007). So it is time to set up a new short term goal, and this time that means getting into an unknown realm (for me, he he). I think it is a good idea to limit my weight gains to a maximum of 1.5 lbs each week, as a way to minimize fat gains, and I foresee some weeks gaining 1 pound or less. So let’s say I’ll be shooting for an average of slightly more than 1 pound each week. My new goal is then being 150lbs by April 1.

After one week of my bodyweight apparently resilient to any change, I weighted in 141lbs last ninght. Sure that the uncheating thing didn’t help much, but my stomach was claiming for a break on the weekend. Anyway, my first official uncheating meant going from my usual 2800 calories to maybe 2300. I think that the key for me will be having more meals (as opposed to bigger meals), and for that I need to be ultra-organized, eating every 2 or 2.5 hours.

Now I only need to gain 2 more pounds during next week so to achieve my current short-term goal of 143lbs on Feb. 21st. After that, I’ll set my next goal in gaining 10 more pounds in the following tree months or so, but I’ll figure out the exact deadlines on Fef. 22nd.

Cheating meals seem to be a big issue for people trying to build a better phisyque. Hundreds of times I’ve read and heard guys talking about their cheating meals, being it pizza, burgers, ice cream or other stuff in those lines. I’ve also noticed that for guys who are successful with their diet/working out program, cheating every now and then seems to work as a help for not getting bored of dieting and sending it to the hell altogether.

Having been a skinny guy all my life, eating more than what I should has never been a problem for me. On the contrary, I ofthen find myself force-feeding in order to achieve the number of calories or grams of protein I’m supposed to eat everyday. As a result, I  tend to feel stuffed most of the time.Sometimes I’m concerned that being so focused on my eating times and nutrient balance might lead to an eating dissorder. For that reason, I decided to give myself a day of what I will call "uncheating", that is, a day in which I will only eat when I’m hungry and as much as I feel I want to have, regardless of calories or protein intake. The only two rules are:

1) I cannot uncheat more than once per week
2) I will only uncheat when I honestly feel that force-feeding myself will make me sick. If not such a thing happens in a week, I will no uncheat that week. Uncheating days are not cummulative.

That said, today was my first official uncheating day, and I’m now ready to resume my usual diet tomorrow.

Well, it has been more than 2 months since my last entry here. I’ve been quite stressed, as much as a PhD student in the later stages of his dissertation can possibly be. About ten days ago I decided that going back to the gym couldn’t wait a single extra day, and then here I am. I had a first week of all-body workouts, and took it easy with the weights. This week I started with the same split I had before starting my break (you can check my workout tracker for details). This time I didn’t get the newbies cramps, I guess 2 months off were not enough as to trash completely all my previous gains. Surprising but encouraging.