My stomach is rebelling against me...

Patrick Donnelly · 04-15-2008, 09:14 PM

Really, I'm not all that surprised, but I'd like it to go back to being a peaceful, submissive stomach. I'm currently training 4 days per week, focusing on Oly lifts and gymnastics, with short MetCons on two of the days. I'm enjoying it so far. I'm also trying to gain weight and balance out my XC runner proportions, since bottom-heaviness is not conducive to things like the front lever. I've been doing this for 7 weeks so far.

During weeks 1-5, I went from 178 to 184, by maintaining my (too high) nut intake, and ramping up to adding 6oz of olive oil (~1400 calories) five nights a week by the third week. I can definitely tell that it's already made a difference.

However, recently, I've been finding it very hard to get it all down. My nut intake has dropped by about 50% (not to mention that once delicious almond butter now tastes like Elmer's paste in my mouth), my protein intake has dropped by about 15% (from 20 blocks per day), and the mere thought of drinking more oil makes me want to hurl. Seriously. I've expanded my IF window to about 6 hours, and 7-8 when possible, but by the end of it, I feel like every bite I take is pushing out against the walls of my stomach. This is all while eating less food than in the past few weeks, and seemingly less food than before I even began trying to gain weight (though I am still getting in some olive oil, which probably throws the calories way up there).

How do I convince my body to let me feed it?

NB. This food all meets Paleo criteria, except ice cream once a week, and chocolate once every 3-4 weeks (at the same meal as the ice cream). However, my meat, eggs, etc. are the average type. Nearly all nuts are eaten as butters, since they digest a lot better. There are no signs of foul digestion. The only supplement I take is 1tbsp/day of Carlson's fish oil. I don't want to give up IF, since it is very convenient, and when I wake up in the morning now, I'm honestly awake; I've even been waking up naturally on 7.5 hours of sleep, feeling amazing.

Goodnight, and thanks in advance,
Patrick

Mike ODonnell · 04-15-2008, 10:58 PM

if you want to gain weight and dont want to eat 6000 cal a day....workout less and dump all metcons.

Chris Forbis · 04-16-2008, 04:45 AM

I had similar issues when I did a mass gain cycle. I was supplementing with a coconut milk / whey calorie bomb (1200 cals). After about 6 weeks, my stomach would hurt so bad after drinking it I'd have to lay down for an hour. So I cut it out.

I kept gaining weight, even with the drop from 5200 to 4000 cals a day.

Steve Liberati · 04-16-2008, 05:03 AM

Try taking digestive enzyme pills and a good probiotic. I would also cut back on meat until your compactor starts properly working again.

You drinking enough water?

Garrett Smith · 04-16-2008, 07:07 AM

Find the weight your body is happy at and leave it alone. That's what I do!

John Alston · 04-16-2008, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike ODonnell

dump all metcons.

I second this.

Garrett Smith · 04-16-2008, 10:26 AM

Patrick,
Are you having a lot of carbs (from non-starchy veggies) at your meals?

Dave Van Skike · 04-16-2008, 10:52 AM

If the goal is actually to get bigger, you might attack this from another angle aswell. Oly work as a protracted warmup plus some weighted pullups, bench and overhead pressing in a density format or at least sets of 5's might give you a bigger sink in which to put all those kcal. I can't imagine having to eat all that to gain weight.

Mike ODonnell · 04-16-2008, 11:56 AM

IF is not the issue....but how many calories are you really trying to get in? Like said above...it doesn't take 5000 cal a day to build muscle. That and it's still going to be based on your training volume....so less is more in the case of gaining. Lift big complex movement, lift heavy and then eat. Who cares about your conditioning....you can't increase both maximumally at the same time.

Steven Low · 04-16-2008, 02:17 PM

Yeah, like most have said.. prioritize your goals here: weight gain or metcons.

A heavy dose of 1-3 RM compounds will flood your system with anabolic hormones and also make you much more hungry.

And also, it is possible to do this with upper body exercises only... if you switch to two a days. I did it with rings and it was crazy. 8 workouts per week as I'm sure you remember (my knee was hurt so couldn't do legs really).

Basically, IMO get the frequency up and the heavy weights. When you hit the point of overreaching go another day or two lifting and then take a break. Supercompensation will be extremely good.