Weight gain/diet advice needed!!
 

Hi im new to the forum and have a question that relates to my kickboxing training and thought you guys would be ideal to ask:

Im used to fighting around 69kg, perfect for my division of under 70kg, im around 5'10' i think. Over the past few months i have REALLY cleaned up my diet, im very disciplined with saturated fats and carbs after lunch, but eat very well with fruit, vegies, brown rice, yoghurt, eggs, meat etc.

I train very hard. Skipping/bagwork in mornings throughout the weekdays, then a 6km run every weekday then kyokushin or kickboxing class every weekday. Training 3 times a day, and also do situps throughout the day as well, light riding on sat/sundays. I have really leaned up and 'ripped' up a bit, and im REALLY happy with my fitness and endurance levels..my diet gives me good energy levels too.

HOWEVER, i jumped on the scales and to my horror im at 64kg!!! This is far too light and i want to get back up in weight. Can i gain weight whilst maintaing my fitness/endurance and 'lean' muscle? Suggestions please...fighting in two months

Can i simply add weights and more protein or will i have to back off the cardio? I realise i shouldve cycled my regime but too late now...

any help greatly appreciated
grant

You've cleaned up your diet for months, of course you'll drop a bit of weight. If anything you dropped mainly fat and not much muscle at all. Hit the weights and keep your protein intake up, you should be able to get close to 2 or 3 kilos in 2 months from a lean bulk. You can back off cardio a bit, but with a fight on the horizon your conditioning is important.

ok i will do that. go for heavy lifting? I was thinking of replacing two of the runs atleast and putting in 3 weights sessions?
Ive done a little research and read that its suggested i should eat 2-3grams per ounce of my body weight...correct?

2 grams of protein per lb of body weight. Which would be a totally different number in kg.

If Dave comes on whatever he says may trump this but if you feel good endurance wise, strengthwise etc and you think you could perform with that then I would go ahead and add in more carbs in a controlled way also. Protein is not steroids :). But it could be that just adding back in the carbs, if you do it carefully, will get your muscles holding more gycogen and thus more water (in the muscles not "bloating") and so get your weight back up pretty quickly. Obviously you don't want to put on fat so you'll have to put the carbs in the right place. Do you not do any weight work?

2 g protein / lb of body weight = ~ 4.4g protein / kg body weight

i have carsb in my diet, i eat corn and other vegies in the morning and also brown rice. also get bits and pieces elsewhere, i cut carbs and felt my energy go dwon so i put them back in.
so going off the formula i would need around 286grams or protein a day!? I definately wouldnt have been getting that.
Im adding in weights 3 times a week and hit the gym today.
This may be a ridiculous question however: If i load up on protein rich meals a day, could i still put on fat? Ie. can unused protein/calories still be stored as fat? For instance if i ate a lot more whey powder and protein, does your body just expel the stuff it doesnt need or will it still store it as fat eventually?
Also, what is the max amount of protein your body can take in in one meal?

thanks heaps for the help so far

It ultimately comes down to calories in and calories out so anything can eventually be stored as fat.

I wouldn't worry too much about how much protein you can take in at once. Just worry about getting it all in. Several small frequent meals are usually better than a few big ones.

We have an MMA forum, btw. This thread might do better there. Or the nutrition forum. If you'd like I can move the thread to either on but leave a redirect here.

All info is pretty much on. Make sure that it is 1-2 grams of protein per LEAN pound of body mass. I like to think of it like this, you want to feed the muscle not the fat and that is why I like to stay within the lean body mass.

Like Eric said about carbs, you need to add little amounts at the right time. Diet is about consistency and with combat sports the more consistent you are the easier it is to adjust and find the problem areas.
Could you give us a break down, in calories, pro., carbs., and fat, of what your diet may look like. It will give us a better idea of where you might want to adjust.
For me this is what I've read to do and done to put on a little more weight:
Add some carbs During your workouts. Try an extra 20-25 grams per workout session and see what happens in a week. Then if you are still not gaining the weight you might want to add about 5 grams of health fat to each meal that is not a workout meal.
But first I would need to see what your diet looks like now in order to adjust properly.

As for working out. Look at some of the MMA workouts listed in that section. You can add 2 or 3 heavy lifting workouts but just make sure you are going to get rest and don't over train. Also, I have a journal for Strength Endurance that utilized heavy lifting at a cardio pace. This could help in gaining some muscle and still maintaining your endurance.

How do you go about figuring out your Lean body mass ?

i think it would just be your bf% taken out of your weight...and what's left is lean body mass.

yup. I use a clapper and some of the formulas on line.

I use this site for the calculations.
http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

I use the Jackson/Pollock 7 or 3 spot formula, just to stay consistent.

thanks guys taking the direction on board..
havent got much time before work however i will quickly post up the diet i WAS on and i what i have ADDED in in red in order to get some more weight on. I will also have to look at getting more regular sleep to aid recovery.

Sit ups
Minimum 3 fruits in a smoothie, a little juice, 3 eggs, honey
Oats with a little honey
Skipping/Bag Work - 45 mins
Protein Shake with water here?

1 cup Brown rice & 95 Tuna

6km Run (should i lessen the distance?) 2 or 3 days a week this will be swapped for heavy weights training
Protein Shake with skim milk


Natural low fat yoghurt with handful almonds/roasted peanuts/sultanas

Small piece of lean lamb

Training: Kickboxing/karate

Dinner: 4 vegies & Chicken no skin

I can add in extra servings of tuna and eggs throughout the day if need be?

Anyway let me know what you think sorry not much time to go through everything...

I just read over your last post. I didn't pay attention to the name of the thread. My first impression was that it's a cutting diet. Even with the other stuff added in. Have you thought about going to FitDay.com? I've been keeping track of things the past few weeks there. Enter your food and quantity. It will give you a caloric value and macro nutrient breakdown. I don't know if you're even getting in 2500 calories. The two shakes are fine, but get more protein from whole foods. You will be surprised when you go to the site and see how little you're actually taking in. My lunch today was about as much as everything you listed.

Here is an example...my lunch today. And I'm only getting 4 meals a day. It should be 5-6.
2 cans tuna
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 cup whole wheat pasta
1/4 cup spinach
2 slices multi grain bread
1/2 chicken breast
2 cups 2% milk

Granted, I was hungry. But I only hit 3300 calories on the day. With a macro nutrient breakdown of 50/30/20. (pro/car/fat) And you're probably burning more calories than me because of the cardio that you're doing.

I don't think the distance of the run has so much to do with it as the time. Back in the day I was doing my 5k runs in under 20 minutes. Just try to keep the runs between 20-30 minutes.

Have to agree with Ross, you are no where near what you need to be to gain weight. You need to be more specific with what you post, like the example Ross gave. Once you get that down you'll be able to really work on the diet.