Crap, my waist is getting bigger...please help!

[rubinglen]

I also failed to mention that i probably average 1 glass of red wine a day. and a few hundred calories of dark chocolate.

[rubinglen]

melody... Rippetoe is pretty specific in his recommendation to chug lots of milk. i do put oils on my vegies. it looks like 3 cups of cashews are about 2200 calories...yikes!

[rumblefish]

I'm in the same boat as you. My waist has been up to 45". It's 44" this morning. I pretty much did GOMAD for several months even though I'm not in the demographic for that. The result is where I am today, my fault. As someone pointed out some of the waist size increase can be attributed to muscle mass. Not just Abbs but your back as well. I cut calories really low and it seemed like it was going ok but it was short lived. Now, I'm trying to just keep my protein near 1g per lb of body weight, cut all dairy except cottage cheese and cream in my coffee, cut alcohol (tear), and not worry too much about the calories. I just started this so I can't recommend it.

I think Melody's advice is pretty good

[rumblefish]

melody... Rippetoe is pretty specific in his recommendation to chug lots of milk.

If you rail thin, not if you have a 40" waist.

[Patrick]

I think you would do well to read this article by Rippetoe: A Clarification. Melody is quite right... here's a quote from the article:

On the other hand, if you’re a little fluffy around the belly, you have obviously already created the conditions necessary for growth. You’ll start out stronger than the skinny guy, and strength gains have the potential to come easier for you if you eat correctly because your body hasn’t got the problems with growing that skinny guys do. You still eat a lot, but you don’t drink the milk and you cut your carb intake if you don’t see bodyfat levels drop during these first couple of weeks.

[rubinglen]

Thanks patrick for that link...great read and explained a lot. I will definitely cut back on the carbs and go for a more paleo (a la mark sisson) type diet. On a positive note I looked at the serving size info on my jar of nuts and figured out that I am not doing 3 cups a day....more like 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup.

[ColoWayno]

3 cups of nuts is A LOT of nuts. Stop chugging milk and eating nuts, and add whey protein into your diet. put fats on your veggies to keep your calories up and skip the nighttime fruit.

Problem solved.

[barnone]

reduce fat, in this case nuts, and replace them with clean carbs for the morning and pwo meals. The carbs will have less calories (rice and baked potato) than fats, will burn off quicker, and will give you energy. Dont over do it and youll be fine. Keep protein high of course.

[shaddix]

It doesn't sound like you have a good grasp on how much you're eating. My advice is to count your calories for a while.

[SQUAT_316]

melody... Rippetoe is pretty specific in his recommendation to chug lots of milk. i do put oils on my vegies. it looks like 3 cups of cashews are about 2200 calories...yikes!

Correct. But only if the lifter is looking to GAIN WEIGHT.