Be careful what you wish for.
I have been trying to break this 230-pound barrier for quite a while and I have finally added in enough calories to get it done.
Yes, I am getting my balls busted about writing an article about not focusing on the scale weight while ... focusing on my scale weight. To justify my position:
If I were gaining strength or visually continuing to get leaner while holding a stable weight, that would be one thing. However, I have been a bit stagnant, lately, while continuing to push calories higher. It has been frustrating because I have made several diet changes -- some of which have been very aggressive -- only to continue to maintain the same weight and relatively the same strength level. Of course, if I am maintaining the same strength level (and same scale weight), it is quite clear to me that I was not growing.
What did it take to break the 230-pound mark?
4 diet changes to my regular diet.
2 added high-carb days on top of a regular, weekly Skipload day.
The added high-carb days I detailed in my last coach log and the added calories were HUGE. They pretty much HAD to be because all diet changes to that point had yielded almost no change, at all.
To see that mark finally get hit is one thing, but to HOLD at that weight (or over that weight) for the week, was finally a pretty good feeling. When I say, "pretty good feeling," I mean it was a sense of accomplishment in that I was beginning to think that no matter what I did to my diet, I might not be gaining any more weight, at all.
More importantly, I also have progressed in strength. Adding scale weight means nothing if you aren't progressing in strength (within bodybuilding rep ranges) and I made this very clear in my article about not focusing too much on scale weight.
This increase in scale weight has allowed me to remain lean while only having to deal with extra distention throughout the day, strictly from the increased volume in food -- primarily on my high-carb days.
The plan moving forward?? Not to change a damn thing. Basically, it's working and when something is working, I'm not that guy who fucks around and changes things. I let it work as long as my body allows it work. I can only hope that the progress will continue, now that I have found the caloric intake that allows for the added growth and increase in strength and scale weight.
Distention is a bitch but it's a necessary evil. I either deal with it or I accept that I will not grow and progress without it. It does help that the high-carb days are on non-training days because I then don't have to contend with the distention while training. I also wake up in the morning ravenous, now, and I have zero distention prior to eating the first meal. Of course, the first meal goes down quite easy. The second meal isn't too bad but the other meals that follow, for the rest of the day, I am choking down and dreading having to eat.
I sometimes get to that last meal on my high-carb day and don't want to eat it. However, after simply reminding myself how hard I have worked to break this plateau, the motivation to choke the meal down is enough to get it done.
I have 4 months left of the off season to grow as much as I can before starting a slow and drawn out cutting phase for 2020. However, there is a small chance that if I can continue growing over the next 4 months, I MIGHT be inclined to continue building as long as my body wants to build and grow. I am damn sure not going to stop a productive growth phase if my body still wants to continue to grow. Thing is, I have 4 months to figure that out. I may just keep going into 2020 to add size until or unless my body stagnates, again.
Breaking the 230-mark and being this lean, at this weight, means that I am going to struggle to get into the light-heavies. It also means than when I do, I should be inside out and in incredible condition. It also means that if I can push past the 230-pound mark it will be less likely that I will be able to get into the light-heavies without giving up muscle tissue.
It also means that I will likely have less of a struggle to continue to gain scale weight because for some reason, these 10-pound increments are the biggest obstacles. It's much like wanting to bench press 315 pounds and after struggling to break that mark, you then will quite easily hit 235 and then 238 only to find yourself struggling again to hit the 240 mark.
