Macro Counting for Strength Gain: 1 Month On

It’s been over a month since I went back to basics and started counting my macro’s again (read all about the beginning of my journey here) and as promised, here’s a little wee update for you all…

I lost fat and gained muscle

Before going into my 4 week appointment the first words I muttered to Neil were ‘I think I’ve put on fat’ but to my surprise, the results were far better than I expected. Overall, I managed to lose 0.8kg of fat and gain 1.5kg of lean muscle mass, which, for 4 weeks, is pretty dang good. If my maths is correct, that’s just under a pound of muscle gain a week (0.8lbs).

As for the Biosig numbers, the only measurements that increased were my quads and triceps. My stomach remained the same. I annoyingly gain and maintain fat quite easily on my triceps (bingo wings) so this was a number I was hoping to see decrease however, in relation to my hormones, the number may not be budging because my body isn’t recovering enough from my training.

Over the course of 4 weeks, my training has increased slightly in the fact that I’ve been training twice a day for 3-4 days a week out of my usual 6 day a week training. At the moment I’m currently training twice a day on Monday-Thursday and focusing on strength in the mornings and cardio in the evenings.  The other days, (Friday and Saturday will be once a day, with Saturday often being a long 2 hour session).

Now, training twice a day isn’t necessary a bad thing, however, it’s a good idea to create a pattern for this type of training. Neil suggested that I should have a split for 3 weeks. Week 1 will consist of training twice two days in a row, followed by one day where I’ll be training only once. This will then repeat until Sunday’s rest day. Week 2 will consist of a reverse where I’ll be training only once a day for two days, followed by two training sessions in one day and repeat until rest day. Finally, week 3 will then consist of single day sessions for the entire week. In English…

Week 1

Monday – Twice a day training

Tuesday – Twice a day training

Wednesday – Once a day training

Thursday – Twice a day training

Friday – Twice a day training

Saturday – Once a day training

Sunday – Rest day

Week 2

Monday – Once a day training

Tuesday – Once a day training

Wednesday – Twice a day training

Thursday – Once a day training

Friday – Once a day training

Saturday – Twice a day training

Sunday – Rest day

Followed by week 3 which is a full week of one day sessions.

Bloating be gone

In my first blog post, Back to Basics: Macro Counting for Strength Gain, I mentioned how a few weeks/months before, I was experiencing a lot of bloating. This was anything from looking 5 months pregnant, to feeling extremely uncomfortable. Don’t get me wrong, I could wake up in the morning with a flat stomach and looking pretty lean, but after a second of inhaling a bread crumb, I’d bloat like a balloon. Lovely jubbly. 

However, after a month of tracking my macros, my bloating has pretty much gone. Unless I’ve been an absolute pig and ate an entire large Domino’s to myself. Believe me, I’m capable of a large. How has it disappeared? Simply because I’m no longer under eating and putting my body under a lot of stress and fatigue. FYI, you 100% can cause your stomach to bloat from not consuming enough calories. Been there, done that. 

As well as that, I’ve also eliminated typical bloating foods such as beans, dairy and high volumes of fruit and veg. So far, it seems to be working a treat.

I’m sleeping like a baby again

Finally. After weeks of waking up at 1am and every single hour onwards, my sleeping has improved massively. Minus this week’s 100 degree heat which has led to a few sleepless nights. Overall, I’m getting my average 7-8 hours of beauty sleep every night and because of this, my stress has gone down, my body has been feeling less fatigued and I’m no longer crashing at 4pm. Do I have an increase of calorie intake to thank for this? Absolutely! You see, if you’re constantly under-eating and over exercising on top of that, then your liver won’t have the glycogen stores it needs to keep your blood sugar stable and in turn, your body will release stress hormones to promote gluconeogenesis which will try to process new glucose for you. If this elevates too much, then you can bet ya bottom dollar that you’ll be waking up in the middle of the night.

My strength has increased

As I said earlier, in 4 weeks I’ve gained 1.5kg and with that, I’ve managed to hit more than 5 PB’s. Each workout feels good and unless I’m riddled with DOM’s, I’m longer feeling exhausted after every workout.

My hormones are more balanced

The one thing I love and have found extremely interesting about Biosig is learning why your body stores fat in particular places. For example, 5 weeks ago I learnt that I was holding more than the average amount of fat on my chest (supra-illiac) with a reading of 18.9mm. This was down to stress from under eating, lack of sleep and overworking my body. However, in 4 weeks of upping my calories and it’s amazing benefits, my chest fat now sits at 13.6mm which ultimately means that my stress hormone has started to balanced itself out, along with all my other hormones too. Hopefully, over the next 4 weeks, I’ll see the fat decrease on my tricep which will be the last indicator of stress.

The dreaded sugar craving has buggered off

Well, when Mother Nature’s not calling, that is. Beforehand,  I craved everything sugary. Ice-cream, sweet yoghurts, granola (oh granola why you so addictive) and even carbohydrates. You see, when you under eat you’re automatically putting a lot of stress and pressure on your body and when you combine that with a lack of sleep (guilty) then this can interfere with your hormone balance and can cause intense sugar cravings as a result of leptin and insulin being out of balance. However, now my calories have increased my hormones and stress levels have balanced out and as a result, my sugar craving has ultimately gone. Bitch, bye bye. 

My motivation has increased

“Goals are only plans unless you take consistent action to make them happen”. One major key for me in life when it comes to motivation is always having a goal. Without a goal, you have nothing to work for. Without having something to work for, your motivation to work harder is inconsistent. My goal being to increase my calories in order to gain strength and improve my diet overall. Having my Biosig every four months not only keeps me on track, but it allows me to push harder. After all, if you’re investing in yourself and you health, what’s the point in not seeing it till the end? I also found that at the end of my 4 week Biosig check up, my motivation to push harder increased slightly more.

“How are you finding counting your macros this time round?”

If I’m honest, this time round (I also counted them a year or so ago) has been a bit of a breeze. I don’t struggle at all to hit my macros as I’m a bit of a creature of habit. I’ve also taken well to my macro split of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat. Some days I struggle to fit in my proteins but I find that if I start the day with a high protein/low carb breakfast then that often does the trick. Other than that, my mind set with numbers is still healthy, I’ll have an ice-cream or pizza if I fancy it and if I screw up a day, then I’ll get back on it the next day.

Macro counting isn’t for everyone, but right now, it’s not only helping my body but it’s improving my health and physical progress too. So on that note, I’ll stick to it a little bit longer and as always, I’ll keep you all updated!

For more information about my macro split and why I started counting, then check out this post here. 

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