Amazing transformation, great recovery from the slump. Sorry if I missed this, but you're aiming for 2k calories, any particular fat/protein/carb breakdown?

Thanks!

I'm done with the 2K phase as I'm now at target weight. I enjoyed (thoroughly) a 2,500 kcal day today, in fact.

When I was sticking with 2,000 kcal/day on average, I sought to get at least 1 g protein per LBM, 85 g carb post workout, and 1.25 g fat from fish oil caps. The daily averages over the past two months were: 1,981 kcal, 52.4 g fat (23%), 174 g carb (35%) and 202 g protein (42%).

Thanks. Yes, I competed in some small meets back in the day, but never anything huge. It was fun. Louie Simmons was at one, which was cool.

I was never a big DLer or squatter, unfortunately. My PR in the DL is in the mid-500s, while my squat was just lower-400s. I'm holding onto hope that I can manage a new squat PR.

Your detailing during the transformation is quite impressive. I wish I had more clients as committed.

I'd recommend you don't make such a drastic caloric change though. Adding 25% more calories will cause fat storage initially. You can, however, train your metabolism to change. You may consider going up to 2,100 calories for 1-2 weeks and gradually increasing from there.

I weigh 206lb and maintain my body composition with 3,700kcal/day, and it's not difficult to calculate. Trial and error is ok, but you may as well get the answer if it's available.

3700 kcals is really high, so I have to assume you're cardiotarding a loooot. Basically, you're the outlier here. Using 14 or 15 kcals/lbs is a good baseline for most of the male population who at least lift 3/week.

I do taekwondo and MMA maybe 3-4 times/week for 45 minute classes and I lift twice a week, I wouldn't call that a lot by any stretch, nor would I call myself an outlier. I think 14-15kcal/lbs is too general to be accurate at all. It doesn't take into account gender/body fat composition/diet type, all three of which significantly impact metabolism.

My story is a little similar, but not nearly as impressive as yours. I was pretty strong 15 years ago, good at benching, decent at DLs and was relatively bad at squats. I had shoulder surgery, then got fat & lazy & hurt all over for a long time. A little less than 2 years ago I started working out again, lost weight, took care of a lot of nagging aches & pains with mobility & soft tissue work, then got fairly strong. My bench is not quite back to where it was, my DL is a little better, and my squat is a lot better than ever.

I havent seen you say much about soft tissue or mobility work. Have you ever had ART or Graston done? How about deep tissue massage? Do you roll with a foam roller, pvc pipe or lacrosse ball? All that stuff helped me go from being a borderline cripple to where I am now.

Apparently you don't know the meaning of 'general' and 'outlier'. It's probably best not to discuss this further in someone's log though.

...anyway. My point is that if TE wants to figure out exactly how many calories to eat, "general" guidelines aren't going to be useful, especially with the amount of detail he's already recorded. I don't see your patronization of my calling out your "general" suggestion as being helpful to the thread. I was simply giving an educated opinion based on science.

lol, you really believe it's possible to calculate exactly how many cals would be his maintenance? If so, congrats - you're the first in the world to develop such a powerful tool. And besides, you must have missed this post from TE:

Which is probably the best approach possible.

It would also be rather fun to see you quantify how diet types affect metabolism. Please including detailed specifications on how to differentiate between different diet types and how to account for compliance issues.

Thanks.

Recording everything has been helpful to me for compliance and for evaluating what works and what does not. I often plot out the entire day in advance, which I found helps a lot as well.

Yesterday's 2,500 kcal day was a carb-up, to be followed by a lower-carb day tomorrow, but I was hoping to get to 2,500 on average in a week or two. However, I do think you are correct here, so I'll take it a bit slower. Thanks.

I used to be around that as well. I suspect my current number will be lower, but I'll ramp up gradually and find the sweet spot.

That's an impressive story. Congrats on the great comeback!

I rehabbed after all three incidents, which was very helpful. Aside from a lacrosse ball, rehab included all you listed here.

About the only thing I found to be an issue after that was tight hip flexors that caused a slight anterior pelvic tilt. I corrected that with stretching. One stretch requires getting into a lunge position and rotating the pelvis forward. Another requires laying on one's back, knees bent and feet on the floor, and rotating the pelvis forward while keeping the glutes relaxed (to keep the abs doing much of the work). Both were great aids. I recommend these stretches to everyone -- even those with no apparent pelvic tilt.

I have full mobility all around, so I'm grateful for that. Thanks. The remaining issue are what they are, but I believe continued training will help mitigate them.

4/27/2011:

Bench press: 45 X 10, 135 X 10, 185 X 10, 215 X 6, 215 X 7, 215 X 8, 225 X 2*

* partial left pec tear on third rep

I am not familiar with pec tears. Is that a "oh ****, I need surgery" injury or a "put some ice on it, will be fine in a couple days" injury.

Rough day today. It figures this would happen within only 72 hours of hitting my target weight. OTOH, at least it held up until I hit my target weight.

On the plus side, I felt it coming so I at least stopped it from being worse. Instead of surgery, I now just have to take it a bit easy for a couple of weeks. Scary knowing that the difference between the two outcomes was mere seconds.

Aside from perhaps some occasional 135 lb reps, I'm done with benching. I'm looking forward to close-grip benching, overhead presses, and other such training.