Fat Gain During Cruise?

thicketman · Post by **thicketman** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:20 pm

Anybody else experience this?

I made great progress during Feast, but hit the point of overtraining and moved into the cruise phase. During the first week of Cruise, I screwed up using the Cruise spreadsheet by entering my BF% as .19 instead of 19.

I caught the error after a week and after consuming several hundred more calories per day I obviously put on some fat (gained 1/2" in my waist). That's what I get for being stupid. But, after adjusting my calories properly, my waist has continued to grow. Tonight (Wednesday) my waist is 1 whole inch larger than last Friday morning when I last measured. Of course, I'm not fasted, so it will likely only be 1/2" larger tomorrow morning when I am, but the disturbing fact is that I'm gaining fat...

Has anybody else experienced this? Is this my body pushing back against me?

I'm considering just taking a few weeks off. My lower back is feeling a little bit beat up anyway. I'm extremely frustrated. Up until Cruise, the Blueprint was excellent. Of course, if I can't maintain my progress it doesn't do me any good.

Any ideas?

thicketman · Post by **thicketman** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:02 am

This morning, the gain was only 1/4", so it was about half as bad as I expected. However, I'm still gaining.

Bodyfat calipers show me at 25%(184 lbs). I started at 23% (177.5lbs), got to 19%(182lbs) at the end of my 4-week feast per calipers.

So, from the start of BP 3.0 I've gained 2 lbs of muscle and 6 lbs of fat. So much for my recomp efforts. I'm extremely unhappy about this.

bigpelo · Post by **bigpelo** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 12:48 pm

I would advise you to lower or carbs consumption during cruise phase because you burn less energy/workout. Do not replace those calories by anything and add 1-2 sessions of HIIT cardio per week, during off day if possible.

HTH

thicketman · Post by **thicketman** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 2:00 pm

Thanks for your response.

Something dawned on me earlier today. I've been eating a low cartb diet regularly for the past ~2 years or so, following something similar to the Scivation cut diet, though not nearly as strict.

Now, here's my theory...since I've been on a low carb diet for so long, my body recognizes that as the norm. Although I've lowered my carb intake to the spreadsheet levels for the Cruise phase (45% carbs, I think), it isn't as low as what I'm used to consuming. So, now that I'm consuming more carbs than what my body considers normal and I'm not depleting glycogen at the same level that I was during Feast, I'm storing the excess as fat.

Over time, I have become very carb sensitive. Any time I cheat on the weekends (Dominos bacon & hamburger pizzas get me every time), I crash shortly after consuming starchy carbs. During Feast, I was ravenous about 2 1/2 hours after carb containing meals. I never felt that way on my low carb diet.

To sum the above long-windedness up: I think you're right. I need to lower my carb intake. Again, thank you for your repsonse.