Originally Posted by
BillyD
That was my objective, I'm totally aware of what carbs can do. Unburned carbs turn to the debil, sugar. I'm sure you've heard me skewer bread consumption here in the past. It's just that now that I've returned to a "normal" diet, sans desserts and salty snacks, I'm wondering what it will take to put some weight back on.
I guesstimated my protein needs to be 145g daily and the total calorie requirement to be 2,600. Even with a post-workout protein smoothie added to my day it's hard to get near the 145g mark. And forget about the 2,600 calories, the only time I even topped 2,000 calories was with a Wendy's chicken sandwich and small fries dinner one day. Most days I'm totaling somewhere between 1,300 and 1,700 calories.
So what's this about nitrogen balance?
It is very hard, but all the more important for anyone calorie restricting or leaving a lot of kcals on the road. Your body is going to go somewhere for energy and, if I remember my facts correctly, it will break down muscle before fat. The only way to protect it is to get all the required protein and do some resistance training. Nitrogen balance refers to the balance of amino acids taken in and stored as protein vs broken down and peed out as urea.