HELP! PreWorkout Meal

[Globetrotter 1,340]

omg, CBT, I make those too! Except I can't do oats so I use the leftover almond paste from making my own almond milk. The chia I use is amazing, it is Ruths Raw Organic chocolate Chia, so freakin' good! I am driving myself crazy over this topic of how to feed my muscles for growth and fat loss, I just don't know what to do and everything I try doesn't seem to work! I've been lifting for about 3 weeks now and I swear my front and back views I look even worse!! gah!!

[Fiddleman 4,376]

Those energy balls sound good and not too hard to prepare. They sound like the chocolate paradise energy squares I like from nuts.com, but the costs of making your energy balls is probably much less. I have not had any of the squares for a while, but the principle holds.

Ditto on that preworkout oatmeal 2 hours before and the caffeine. The caffeine not only helps a lot with focus and stamina, but does cause fat to be utilized as energy (lots of studies on this). I will do the oatmeal and caffeine song and dance every day before working out. It works for me.

I usually try and have a bcaa drink followed by a mix of Protein and carbs immediately following the workout. The bcaa have a faster route to the muscles than Protein so drinking bcaa first before the protein is most effective in terms of protein synthesis. This is true also when breaking the fast in the morning.

Finally, I want to say that working out hard is not a recipe for weight loss for me. My weight has consistently been higher by 5-10 # since being so active with cross fit (a lot of high intensity cardio and weight lifting). That doesn't bother me. I am more after improving myself as an athlete and about my general body composition then about scale weight.

[Fluffnomore 1,235]

I really need to get my body composition tested. My observation right now, after having worked out both prior to and starting again 6 weeks after surgery, is that I am wearing clothes that I last wore when I was 15-20 pounds lighter. So there are some major changes. I still can see that I have fat to lose, but at some point it will be less about scale weight and more about fitness and body composition. If that means I stall out at 160-170 pounds but am in great physical shape, so be it.

[Globetrotter 1,340]

Well, my first week of lifting I lost 5 pounds. In the subsequent 2 weeks I have "gained" back 4 pounds, regardless of my very clean diet. I am going to backload see if that works, I am on day 4 of high cal/protein super low carb, on day 10 I will have a very large portion of carbs immediately after my evening workout and from then on I will save whatever carbs I may eat for after the evening workout. We'll see. I will also take a tiny, TINY swig of that amino acid energy drink, tonight is cardio.