Have you ever been to a small lake or part of the ocean that you want to cross that has a strong current? There's a trick to it. If the current is pushing hard to the east, start swimming from the short far to the west of where you want to end up on the other side. You can coast in with barely any effort at all. However, if you go straight across, not only do you have to swim the distance but you have to fight the current aswell. IF you make it you'll be exhausted. I'm not a swimmer, so why did I bother bring that up? Think of your body as the current. It constantly strives to get you where it wants you to go, and thats no where. Your body does all it can to stay the same. If you leave big breaks between your meals or don't eat enough then your metabolism slows down and you stop loosing weight. If you stuff your face every few hours and exercise like mad your metabolism speeds up so you don't put on too much weight. Why fight the current if you can float along with it?

The key for me has been maintaining my weight while changing my body composition. As a natural bodybuilder I'm 108kgs and around 10-12%bf (although I don't work with %'s its just a figure that most people can relate to). Putting on quality muscle is hard work. I tried to get the scales to go up and up for years, but in doing so I lost alot of quality. My face blew up like a baloon and finding definition was painstaking. The changes I have made centre around macro-nutrient timing and quality over quantity. I haven't tried to increase my body weight but I have tried to loose a little body fat with quality nutrition, and a lot of it. Low and behold, my lean mass increased as my fat decreased. I worked with my body's desire to maintain my weight. My training is just as intense as it has always been. I'm happy to say that I never feel like I have to dig too deep to get to training, I love it. I haven't increased my calories or frequency of meals, but I have changed the kinds of foods and when I eat them.

To be continued.