Q: Hey Mike, in 623 i commented about how crappy my day at the gym was., im on a new diet which i posteed on 591 along with my workout sched., i believe. lately the last week ive been real tired, liike today right when i got home from school i fell asleep for an hour and a half.., also, normally im about 203 lbs, and i dropped down to 198, then today im like 200(measured right when i woke up)

A: Sounds like you need to eat still more. I don't think you ever posted what you used to eat before, but the fact that you're losing weight now and feeling low on energy tells me that it was much heavier in carbs than your new plan, so your body is responding by losing some weight quickly. So you'll need to increase serving sizes of all your meal and it would be a good idea to have an extra piece of fruit or an extra starchy carb like sweet potato or brown rice in some of your pre-workout meals. So, for example, another piece of fruit for breakfast and a serving of rice (preferably brown rice) in meal 4 before your workout.

Here's my rough estimate of what you're eating now:

Meal 1. 1 orange, 1 egg, 1 egg white, whey Meal + 1 extra piece of fruit I recommended: 350-400 calories.

Meal 2. Sandwich with turkey, swiss, mayo, apple, carrots: 500 calories, assuming generous sandwich.

Meal 3. Repeat of meal 2: 500 calories.

Meal 4. Chicken, green beans, whey: 350-400 calories.

Meal 5. Steak, cauliflower, fruit: 400-500 calories.

So you're eating 2300 calories now. This is a good starting point, but we already learned that it's not enough for you, so it's time to ramp up. An extra banana (or oatmeal or Cheerios/Wheeties) for breakfast will add 150 calories and extra rice in Meal 4, another 250 or so. Do that, stay with that diet for a week, track your weight. I'm guessing you'll stop losing weight, but there's no way to know for sure unless you track your weight closely. Assuming your weight stabilizes with this new diet (verify that it's the case by keeping track for 2 weeks), then another 300 extra calories on top of that will put you on perfect track to gain muscle.

So here's what you should do now:

1. Follow my advice above to make your breakfast and meal 4 bigger with fruit/cereal/rice/etc.

2. Do NOT skip meals! This is important -- if you skip just one meal a day on average the whole point of a careful diet goes to waste.

3. Track your weight closely for 1-2 weeks.

4a. After 1-2 weeks if you're still losing weight, add still more carbs (300 calories worth -- 300 calories is, for example, 2 medium sweet potatos) to meals 4 and 5. Go to step 3.

4b. After 1-2 weeks if your weight is stable, add still more carbs (300 calories) to meals 4 and 5. Go to step 5.

5. Monitor your weight and whenever more than 2 weeks go by without weight gain, add 200-300 calories to your diet. This could be another meal or distributed among current meals. Try to keep them all roughly even in size.

So it's a hassle but by following this for a few weeks, you'll find EXACTLY the perfect diet range for effective muscle gain without too much (or even any) fat gain.