Trying to gain muscle desperately

[Zaxarooey]

So I'm no longer in a danger area. But I am in the low on the muscle side.

I'm 38 I was 455 I had DS when I was 19.

Long story short i had a car about followed by my heart stopping and spent 6 months in the hospital followed by 6 months in a resting home followed by 5 months in the hospital followed by 3 months in a bed.. end result I lost over ten pounds of muscle in like just two months. I saw it happen and my doctor's saw it happen they toss me Zach.. your going to have a heart attack if you don't turn this around.

So again long story short I increased my eating from 3000 calories to I'm at 4200 calories I went from 100 protein grams a day to over 250 a day. None of this was hard. I work out 3x a week

I monitor my muscle and it's been going up regularly with a small drop recently in a certain area around my chest I dunno why maybe I was dehydrated when I got my body scan too check my muscle. I use a seca scale to check my muscle content.

I'm just looking for how many calories I really need in 6"3. My doctor can't tell me. How many calories am I absorbing how much of the 250 grams of protein am i absorbing because I have a trainer and I'm working my hardest but I still have blood tests that are always low my blood count is low my whole blood count is low and other things my doctor's have no answers. My main ds doctor wants me to take enzymes and I don't want to. I'm just curious if anyone else has gained muscle and what they can tell me. I'm following my trainer advise but he's no expert on DS in fact no one's a expert on DS I have no good advise in doing everything blind hoping to God I gain back ask them muscle I lost I have at least ten pounds to go to be acreage right now I'm below average muscle im not low anymore I'm not in the danger zone but I don't feel like I know what I'm doing I really just need to know how much I absorb. Thank you sorry for the long post

 

[southernlady]

The way to see if you are getting enough protein is by your protein lab level, part of the Comprehensive Metabolic Panel. Needs to be a 7 or above. If its lower, add food or whey protein isolate.

 

[Zaxarooey]

Mine is 6.1 so I need more protein correct?

 

[Zaxarooey]

Photo

 

[JackieOnLine]

Needs to be a 7 or above. If its lower, add food or whey protein isolate.

what is your plan to add food and/or to add protein isolate?

 

[Zaxarooey]

what is your plan to add food and/or to add protein isolate?

My plans to add 50 grams of protein from protein powder a day and see if that moves the needle. I'm eating 250 grams a day already and I figure 300 grams would mean I'm absorbing 150 grams which is a fair amount for my size, height, weight...

I already eat so much I don't feel like adding more real food...

Or maybe I'll use protein water. But 50 grams should do it. Right?

I've also considered taking enzymes for a month and gaining 10 pounds of fat and then go back to normal and maybe in that mouth of enzymes my blood will go back to normal.. but that's a long shot I think it's safer to keep everything the same but increase my protein by 50 grams. Whey isolate for sure.

 

[JackieOnLine]

i had a car about followed by my heart stopping and spent 6 months in the hospital followed by 6 months in a resting home followed by 5 months in the hospital followed by 3 months in a bed.. end result I lost over ten pounds of muscle in like just two months.

if you were just in bed all those months it's amazing you only lost 10 pounds of muscle. did you not get cardiac rehab?

hopefully someone who knows about taking enzymes will come along and post.

I will tell you I once had an MD tell me she thought I had colon cancer because I ate and ate and kept losing weight - turned out it was anxiety. which sucks but not as bad as cancer.

just as a real general rule: change only one thing at a time and it's easier to tell if it helped or not.

 

[Georgepds]

The other thing is to work out harder. You mention a trainer, which is good, but you do not mention resistance exercise ( free weights or weight machines in a gym)

Start the resistance. If you want, creatine powder will help you work longer and harder ( roughly 1 t per day, bulk supplements brand is good) It won't put on muscle but it will help you work out more, and that will put on muscle

One good thing about resistance is you can monitor your strength (more reps or higher weight). You will know exactly how strong you are getting.

 

[Zaxarooey]

Yes I do resistance training. I lift weights 3x a week.
I'm trying my hardest to build back all my muscle I lost. I'm at 350 grams of carbs 300 grams of protein 4200-4500 calories a day
And now I'm on the enzymes.
Hopefully it works. My doctor said it can take a month or two to see results from the enzymes.

Is it true we don't absorb protein from pea protein like from huel or soylent?

I thought protein is protein.... It's it because of the surgery we have or is it just that whey protein is a better protein?

I thought I had a magic bullet with soylent.

 

[southernlady]

Whey isolate protein is the most bioavailable. Pea protein is okay but not like whey protein. If your protein needs help, get whey isolate.

 

[Zaxarooey]

So I did my own math and I'm absorbing 2228 calories from the 4200 I eat normally..
Assuming normal ds absorption rates. Or course I'm taking enzymes right now so I'm probably absorbing 3000-3500 right now but I just think that's interesting. I would think that is enough. Perhaps it's the pea protein and the calories from the huel and soylent that's just not hitting as strong as real food..
I was worried because my weight was not going up but if I'm only absorbing 2200 calories no wonder I didn't gain weight..
It'll be interesting to see all my blood tests and my protein levels after my first month of enzymes. I think I'm up a couple pounds already... Hard to tell until I get above 180. I haven't been above 180 in two years. I got what I wanted though... I'm absorbing way more ATM.. thanks you for the advise here.

 

[Georgepds]

Just curious... noting you do resistance exercise, are you getting stronger?

One of the advantages of resistance training is you can monitor your progress (reps or amount). I find it helps me to increase the difficulty little by little.. and, implied, the muscle mass

You talk about weight a lot, and that could be fat or muscle. If you are really interested in muscle, you can also do a variant of DEXA that gives true fat percentage, and , more importantly... visceral fat. Never did it myself, but it is out there if you need it

Perhaps I just don’t get your point. If you are really too thin, then anything that puts on a little mass , fat or muscle, will help. Enzymes fall into that category

 

[Georgepds]

Whey isolate protein is the most bioavailable. Pea protein is okay but not like whey protein. If your protein needs help, get whey isolate.

Myself, I don't eat protein powders or bars anymore, I just try to eat food, mostly plants, and, alas often too much ( to paraphrase Michael Pollan).

That said how about just peas, and not pea powder. They're a legume (associated with longevity in the " blue zones" ) and, IIRC, about 30 percent protein ( the rest is mostly carbs and fiber) . Another choice is tofu, again about 30 % protein ( the rest much more fat... but a bonus for DS.. high in calcium) or even peanuts , again about 30% protein, and definitely much more fat than peas.

All of these contain carbs, which will help the OP put on weight

 

[Zaxarooey]

Just curious... noting you do resistance exercise, are you getting stronger?

One of the advantages of resistance training is you can monitor your progress (reps or amount). I find it helps me to increase the difficulty little by little.. and, implied, the muscle mass

You talk about weight a lot, and that could be fat or muscle. If you are really interested in muscle, you can also do a variant of DEXA that gives true fat percentage, and , more importantly... visceral fat. Never did it myself, but it is out there if you need it

Perhaps I just don’t get your point. If you are really too thin, then anything that puts on a little mass , fat or muscle, will help. Enzymes fall into that category

My doctor told me I need to gain weight to 190 pounds.
I myself am happy at 175 but with all my working out I have gained muscle I seca scan which is ultrasound and a expensive test but thing is I lost ten pounds right before I started lifting weights..
So even though I gained ten. I only gained back ten I lost and before that I was in a bed for a year and I lost even more muscle. So really on the seca scan it shows I'm at the low end of muscle but I used to be dangerously low! So I'm on my way but my weight on the scale has been level so I gained muscle but lost fat.

Maybe my doctor worries to much I dunno but I'm taking the enzymes to gain ten pounds and hopefully raise my protein levels...

 

[Zaxarooey]

I did my own math and I absorb 2200 calories normally while eating 4200 calories and my trainer said we're I normal I would need 3200 calories in order to build muscle. It's called bulking... So now I'm using enzymes and I'm specifically using them with protein meals. So I had 4 eggs and 2 scoops of protein powder and took a enzyme.. just as a example. I already put on a couple pounds... So I guess I was scared for no reason of the enzymes... Though I can't take them forever so once I quit taking them I'll need to figure out how to eat better.. I do think the issue is all the soylent and huel which uses plant protein powder... And also I just haven't been really being scientific about this... But now I've done the math I realize 2200 calories isn't enough for me. I'm 6"3 and 39 and 179 pounds today.. which is better then the 176. I don't know I look in the mirror and sometimes I love the way I look and feel fit other times I sweat I look fat and sometimes I just see my wrinkles in my skin from where I need plastic surgery.
I appreciate all the help though and I just never learned any of this stuff I've always just gone through life with out paying to much attention. I forgot about blood tests for about ten years.. my doctor was really mad at first with me but he got over it. And Dr rabkin is cool he tries but while I was lucky to get this surgery at 19 I was not informed enough or maybe I wasn't smart enough at 19 to fully understand all that it would entail.. I just look forward to figuring this all out. If anyone has other resources I could read about DS please let me know.
Chat gtp only can help me so much. Lol.

I'm trying to gain muscle because what else would I do with my time? It's good for me and the more I gain the easier everything becomes... Plus maybe I can fill my skin that's stretchy with muscles to replace the fat. It's just been slow I've gained almost a pound of muscle a month sense I started... I can't wait to test myself in a couple months to see if the enzymes helped me build muscle faster. I'm extremely hopeful that it will fix many of my issues including my low protein of 6.1.