Since I have started training to fight (muay thai, jujitsu, mma classses) I have watched my morning weight slowly crawl from 206 to 200. It is my goal to hit 220 by the end of February so this is frustrating to say the least.

Obviously adding 6 hours of cardio like activity is really going to upset my energy balance and mess with recovery so I have switched from lifting 4x a week in an upper lower split to 3x a week with one upperbody day, one lowerbody day, and a fairly easy full body day with a little bit of bag work at the end.

My main question is what can I do to help with feeling so beat up all the time, and what can I do to try and get my weight back up. Is this a simple question of eating more? I feel like I am eating more than ever yet my weight keeps dropping.

Has anyone had to deal with this problem, if so what did you do to achieve your goals? So far my plan is eat more, sleep more, eat more is this the way to go?

Is it even possible to gain weight with this training volume (my guess is that it most certainly is)

Strength levels as of a week ago have been steadily climbing, but I did miss a few reps on lockouts the day after I did all three "combat sessions" (for lack of better word) the same day, however everything else that workout was still up.. so I am not fretting over losing strength (yet). Once that happens I will HAVE to alter something in my training because obviously if strength is not going up neither will my weight.

I know this is going to sound cliche and tired, so I'm telling you this, knowing you've got already got a good base and know what you're doing.

You need to eat more.

Look at Bauer97... go read his thread, if you haven't already. With all the extra exercise you're getting, you really should increase the calories. I remember he (Bauer) had to go through football practices, football 'training,' and then his own bodybuilding training. He ate something around 13,000 cal/day, if I'm not mistaken. Now, granted, that may be a little excessive for most but, if you're having issues putting weight on, you need to break things down to simple terms.

And I feel you can still amke progress just fine. You may still be adding strength now, but if your weight is dropping, it *may* only be a matter of time until your strength begins to plateau or diminish. Notice I said may.

Anyway, people may disagree and will give different advice, but I have to ascertain that eating more will only benefit you, your goals, and future endeavors.

As long as your strength levels are not dropping, or even going up, you're not in an unrecovered state. The answeer is going to be calories, plain and simple. Obviously your system can handle all the work it's doing, it just needs more food in order to maintain (if not gain!) bodyweight. I'd be curious as to your typical diet, then we can see where we can 'hide' extra cals.

S

That's a lot of cardio. I've done a little bit of MMA and it always left me soaking wet. It was hard for me to maintain a commitment to both lifting and grappling. But to answer your question, I also say more calories. If you're already eating a ton, there's always shakes.

Russian Bear anyone????

I had a hunch that the resounding advice would be to eat more, mostly because that is pretty solid advice.

As for my typical diet, it is all over the place and honestly I haven't written down what I was eating since last April. Over the next few days I'll keep a rough food log to give you guys (and myself) an idea as to what a standard day of eating looks like. This will probably help me become a little more aware of my eating so this might serve to improve it somewhat by its self.

You know, if you are doing that much cardio, along with lifting, I would throw in some burgers and pizza. I really don't see you adding much fat when doing this much work. Plus, you are already quite lean.