After looking at the pics of myself from a visit to my son's house about a month ago, I was shocked at how skinny I was. I mean, I looked healthy but I had no idea how puny I looked. Back home, I weighed in (never do that) and I was a mere 131lb. Dang!

Except during my bodybuilding days 20 or so years ago, I've always been around 155 lb. As an old dude realized that I need to be concerned with sarcopenia (muscle loss as we age).

I decided to target 150lb as a start and so I ditched the intermittent fasting (I was eating one or two meals and to target a bodyweight of 150lb I need to eat 150g of protein per day). So, on August 10, I added an early meal of at least 50 g of protein so I didn't have to force in 75g in two meals.

I also rearranged my gym training. I am doing three days of squat, bench, and barbell rows with the goal of working up to ten sets of ten of each exercise. Anytime I couldn't do 10 reps I stopped and moved on to the next exercise.

Once I got five sets of ten of all three exercises, I ditched the 10 sets goal and started over with whatever number of sets I could get with heavier weight (10lb additional for squats and 5lb for bench press and rows.

In 3 weeks I've gained 8 pounds! I've still got veins all over my lower abs and inner thighs, so if I've gained fat, it's negligible.

Carnivore is the sh...t! At least for me, the only way to eat enough protein to increase muscle mass is to only eat protein. There's no way I could eat this much protein AND eat carbs (or anything else!)

Pretty much the same boat. I dropped 95lbs and it was a sickly/puny look.

Mostly for an autoimmune disease but sarcopenia as well I lift three to four times per week. A couple to three times per week I walk around 3.5 miles. One day just walking, one day with a 40lb weight vest and the third day I try to get into 125 or so push-ups along the way.

My problem is that I struggle to eat the amount of protein needed for muscles gain. Depending on the source it can range from 0.7 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass. I'm guessing I need to be around 200 grams of protein per day. I have struggled to eat that much in a day. I added protein powder to get in a few extra grams, and it helped.

I ran out once and substituted a store-bought protein shake. It had 11-12 grams of sugar and after I drank a 1/3 of the bottle within an hour, I was hungry. I used that hunger to eat another steak or another source of protein. I gained about 9-10lbs over a month. I am sure it was mostly fat and water weight, but I did see significant gains in the gym. As the young folks say, "the plates don't lie". Maybe a little of that weight was lean muscle mass but the gains in the gym were significant, especially for a 56 year old guy that went the last 30 years without any sort of cardio nor resistance training (and ate the very bottom of the dumpster diet to boot).

I have hovered around the 80-90lb lost mark for the last several months. There is some weight left to lose but it is not as big a concern for me as of late.

Scott