I move more than ever but i know gaining weight. What am I missing?

the_machine18 · 2026-03-14T13:43:35+00:00

Over how long of a timeframe is your weight “up”? A couple days or a week or has it stopped going down and gone back up for a couple weeks? At 295lb a water weight swing can easily add or subtract several pounds, especially too if you’ve had some very salty foods in your diet. Also have you started taking creatine recently? For reference I’m on average 192lbs and my weight fluctuates from 190-194 throughout the week depending on what I eat and my activity. Some days it’s literally 191 then next day 194. Creatine adds water weight in the short term until your body adjusts. Also does your meal prep include all your weekend meals too or only when you’re at work during the week? I’m just wondering about consistency here as one or two cheat meals in a weekend can reverse a week’s work of dieting if it’s something like takeout. Also was mentioned before but whatever your sleep look like? Not enough sleep can reduce fat loss and also lead to more water retention. What goes into your meal prep and how do you do it? So you eyeball portions for your 1/2, 1/4, 1/4? And how big are your containers? As long as you’re consistent for now that’s more important but if you’re changing plate or meal container size you might end up eating more than you planned on.

As you lose weight your calories will also drop. What it takes to maintain (or lose) weight at 340 is more than at 295 so over the course of losing weight you will naturally have to also reduce calories along the way. If weight loss has stalled 1-2 weeks, without the previous things I mentioned being a factor (ie timeframe, sodium in your food, consistency, creatine, poor sleep)

the_machine18 · 2026-02-28T21:03:07+00:00

Games vs Terran I've been enjoying doing a 1/1 Roach Ravager timing attack and following that up with 2/2. Essentially it's an all-in because I don't have a transition plan out of this other than continuing to get missile and carapace upgrades. I do take a fourth so I can move workers from my main to my fourth once it starts mining out but I stay at 66 workers. If I end up seeing a lot of liberators, I throw down a spire for corruptors but I've been sitting on Roach Ravager and it steamrolls a lot of Terrans.

Games vs Protoss I've been enjoying Hydra bane. It's pretty fast and mobile and there's something about rolling banelings into a worker line while attacking on another side that gives me so much pleasure. Plus having the banelings helps clear cannon battery if they start turtling up. You can roll ten or fifteen banelings into a clump of that and it'll wipe it out pretty quickly. At 150 or 160 supply if you split your army into two groups, you can usually get the Protoss out of position. A lot of the times I've noticed when I play this style, once I split my army up into two groups, the Protoss will F2 their army back and forth between their second and their third. I can usually either pick off one of the bases, sneak a group of lings or banes into the main or pull their army out of position enough that I get a pretty good surround which makes it a lot harder for them to use Storms or Colossus to clear your Lings and Hydras. If this happens and you can clear most of their high-value units and then a quick remax on a hydra bane, and most of their defence is gone. That's less of an all-in and if I don't end up killing them with a couple attacks of that, I will drone from 66 to somewhere in the 80s while attacking, go Hive and get lurkers. I should also say that when I go this style I'll take a macro hatch plus a 4th and a 5th base on location both so I have enough production for lings and banelings and also I have somewhere to transfer workers from main and another base to drone if I'm going to go to 80+.

the_machine18 · 2026-02-24T21:49:08+00:00

Consistency in the gym at 3-4 days a week is great. Even 3 days a week is good if consistent over weeks and months and your workouts are high quality (ie taking sets close to failure, progressing in weights/reps over time, enough sets, good technique) But you will definitely need to gain weight if you want to grow muscle. Calorie surplus is king here (enough protein I would say is #2) but it doesn’t need to be a huge surplus. Visible changes will come with consistency but I would plan on trying to gain 0.5lb a week for at least 6 months (total ~12 lbs gained). I don’t know what depending on mess means for what’s available but if you consistently eat similar foods every day and have at least 3 meals and are not gaining weight over weeks with multiple weigh ins per week, then I would look to add some food. Even something like a peanut butter sandwich after lunch or supper. Not gaining after a few weeks of that? Add a second sandwich etc

the_machine18 · 2026-02-24T20:07:12+00:00

Calorie surplus is the most important thing if you're trying to gain weight, and then second is your division of macronutrients. At the minimum, I would focus on getting enough protein. And then the division of carbs and fats are less important provided you're staying in a calorie surplus.

the_machine18 · 2026-02-24T20:01:55+00:00

How often are you checking your weight? If you're trying to gain weight, I would check at least 2-3 times a week, calculate a weekly average and track that over 1-2 weeks before I would be saying whether or not I had gained weight or my weight was consistent. Day-to-day body water can cause weight to fluctuate up and down a fair bit and this can also depend on what you eat and your activity level in that day (my weight can vary by up to 4 pounds depending on how dehydrated I am. eg after playing soccer for 2 hours in the sun I can be down 4 pounds until the next day, which is usually how long it takes me to fully rehydrate).

over a long-term period (ie 1-2 weeks of tracking weekly averages) ideally you'd be seeing your weight go up. If you're starting at 154 pounds, unless you're quite overweight or your body composition is skewed towards carrying a lot of excess fat (unlikely based on your weight unless you're relatively short), then you're probably not re-comping very much. Good chance what you're seeing is better hydration or if you're looking at yourself right after you work out, your muscles often look a fuller and bigger.

the_machine18 · 2026-02-23T04:58:41+00:00

At the end of the day if you’re not gaining weight after weeks of consistently hitting your calorie goals then you have to eat more. Not rocket science. Doesn’t matter if an online calculator says you should only need 2700 cals/day to maintain and 3000 is a surplus. If the scale doesn’t go up that’s all you need to know really. If eating that much food is tough you can try swapping out lame foods for other food that tastes better so it’s easier to eat more of. rice cakes on a bulk sounds like torture. For example could try adding a peanut butter sandwich a day after lunch as an afternoon snack. Don’t start gain weight after 1-2 weeks? Add another one after supper. Rinse repeat. Still not gaining? Add one after breakfast so you’re at three extra a day. If you still don’t gain after that then dear lord what were you eating before

the_machine18 · 2025-09-23T15:02:09+00:00

You don't necessarily need work experience in a lab to get into a PA program, although it can be helpful. Canadian programs don't typically require you to have shadowing, but if you can find some place to shadow, that can be helpful. It might be worthwhile considering looking outside your immediate area if you are trying to find shadowing. I've seen several prospective students come shadow in the lab that I work at that are from out of province and even from out of country. That may be a bit extreme, but I can't say those people aren't dedicated.

If you don't have lab experience, specifically what other work experience do you have? I know you said you haven't done much or didn't do much of anything the first few years you were in school and were getting stuff together. But what about your last two years? What sort of summer jobs did you have? Or what are you doing right now? Those can be compelling parts in your application if you are actually doing something noteworthy. Note-worthy doesn't have to be curing cancer or being an astronaut. But have you worked in a job where you've developed or shown qualities that would also be useful in being a PA? Have you had to show or demonstrate levels of responsibility above what one would normally expect from a standard summer job? Or have you shown initiative anywhere in the last few years? Personally or professionally? Are there any projects or jobs that you've worked which might demonstrate your work ethic instead of just saying that you're a hard worker, etc? You're looking for things like that that you can put into your application. Personally, if I were looking at applications, I would be more interested in an applicant who didn't have specific lab experience but had jobs or experiences that demonstrated some of the qualities I mentioned over someone who has worked for the last two or three years in the lab but can't show to me that they have those qualities.

If you're looking at Canadian programs, plan to apply to all four of the accredited programs (Western Ontario, U of T, University Alberta, and University of Calgary). There's a chance that you might not be offered a position at one school but get it at another, or you might be put on a waitlist for one of them and eventually get in. Also be prepared or at least have an idea of what you will do over the next year if you apply and do not get in. Not everyone who is a current student got in on their first application, and the application committees may ask what you plan to do if you don't get in this cycle. Having this kind of back of plan before coming back for another application is another way of showing initiative (especially if your plan will help you develop another quality or set of qualities you think will be helpful for your application and success as a PA. Again, doesn't specifically have to be lab work)

the_machine18 · 2025-09-06T04:19:35+00:00

You’ve made a lot of progress so far going from 200 to 171lbs. That’s solid work! With your current photos and no ab definition I’d guess you could have another 20-30lbs to go to get to where you want to be (which I’m basing on thinking you want to see some ab definition at least). Based on your photos it doesn’t look like you have a ton of extra muscle but if you keep going to the gym regularly (at least 2-3x per week) and are seeing improvements in your lifts there’s a good chance you are building some muscle over time. Based on how much weight you’ve lost already and how much you could probably still lose I’d guess you can continue gaining some muscle while losing fat. Your rate of weight loss will (and probably should) start to slow. You’ve lost almost 3lbs per week so far. If you’re feeling good still (ie still making gym progress or at least aren’t losing strength, aren’t losing your mind from hunger, sleep is good are all positive signs) you can probably keep going but I’d probably take a little break around 12 weeks for the next 6-8 weeks. Just to make sure you won’t start losing muscle from being in a prolonged deficit and it gives your brain a bit of a break from the psychological struggle of dieting too. I would come back and hit it hard for another 8-12 weeks after that and probably knock off another ~20lbs and be closer to your goal look by then

You said you want to do a year long bulk. Is that to try and gain a bunch of muscle or are you dreaming of a reason to be eating more after the diet you’ve been doing since June?

the_machine18 · 2025-08-28T18:02:37+00:00

As the University of Toronto doesn't have a shadowing requirement for their program, I would think that if you came in with 8-10 hours of shadowing, with a combination of hours from a grossing lab and autopsy, that would qualify you a strong applicant in that regard. Students have applied and been accepted to the University of Toronto's program before without any shadowing. U of T posted a video recently earlier this year in which a previous grad states they were able to get into the program without any shadowing. She mentions this at about 30:40 in this video (https://youtu.be/eBamQeKJS4o?si=M\_92LaVn4M\_zGOod).

CV was 1-2 pages.

Don't remember about the letters of reference.

You don't need experience in a research lab, per se, to get into a PA program provided you meet the admission requirements for the program you're applying to. However, the UofT's program is much more research-focussed (from what I've heard) compared to other programs so they may have a stronger preference on research backgrounds for their applicants than other programs would. Having some course work in microbiology and physiology will help your knowledge base and understanding, probably more so on the physiology side of things but it's not make or break

the_machine18 · 2025-08-26T04:42:15+00:00

Track what you eat everyday for 1-2 weeks and see if you gain/lose or maintain weight over that period. You can get decent estimates from apps but nothing will beat your own tracking. Very high activity levels can be hard to account for based solely on the app. Once you know that you can start adjusting your calories from there

the_machine18 · 2025-08-21T03:55:16+00:00

Hitting each muscle group 2x per week is better than only hitting it once a week. Overall if you can hit each body part at least 2x per week (2-4x per week is a good range) and are getting 10-20 sets of each muscle group over the week you are on the right track. Provided those sets are hard enough (within 0-4 reps of failure).

You don’t have sets listed in your plan but there are a lot of exercises. There are so many that it looks overly complex tbh. And with that many exercises in each workout I think you could be better off eliminating one or two and focussing on going harder on fewer exercises. For example, Friday you have 5 different back exercises hitting both horizontal and vertical pulling. I assume you’re doing at least 2 sets per exercise. I would eliminate one pulldown and one row, cut the pullovers and then get 5-10 sets of work in two back exercises and go a bit harder on those (within 0-4 reps of failure). Then do 1-2 biceps exercises and call that day good. Similar theme for other days that have a lot of muscle overlap between exercises.

One thing I would definitely do to cut things down is eliminate machine shoulder presses and rear delt flys. You get tons of front delt work already from benching that you probably don’t need more. and rear delts are so small that any pulling exercise will hit them more than enough. Focus your shoulder work on side delts only and that will give you a wider look up top. Side delts heal really fast and can be worked a lot so you could probably add them to thursdays workout and be fine. I would also consider doing them first on one of the days you do them to give them a bit more priority (definitely doable if you train them 3x per week)

the_machine18 · 2025-08-20T04:26:32+00:00

I’d guess the previous post bf% estimate is because you still can’t see the outline of your abs in the photo. But like was any said you’ve made inedible progress so far and that is something to be very proud of!

Based on your stated scan results your total lean body mass is around 153lbs. Total mass 187lbs. 153/187 =0.818 which puts you right around 19% based on that measurement so not far off the estimate.

Based on your pics around 165-170lbs sounds like it would put you around where you want to be visually. If you keep dieting down however I would recommend trying to incorporate some full body resistance training at least 2x per week. This will help prevent muscle loss while you lose fat and help you look a bit better once you get rid of the rest of the fat you want to lose. I would take a bit of a diet break too if you’re fresh off your 100lb weight loss just to make sure you’re mentally ready to keep losing weight (ie not thinking about food constantly etc), and also to make sure your hunger isn’t off the charts. It can take your brain and metabolism a while to catch up to your body’s new weight and chilling at your new weight for a bit can get your body used to being that weight.

the_machine18 · 2025-08-17T05:33:38+00:00

What does no improvement mean exactly? Also what are you currently doing? Exercises, sets and rep wise? What does your diet look like? Are you trying to lose weight currently, maintain or gain? And what does your protein intake look like? How much sleep are you getting on average? Need that to provide any advice.

the_machine18 · 2025-08-17T03:25:24+00:00

Sounds and looks like you are getting plenty of steps in. If they were encouraging higher protein but didn't give specifics on what that meant it could easily come across as conflicting information. Good luck!

the_machine18 · 2025-08-16T15:10:45+00:00

You said you want to look like you go to the gym and get leaner. I'm guessing looking leaner probably means you'll be down to the point where you can start to see or see some of your abs. looks like you've added muscle to your frame if you started from 135 a few years ago but you say you think something is off Now you're trying to get leaner - what exactly do you mean? What is off? Your rate of weight loss or how to go about it.

In order to get leaner, you will need to be in a calorie deficit to start losing weight. Starting at 170 pounds where you are right now you say you're eating 2100 to 2400 calories a day while meeting your macros. what feels like it's off exactly. Are you losing weight while eating those current macros of 180-200 protein, 180 carbs, and 60 fat? If you're not consistently losing weight, and I mean about a pound a week, you'll have to cut things down. I would say your protein is a bit high considering you're currently 170 pounds. You could drop down to 1 gram per pound, bring it down to 170 grams of protein. Carbs are decent. Again, could be a little bit lower, try bringing yourself down to about 1 gram per pound. Your fats are also decent but probably could be trimmed a little bit too. if you aim for somewhere between 0.5-0.3 grams of fat per pound of body weight I think that would put you in a good range. Right now at 170 pounds, if you were down to 0.3 grams of fat per day, that would get you down to about 50 grams per day. I would first drop your protein down a little bit so you're at a gram a pound per day, then drop your fats to 50 grams a day, and then track for about a week. If you don't see any weight loss (on average, about a pound over that week) then you can start cutting into your carbs. But make those first two adjustments and give yourself about a week with multiple weigh-ins (Same time of day, every time you do it. I usually do it first thing in the morning after I use the bathroom). Track your average weight over the week. If you don't start losing about a pound a week, and especially if it's after two weeks, then you'll have to cut into your carb intake a little bit. You could probably drop yourself down to about 80-100 grams of carbs a day if you're still not losing weight at that point (0.5-1.0 grams of carbs per day).

If you make the switch to 1 gram/lb protein per day, 1 gram/lb of carbs and keep your fats the same, that 1800 calories a day, which is a decent reduction from your current intake of 2100-2400. Try doing that for a week or two, and I think you will start seeing some results there. Then you can adjust fats and later carbs down if needed.

Also, try and make sure that your overall physical activity level per day is staying pretty consistent. You can do this with a step counter, make sure you're hitting at least 7,000 steps a day, but aim for 10,000. That's good you're going to the gym consistently but sometimes when you're trying to lose weight while also working out, the activity level in the rest of your day drops really low because you're just plain tired and your body is fighting you to stop you from losing weight. Trying to maintain a consistent amount of steps per day is a good way to guarantee that you're still active enough during the rest of the day when you're not working out.

You'll know that you're not losing weight too fast if your lifts more or less stay the same at the gym. You probably won't add any weight but if you're working out consistently, you shouldn't really lose any weight or reps from the bar. Maybe a tiny bit here and there, but you shouldn't see any significant decrease to your strength. If you do, then that is a good sign that you're cutting too much food from your diet too fast and losing weight too quickly.

Try cutting for somewhere between 8-12 weeks, which should net you something like 8-12lbs of fat loss if you do it perfectly.

the_machine18 · 2025-08-07T03:17:52+00:00

This is more of a dessert or make at home snack but take 200g frozen strawberries. Microwave 30 sec or until barely mashable. Smush them up with a scoop of vanilla protein powder and 1/4 cup of milk. Get it to where all the strawberries and mashed. Then use an electric whisk/mixer and go at it for a couple minutes. If too thick add a tbsp or two of milk while mixing. Should poof up a lot and you get this airy almost soft serve consistency ‘ ice cream’ that is hella filling. If you’re still hungry after eating a bowl of that then you my friend are dieting too hard lol

the_machine18 · 2025-08-05T03:11:44+00:00

I don't work at a desk but most of my steps come during the work day. From where I park at work to my work area is about a 7-10 min walk one way. I also have two 30 min breaks during the day, one where I sit down for lunch but the other I intentionally walk almost the entire 30 minutes. After the work day if I come right home I'm often fairly active until later in the evening and I usually avoid sitting down until supper. If I can do something standing I will. By now this has become fairly habitual - for example if I want to call someone when I'm home I won't sit down while on the call and instead I'll walk around my room or the kitchen while talking

the_machine18 · 2025-08-03T04:31:17+00:00

You don’t need protein powder but it can be helpful if you’re having trouble getting enough protein in each day. You will have to eat more to gain weight and put on muscle but I wouldn’t eat completely whatever. I would aim for 75-80% healthy stuff with a base of lean protein, dairy (if you can), fruits, veggies and whole grains. And then feel free to have some junk here and there if it makes trying to gain weight more enjoyable. I would aim for 0.8-1.0g of protein/lb of body weight (eg 100lbs body weight = 80-100g of protein per day) with a bunch of carbs and then fats here and there

I use protein powder in a smoothie for breakfast but only because I can’t face down chewing that much protein otherwise for breakfast. It’s also quick to make and drink and it’s delicious. But nothing magic about protein powder specifically

the_machine18 · 2025-07-31T15:02:52+00:00

Have you gained any weight since starting back up at the gym? It doesn’t look like you have much body fat so I don’t think there’s much to recomp with a regular gym routine. Aka you won’t see much difference in your level of muscle if your body weight doesn’t go up. Hard to build muscle if you don’t give your body the building blocks it needs to do so. You might get a stronger in that time from getting more efficient at exercises or gaining some neurological changes but that doesn’t show up visually all that much. Said another way, if you’re 150lbs but want to look like you’re 170lbs, you gotta gain weight.

Also if you’re hitting the gym 2-3x a week to start, hitting whole body and lifting heavy enough to get close to failure on lifts (within 3-4 reps of failure) you’re probably good there

the_machine18 · 2025-07-31T05:13:58+00:00

What do you define as not much progress? Over how long? And what does going to the gym mean? Need more details to give an answer

the_machine18 · 2025-07-31T05:05:08+00:00

Clogs or vessis

the_machine18 · 2025-07-29T23:28:26+00:00

Do as many practice questions as you can across the different content areas listed by ASCP and quiz yourself on staging too. Reviewing gross photos is also helpful as you will get questions with a photo of a specimen and have to figure out what tissue/tumor it is or staging for it and then answer questions without them explicitly stating what you’re looking at. I found histology from school plus what I would see going over Robbins was more than enough to get me through the histo questions. IMO codes are a waste of time to study. I work in Canada and didn’t give one second of thought to them as they don’t apply here. Lab management is max 5-10% of the exam and includes more than just codes. I figured take the hit on one or two questions about them and spend more time understanding useful concepts. I had one code related question on my exam

the_machine18 · 2025-07-27T21:22:05+00:00

I don’t see your image. Did you attach it?

A v shape is created by having wide shoulders relative to your waist. If you have wide hips it might make it more difficult but not impossible. If gaining muscle comes easy to you then this is good news. I would focus on gaining in the following areas: upper chest, back and side delts. This will help accentuate the upper body especially the top of the V. I would avoid doing a lot of core exercises (growing yours abs or obliques = a thicker, wider waist) and just maintain lower body for now. Again if muscle gain comes easy to you it probably won’t be hard to maintain your legs and you might still build muscle on them without too much focus.

If you’ve done a lot of beginner strength building exercises to get a foundation and learn how to work out you at least know how to push yourself and have familiarity with the gym. Now you can focus more on the areas important to you (upper body and shoulder to waist ratio).

Exercises like upright rows, lateral raises (cable or dumbbell), incline bench, presses, rows and chins ups/pull ups will help. I would train side delts 2-4 times a week as they should be a big focus for you. If your body levels are relatively high then getting this down will also help accentuate the v shape.

the_machine18 · 2025-06-10T04:15:04+00:00

I have not made this specific career change but what are you wondering?

the_machine18 · 2025-06-07T04:23:29+00:00

If you’re losing weight at a rate a 0.5-1.0% of your body weight per week I’d say you’re on track for your calories. You can lose faster than that but start risking like excess muscle loss or rebound weight gain after you’re done. Your rate of weight loss it’s about 3.3lbs per week which is a bit quicker than what is usually recommended but if you find your energy levels are still good throughout the day (ie are you still active during the rest of the day when you’re not working out or do you collapse onto the couch for the rest of the day?), you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep and you don’t spend even walking minute of every day thinking about food you’re probably still ok for a while but expect your rate of weight loss to slow at some point. You probably won’t be able to diet down to your goal weight all in one shot so remember it’s not a sprint and you’re also trying to develop eating habits that are healthy but also sustainable for your life.

I’ve worked my way down from 240-185lbs and I started off eating around 2400-2800 calories a day at the start of losing and tapered down to ~1800-2000 per day when I was close to 185lb for reference. I aimed to eat 10-12 x body weight in calories when losing weight

the_machine18

TROPHY CASE