Maintaining weight
 

I'm almost 6'4" and 200lbs. Usually by the end of summer I become about 175-180lbs as I play lacrosse. I want to stay at 200. The problem is, it's very easy for me to lose anywhere between 2-10 pounds every game and practice. I know that's mainly water weight but it doesn't all come back after rehydrating. What's the best way to maintain the 200lbs? I'm thinking maybe another larger meal a day but I'm not sure.

You've got the right idea. Basically eat more. What you might want to do is add a carb & protein drink after any intense lacross games/practices. Do 2:1 high GI carbs to whey protein - Either buy some dextrose from the health food store and mix it with whey or combine gatorade and whey. That will help prevent any muscle loss and add some addition calories to your diet. If that isn't enough add a casein shake (like muscle milk) before bed.

Eat 6 meals, but make sure you get in at least 200 grams of protein a day. Make chicken and cottage cheese (if you can stand the taste) your friends. Like Clint said, whey protein powder really helps you get in that many grams of protein. It's best to only eat about 500 calories within one meal, but eat about once every 3 hours.

That's some excellent advice.

In addition to loosing water weight you will be loosing muscle glycogen which can contribute to a significant amount of the weight you are loosing.

Depending on when your playing you game (at night or during the day) I would recommend a 2:1 or 3:1 carb to protein ratio. 3:1 being for after a day time game.

You may also want to try supplementing with 30mg of Zinc before bed time to keep your energy and hormone levels in check. Hard training athletes almost always have a Zinc deficiency. There is an oral test you can take to asses the deficiency but you would need to visit a homeopath/or naturopathy to do it.

Chocolate milk would be an excellent choice for a night time game. It's a little higher than 2:1 but the casein in the milk would slow the protein absorption for a sustained feeding effect throughout the night. Try 500ml-1 litre post game/practice.

During the day you can mix a whey protein powder and some simple sugar like dextrose in the 3:1 ratio aiming for 15-25grams of protein immediately after the game. Around 1-2 hours later have another shake of similar mix or have a whole meal of meat and some vegetables.

Games are at night, so I'm a little worried about carbs...I always hear to avoid carbs at night. What is Casein?

Casein is the slowest moving protein. It digests around 8 hours. As far as carbs go, it depends what you're doing. It's better to stay away from complex/low glycemic carbs in the few hours before you go to bed because they take so long to digest (during the daytime they're the carbs you WANT to take though) if you're trying to burn fat. Given that your goal is to maintain weight, though, you should be fine. Eat mostly high glycemic/simple carbs post-workout and later ion the day.

And again, the protein part is very important. To maintain your current muscle mass if you weigh 200 lbs, you need 200 grams of protein a day. If you want to gain any more, you'll probably need to go well over 200 grams occasionally on days you lift.

Those estimates seem a bit high to me for maintenance. I've typically heard 1gram per kilogram of bodyweight, so approx .5grams per pound



As for the sugars, they will be okay since you will have just finished "exercising". In this case your body will need the carbs to replenish the glycogen (effectively sugar) that you muscles used up during the game. Just don't go overboard. I would say 2g carbs for every 1g protein. Like mentioned above chocolate milk would be a good and simple choice (although there is no way I could drink chocolate milk after heavy running)

The other option if you wanted to stay away from carbs but get a similar response would be to add 5-10grams of BCAA's to your shake in addition to what ever is already in the product.

They can provide a similar insulin response as the carbs, and there for speed up delivery of the proteins to the muscles.

I agree with 200grams being a bit high for maintenance levels.

Generally I will advocate in a maintenance diet : 200lbs male

Calories: Bodyweight in lbs x 12.5-13cals = 2500-2600calories

Protein: Bodyweight in lbs x 0.75-0.85grams = 150-170grams protein or 600-680calories

Carbs: Bodyweight in lbs x 1.0-1.25grams = 200-250 grams carbs or 800-1000calories

Fats: Remainder of calories - fish oil calories

Fish oil should be 500mg-1gram per 10lbs of body weight = 10-20grams or 90-180 calories

So if you have .85protein, 1.25carbs, and 20grams fish oil it would leave you with 77grams of fat to come from other sources.

What I always heard was 1 gram per each pound. *Shrug*

Some people do 1gram per pound of lean body mass. So if you have 15% bodyfat then you would need 200*.85 = 170grams. Recommendations vary pretty heavily though, so you end up seeing all sorts of formulas.