the reformation (round 2)

Between 2019 and now, I made major changes to my lifestyle and dropped from 210 to 150 pounds. My goal was to slim down; now my goal is to build strength and muscle, which requires a caloric increase. Once I hit 150 pounds, had I gone any lower, I would've started looking like a boy, even despite my beard (which I keep mainly to make it clear that I am not fifteen years old). My current goal is to stay between 160-165# while focusing on building muscle and strength. At this point my 'battle plan' is as follows:

Caloric intake: 1600-2000 calories a day

Protein intake: between 120-160 grams a day

Workouts: strength training 4-5 times a week

Most people, when bulking, take in around 2500 to 3000 calories a day. Mine is lower because I'm smaller, and thus burn less energy than someone six inches taller than me, and because I don't want to put on twenty pounds only to have to cut in six months. Studies have shown that the net muscle growth between yoyo bulking/cutting and steady-state recomposition (in which you build muscle slower but don't put on weight as fast) is about equal, and I like food too much to be a great cutter. Thus recomposition is more my style.

I like to toy around with different weight lifting routines, and because of bad joints - early onset arthritis is a bastard - I need to be extremely careful with how I lift and what exercises I do. At the moment I'm hitting each muscle group twice a week, with the first workout focused on heavier lifting and the second with lighter eccentric lifting. For each muscle group I do 16 minimum sets a week, and each muscle group for each workout gets a minimum of six sets. My main area of focus at the moment is shoulders and arms (my chest is quite fine), and I'm working on getting my legs where I want them to be: I have chronic chicken legs, and it doesn't help that my knee joints are bad and a single leg press exercise has me hobbling for three weeks. I'm the quintessential 'Hey bro, what about leg day?' culprit - but I have a medical excuse, so I have no guilt.