Hi :)! Especially to Ken (my you are all over the place :)!). I have a quick question: I currently gained about 8 pounds over the last few months due to emotional munchies (eeeks! trail mix) in the evenings. I exercise at least an hour a day, including MedEx Circuit Training (working muscle groups to exhaustion in very intense,short durations of time) twice a week. I have gained a lot of muscle this way. I am interested in taking off 5 pounds (my trail mix weight) while not losing the muscles I have gained. I figure about 3 lbs of the added weight is muscle. Any tips on how to do that, retain and hopefully continue to build lean muscle mass? I have cut out my evening munchies.
Hi Alice,
Is “my you are all over the place” a polite way of saying I write too much 
1 lb is about 3500 calories. 1 cup of trail mix is about 600 calories. If you ate 30 cups of trail mix over the past few months, that could definitely add 5 lbs.
The thing you want to avoid is a starvation scenario where your exercise actually causes you to burn lean fuel, since you aren’t eating enough.
Here’s an article that might help:
Losing fat and building muscle mass: Can this be done simultaneously?
Hey Ken thanks for the link! The cal count on my trail mix was a quarter your estimate (per serving… not that I only ate one serving), but I think it was what did me in. I don’t eat much in the way of carbs during the day and then I glimpse in the pantry at night and that bag of home made trail mix (cheerios with peanuts, raisins and chocolate chips scattered through it) glitters with the glory of the holy grail! So I think that in the few moments I ‘give myself a break’ I consume quite a few calories. Those chocolate chips, raisins, and peanuts can pack a punch!
I am very excited to read the article. I would hate to lose any progress I have made building muscle.
BTW 
My comment was a fun way of saying you write just enough. It is like ‘Kilroy’. “Hey, yes! Ken’s been here!”. I am going to start keeping a tally soon. It is lots of fun. Please, by all means, write more often.
Thanks for the Help!- Ali
As long as kilroy was cool, I’m OK with that analogy
My calorie estimate on the trail mix was for 1 cup (probably 4 servings). Based on my own experience of snacking right out of a bag, most people tend to take way more than a single serving or than they think. I might be a little OCD in some ways, but I now tend to measure most of my snack type foods very precisely so I know exactly how many carbs I’m getting. I actually count the almonds (one of my regular snacks) and eat exactly 28 (except when I want to live dangerously and go for 30), and then bolus for 5g carbs.
Ken