Help with Stronglifts calorie intake

plasticserenity

Hi all!

I was hoping to get some advice on my calorie intake now that I’ve decided to take the leap into weight lifting.

As a bit of background – I’ve lost weight in the past by doing the whole 1200 calories thing. These days I hover at around 126 – 130lbs at 5ft 6in (BMI of around 21). I know this is a healthy weight for my height but unfortunately I am still super wobbly so I’m well aware that building some muscle is the way forward!

I’ve just started Stronglifts 5x5 this week and I am loving it so far! Only 2 sessions in so it’s early days, but I really want to make a decent go of it so I need to make sure that I address my diet.

Losing weight was fairly straightforward – if I ate less and moved more my weight went down, and it started to get fairly intuitive (I knew when I was eating too much and could adjust accordingly). But honestly I have never paid enough attention to my macros and making sure I ate well. But now I know that to increase my strength and build some muscle, not lose weight, I need to at least eat at maintenance but I’m not sure if that’s all there is to it?

What I have so far:

I am attempting to eat at least 100g of protein a day (quite tricky for me to do but getting better!).

I know that my BMR is just under 1400 calories.

I have a desk job so I am fairly sedentary, yet I walk the dog every morning before work (around 40 mins, just under 2 miles). According to my Fitbit, my daily burn averages somewhere between 1800-1900 (as low as 1500 if I have a lazy day, up to around 2000+ if I manage to get my 10k steps in).

At the moment, other than 3 days Stronglifts and daily dog walk I’m not doing any other exercise, although I’d quite like to get back to running on the treadmill on my non-lifting days (which my Fitbit would take into account) as well as some longer walks in the Peaks at weekends.

So my actual question! To be successfully getting stronger and building muscle (hopefully without gaining too much fat) should I just aim to eat around what I burn while getting enough protein, so around 1800 a day? Or should I eat more on the 3 days a week I am lifting, then less on the days when I am not?

I’ve spent so long eating at a deficit that I’m really not sure how best to tackle this.

The future plan is to start looking at all my macros more carefully (not just protein) but I’m hoping that by making small changes at first, I will find it easier to stick to!

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

TavistockToad

if you want to build muscle, you need a surplus, which will include some fat gain. i would suggest you start at maintenance and see what sort of results you get after a few months and then decide if you want to bulk & cut.

i would aim for 0.8g per pound of bodyweight for protein, 0.4g per pound for fat and the rest carbs.

1800 sounds like a good starting point (i am 5ft5 and 137lbs and maintain on around net 1950)

psuLemon

The best advice I can give anyone, is pick a number, track for 4-6 weeks and adjust based on actual results. I would agree sticking at maintenance is probably a good starting point. You can gain some muscle and cut fat (this is called a recomp) if diet and exercise are adequate.