Upping my calories-need support

kwedman488

I'm a pretty active, 5'2" 20 year old, and for the longest time I was only eating 700-800 cals a day. I knew this wasn't healthy, so I forced myself to up it to 1200 a day, regardless of exercise or anything as such (was easier than I thought since this was when I switched to eating 6 meals a day). But now I'm hitting a point where I feel that I'm getting no progress despite everything I do to get toned. I know that to build muscle, however, you have to eat enough calories, and with insanity month two coming up next week, running a 5k every single morning, and doing other fitness challenges at the same time, 1200 a day couldn't help me..so I've decided to try upping my calories to 1400 ish calories this week and see how it goes. This is really scary, and I could really use some reassurance from others who have done this: did it help; did it make things worse? Thanks guys!

shirleygirl910

If you want toning, up your calorie intake with lean protein. There are multitudes of proteins with out looking at shakes, bars and meat. Try eating things like Quinoa. There are other threads about ways to get protein. Check it out.

Serah87

I'm 5'2 and eat between 1700-2000 calories. You need to fuel your body, look up TDEE and BMR. Good luck.

BeachGingerOnTheRocks

I'm not entirely sure of your goals. Are you wanting to add muscle to your frame or cut the fat? Both?

What is your weight? You need to calculate your maintenance calories and eat at maintenance or slightly above maintenance to build any discernible muscle. If your aim is to lose body fat while retaining muscle, you need to eat just below maintenance. Eating at too low a deficit won't help you lose fat and retain muscle, particularly doing cardio. If you want to add muscle or keep what you already have, you need to be doing some strength training with weights.

To put it in perspective, I am trying to add a little muscle to my frame, so I've upped my calories to right around 100-200 above maintenance. Yes, it is hard to get my mind around purposely eating enough food to gain weight, but it is what I have to do to reach my goals.

ETA: get your macros in order. Eat .8 - 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass or of body weight. Aim for .35 gram per pound of body weight in fats, and the rest can be carbs. the 40c/30p/30f macro setting you can use on MFP is an easy tool to get you close to these goals. Many people set their macros to that. Think about the foods you eat and aim to eat mostly nutritious, whole foods so you get your vitamins as well.

kwedman488

I was 103 pounds when I weighed myself several days ago, but my weight tends to fluctuate by a couple pounds naturally per day. When I last calculated my TDEE and BMI I was 107 pounds, which wouldn't make it too far off from what it would be now. Before, my BMI was about 1318 calories, and I multiplied it by 1.7 ("very active"-does that sound right for me for the workouts I do and me working two jobs where I stand the whole time?) to get about 2240. I've been reading that people recommend eating at TDEE-20%, so that would put me roughly at 1750 calories more or less. Does that sound right? Please let me know if I've calculated wrong.

I try to eat tons of protein, I have whey protein isolate that I use for protein shakes as well. My diary is open if anyone wants to look at it and give me suggestions, everything is measured out correctly since I have a food scale and measuring cups. Right now I have down that I've been eating Cheerios, but I bought some kashi go lean that I'm going to try out after I finish off my Cheerios-which will up my protein quite a bit as well.

I want to decrease my body fat and up my muscle mass. I'd like to start doing some strength training, but I don't really know where I should start, and I'm a little worried about doing it while I'm doing insanity, particularly when the second month starts next week for me and I hear that the second month is super intense.. But in general I just want to have some abs showing instead of this belly fat, although I am aware that you cannot spot treat.

conniemaxwell5

I was 103 pounds when I weighed myself several days ago, but my weight tends to fluctuate by a couple pounds naturally per day. When I last calculated my TDEE and BMI I was 107 pounds, which wouldn't make it too far off from what it would be now. Before, my BMI was about 1318 calories, and I multiplied it by 1.7 ("very active"-does that sound right for me for the workouts I do and me working two jobs where I stand the whole time?) to get about 2240. I've been reading that people recommend eating at TDEE-20%, so that would put me roughly at 1750 calories more or less. Does that sound right? Please let me know if I've calculated wrong.

I try to eat tons of protein, I have whey protein isolate that I use for protein shakes as well. My diary is open if anyone wants to look at it and give me suggestions, everything is measured out correctly since I have a food scale and measuring cups. Right now I have down that I've been eating Cheerios, but I bought some kashi go lean that I'm going to try out after I finish off my Cheerios-which will up my protein quite a bit as well.

I want to decrease my body fat and up my muscle mass. I'd like to start doing some strength training, but I don't really know where I should start, and I'm a little worried about doing it while I'm doing insanity, particularly when the second month starts next week for me and I hear that the second month is super intense.. But in general I just want to have some abs showing instead of this belly fat, although I am aware that you cannot spot treat.

At your activity level, this sounds right.

kwedman488

Ok so then should I be trying to eat my TDEE - 20%, or should I be eating more, less? Right now I'm just working on upping my calories slowly so my body doesn't store it all as fat since it's not used to that many calories-does this sound like a good idea?

wblau1991

Play it by ear, check yourself once a week to minimize the confusion from fluctuations on the scale. I heard the insantiy program is difficult so if you're following their workouts religiously then I wouldn't recommend doing anything extra on the side unless you really feel full of energy.