Do you gain weight in body recomp?

Okay so I'm pretty much at my goal weight but I really want to get into the shape that I should be in for the weight that I'm at ( 5 foot 8, about 130,) and I don't mind water retention from working out but I want to avoid putting on fat while I gain muscle. What's my best option here? How do I set up a recomp? Never done it before. Is fat gain inevitable with muscle gain?

I haven't been able to work out since January because of a serious injury except for lots of long quick walks everyday and I just got the clearance to start working out. Any tips?
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Replies

  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,487 Member
    edited July 2017
    Once you get to your goal weight and have your maintenance calories established you should be able to run a recomp within your goal weight range. That is the whole point of a recomp as opposed to a bulk cut cycle.

    If you have been off lifting for a few months start low and re-establish good form.

    Here is a link to the recomp thread.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

    Cheers, h.

    ETA: if you are cleared to start lifting start now. And just continue into a maintenance recomp. You will get the water gain, but you aware of that so it shouldn't deter you :)
  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
    Thank you guys so much! Really appreciate it all xoxo
  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
    Do I eat back excercise calories? Half? What do you guys think? Or just eat at maintenance.
  • Rammer123
    Rammer123 Posts: 679 Member
    edited July 2017
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.
  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?
  • JeepHair77
    JeepHair77 Posts: 1,291 Member
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?

    I'm not @RAD_Fitness , but I try to eat more on days that I work out, in particular carbs and protein, in an attempt to improve muscle recovery. Fat gain/loss is the same either way, but you might FEEL better eating his way, and someone else might come along and tell you that it improves muscle build, too - I don't know the science, there.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    Do I eat back excercise calories? Half? What do you guys think? Or just eat at maintenance.

    What's setting your calories? MFP? Because MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), exercise calories are supposed to be eaten. Some find the MFP database calories are inflated for them and only eat 50% back. Others can eat 100%.
  • Rammer123
    Rammer123 Posts: 679 Member
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?

    It SHOULD help you train harder during your workouts, which in turn will lead to more muscle growth. It will also provide your body more nutrients on the day's when they need them most. If you feel better eating at maintenance calories every day, then by all means do that, I just generally find that eating more on the days you train can help you feel better during your workouts. It puts you in a deficit 4 days of the week and a surplus 3 days which over the week lead to a maintenance weight, but ideally would help you build muscle on those 3 days and lose fat on those 4 days and over time (months/years) your body can change drastically.

    You can think of it as being like, every week, you are in a 900 calorie surplus and a 900 calorie deficit each week at the same time, which will lead to your weight to maintain while increasing lean mass and lowering fat. That is a major simplification because your body is second by second working, but that's the idea. As you can see though, even with those numbers, that is a lb of muscle built and a lb of fat lost in a month, with pretty IDEAL numbers, with solid training and solid diet and pretty unlikely to be that perfect honestly.

    Just know, changes will come slow, and you must be patient, but you will see awesome progress if you are diligent.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?

    It SHOULD help you train harder during your workouts, which in turn will lead to more muscle growth. It will also provide your body more nutrients on the day's when they need them most. If you feel better eating at maintenance calories every day, then by all means do that, I just generally find that eating more on the days you train can help you feel better during your workouts. It puts you in a deficit 4 days of the week and a surplus 3 days which over the week lead to a maintenance weight, but ideally would help you build muscle on those 3 days and lose fat on those 4 days and over time (months/years) your body can change drastically.

    You can think of it as being like, every week, you are in a 900 calorie surplus and a 900 calorie deficit each week at the same time, which will lead to your weight to maintain while increasing lean mass and lowering fat. That is a major simplification because your body is second by second working, but that's the idea. As you can see though, even with those numbers, that is a lb of muscle built and a lb of fat lost in a month, with pretty IDEAL numbers, with solid training and solid diet and pretty unlikely to be that perfect honestly.

    Just know, changes will come slow, and you must be patient, but you will see awesome progress if you are diligent.

    Personally if I was told this I would be like WTF...because I am not "hungrier" on training days...nor do I need the extra food...esp if eating enough.

    I am hungry on my day after big lifts or a run.

    For example yesterday was DL day...and a long walk (no running on leg day) and I woke up starved ate my breakfast (smoothie with 50 grams of protein powder) and I was hungry before lunch.

  • Rammer123
    Rammer123 Posts: 679 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?

    It SHOULD help you train harder during your workouts, which in turn will lead to more muscle growth. It will also provide your body more nutrients on the day's when they need them most. If you feel better eating at maintenance calories every day, then by all means do that, I just generally find that eating more on the days you train can help you feel better during your workouts. It puts you in a deficit 4 days of the week and a surplus 3 days which over the week lead to a maintenance weight, but ideally would help you build muscle on those 3 days and lose fat on those 4 days and over time (months/years) your body can change drastically.

    You can think of it as being like, every week, you are in a 900 calorie surplus and a 900 calorie deficit each week at the same time, which will lead to your weight to maintain while increasing lean mass and lowering fat. That is a major simplification because your body is second by second working, but that's the idea. As you can see though, even with those numbers, that is a lb of muscle built and a lb of fat lost in a month, with pretty IDEAL numbers, with solid training and solid diet and pretty unlikely to be that perfect honestly.

    Just know, changes will come slow, and you must be patient, but you will see awesome progress if you are diligent.

    Personally if I was told this I would be like WTF...because I am not "hungrier" on training days...nor do I need the extra food...esp if eating enough.

    I am hungry on my day after big lifts or a run.

    For example yesterday was DL day...and a long walk (no running on leg day) and I woke up starved ate my breakfast (smoothie with 50 grams of protein powder) and I was hungry before lunch.

    You're probably hungrier the day after the heavy lifting or run because you did not eat enough on the day you trained hard. If you had, you would not be as hungry the following day. I am not saying that is the end all be all. You can do it either way. Some people like to eat more on their rest days because it's the time for their body to recover and they are providing more nutrients when they are recovering from training and eat less calories on training days and put as much around their workout as they can.

    It works both ways, and the idea is that you are in a calorie surplus some days and a calorie deficit others, but at maintenance over the week.

    For you if you were maintaining, you'd likely prefer to eat more on rest days and less on training days. For me, I'd prefer to eat more calories on training days and less on rest days. We are both getting surplus and deficit days and we will both successfully recomp if we stay on track for a good amount of time.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Ditto's to probably needing more after a good workout for repair.
    Only need so much before to have a good workout.

    I've always benefited more by making sure the post workout fueling was best, rather than pre workout.
    Good post workout almost makes the pre-workout good automatically, as long as you've got enough blood sugar to think clearly and push it.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
    edited July 2017
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?

    It SHOULD help you train harder during your workouts, which in turn will lead to more muscle growth. It will also provide your body more nutrients on the day's when they need them most. If you feel better eating at maintenance calories every day, then by all means do that, I just generally find that eating more on the days you train can help you feel better during your workouts. It puts you in a deficit 4 days of the week and a surplus 3 days which over the week lead to a maintenance weight, but ideally would help you build muscle on those 3 days and lose fat on those 4 days and over time (months/years) your body can change drastically.

    You can think of it as being like, every week, you are in a 900 calorie surplus and a 900 calorie deficit each week at the same time, which will lead to your weight to maintain while increasing lean mass and lowering fat. That is a major simplification because your body is second by second working, but that's the idea. As you can see though, even with those numbers, that is a lb of muscle built and a lb of fat lost in a month, with pretty IDEAL numbers, with solid training and solid diet and pretty unlikely to be that perfect honestly.

    Just know, changes will come slow, and you must be patient, but you will see awesome progress if you are diligent.

    Personally if I was told this I would be like WTF...because I am not "hungrier" on training days...nor do I need the extra food...esp if eating enough.

    I am hungry on my day after big lifts or a run.

    For example yesterday was DL day...and a long walk (no running on leg day) and I woke up starved ate my breakfast (smoothie with 50 grams of protein powder) and I was hungry before lunch.

    You're probably hungrier the day after the heavy lifting or run because you did not eat enough on the day you trained hard. If you had, you would not be as hungry the following day. I am not saying that is the end all be all. You can do it either way. Some people like to eat more on their rest days because it's the time for their body to recover and they are providing more nutrients when they are recovering from training and eat less calories on training days and put as much around their workout as they can.

    It works both ways, and the idea is that you are in a calorie surplus some days and a calorie deficit others, but at maintenance over the week.

    For you if you were maintaining, you'd likely prefer to eat more on rest days and less on training days. For me, I'd prefer to eat more calories on training days and less on rest days. We are both getting surplus and deficit days and we will both successfully recomp if we stay on track for a good amount of time.

    I eat the same pretty much everyday and I don't consider what i do "hard" as I follow 5/3/1 so 15-20mins lifting and 1 hour walk vs 15-20mins lifting and 30mins running M-Th and I am only hungry typically after the DL day or an outdoor run (I typically run on Treadmill)

    ETA: I guess what I am saying is calorie cycling isn't always what is needed, when you eat your calories is pretty personal and depends on the person.

    and I have yet to read anything definitive on it that provides the proof of "more muscle gain"

    as well the repair of the muscle happens post workout within the next 24-48 hours so me being hungry the following day makes more sense than eating more on a heavy lifting day...
  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?

    It SHOULD help you train harder during your workouts, which in turn will lead to more muscle growth. It will also provide your body more nutrients on the day's when they need them most. If you feel better eating at maintenance calories every day, then by all means do that, I just generally find that eating more on the days you train can help you feel better during your workouts. It puts you in a deficit 4 days of the week and a surplus 3 days which over the week lead to a maintenance weight, but ideally would help you build muscle on those 3 days and lose fat on those 4 days and over time (months/years) your body can change drastically.

    You can think of it as being like, every week, you are in a 900 calorie surplus and a 900 calorie deficit each week at the same time, which will lead to your weight to maintain while increasing lean mass and lowering fat. That is a major simplification because your body is second by second working, but that's the idea. As you can see though, even with those numbers, that is a lb of muscle built and a lb of fat lost in a month, with pretty IDEAL numbers, with solid training and solid diet and pretty unlikely to be that perfect honestly.

    Just know, changes will come slow, and you must be patient, but you will see awesome progress if you are diligent.

    Okay great! Thanks I'm going to try that out. I'm used to eating the same amount of calories no matter if I'm training or not but I've never tried any other way. I always would just up my overall calories and work out 5 days a week. I'll experiment. Thanks!
  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    I would recommend eating about 200-300 calories above maintenance on your training days and then eating below your maintenance on non training days.

    For instance. If you're maintenance is 2,000 calories (which includes your exercise calories for weight training and any cardio), and you weight train/cardio 3x per week, I would eat 2,300 calories on those 3 days. On the remaining 4 days that you are not training, I would eat 1,800 calories. The days you don't need as much energy you aren't eating as much, and the days you are training you are eating more. If you're training early in the morning you may want to switch it to eating the higher amount of calories the day prior to training to have extra energy those days.

    In the end, maintenance of 2,000 per day x 7 days= 14,000 and then (2,300 x 3 days) + (1,800 x 4 days)= 14,100. Same calories per week. If you want to be more specific, I'd slightly increase carbs and lower fats on training days, and lower carbs and increase fats on rest days, keeping protein constant minimum of 1g/lb of bodyweight.

    ETA: I am not saying that 2,000 calories is your maintenance just to be clear, just using it as an easy number to do calculations for an example.

    Is there actually a reason to do this other than because you may be more hungry? In the end, wood it be the same to just eat at maintenance every day whether I train or not or is there a reason that it makes sense for muscle building to structure it in this way?

    It SHOULD help you train harder during your workouts, which in turn will lead to more muscle growth. It will also provide your body more nutrients on the day's when they need them most. If you feel better eating at maintenance calories every day, then by all means do that, I just generally find that eating more on the days you train can help you feel better during your workouts. It puts you in a deficit 4 days of the week and a surplus 3 days which over the week lead to a maintenance weight, but ideally would help you build muscle on those 3 days and lose fat on those 4 days and over time (months/years) your body can change drastically.

    You can think of it as being like, every week, you are in a 900 calorie surplus and a 900 calorie deficit each week at the same time, which will lead to your weight to maintain while increasing lean mass and lowering fat. That is a major simplification because your body is second by second working, but that's the idea. As you can see though, even with those numbers, that is a lb of muscle built and a lb of fat lost in a month, with pretty IDEAL numbers, with solid training and solid diet and pretty unlikely to be that perfect honestly.

    Just know, changes will come slow, and you must be patient, but you will see awesome progress if you are diligent.

    Personally if I was told this I would be like WTF...because I am not "hungrier" on training days...nor do I need the extra food...esp if eating enough.

    I am hungry on my day after big lifts or a run.

    For example yesterday was DL day...and a long walk (no running on leg day) and I woke up starved ate my breakfast (smoothie with 50 grams of protein powder) and I was hungry before lunch.

    You're probably hungrier the day after the heavy lifting or run because you did not eat enough on the day you trained hard. If you had, you would not be as hungry the following day. I am not saying that is the end all be all. You can do it either way. Some people like to eat more on their rest days because it's the time for their body to recover and they are providing more nutrients when they are recovering from training and eat less calories on training days and put as much around their workout as they can.

    It works both ways, and the idea is that you are in a calorie surplus some days and a calorie deficit others, but at maintenance over the week.

    For you if you were maintaining, you'd likely prefer to eat more on rest days and less on training days. For me, I'd prefer to eat more calories on training days and less on rest days. We are both getting surplus and deficit days and we will both successfully recomp if we stay on track for a good amount of time.

    I eat the same pretty much everyday and I don't consider what i do "hard" as I follow 5/3/1 so 15-20mins lifting and 1 hour walk vs 15-20mins lifting and 30mins running M-Th and I am only hungry typically after the DL day or an outdoor run (I typically run on Treadmill)

    ETA: I guess what I am saying is calorie cycling isn't always what is needed, when you eat your calories is pretty personal and depends on the person.

    and I have yet to read anything definitive on it that provides the proof of "more muscle gain"

    as well the repair of the muscle happens post workout within the next 24-48 hours so me being hungry the following day makes more sense than eating more on a heavy lifting day...
    i guess I, going to have to try different things. I'm used to eating the same amount of calories every single day but maybe I should try the other way just to see if it does make me feel stronger? I definitely know that working out doesn't make me hungrier usually unless it's heavy cardio which I won't be doing

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Do I eat back excercise calories? Half? What do you guys think? Or just eat at maintenance.

    Remember everything is an estimate.
    But to maintain you MUST be eating all your exercise calories back - otherwise you are in a deficit.
    Irrelevant if you call them that (MFP method) or roll them up into same day allowance (average TDEE method).

    Whether the number you estimate and eat back (or roll up into TDEE) is correct is judged by your actual weight trend over time. It's just as likely neither your food calories or exercise calorie estimates are actually accurate - doesn't matter if you find your balance.

    Calorie cycling is purely personal preference, majoring in the minors if you like, not a requirement at all.
    You are cycling between deficit and surplus multiple times a day - not just day to day. No micro management required.
    Go for the eating pattern that you enjoy long term would be my advice.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Do I eat back excercise calories? Half? What do you guys think? Or just eat at maintenance.

    Remember everything is an estimate.
    But to maintain you MUST be eating all your exercise calories back - otherwise you are in a deficit.
    Irrelevant if you call them that (MFP method) or roll them up into same day allowance (average TDEE method).

    Whether the number you estimate and eat back (or roll up into TDEE) is correct is judged by your actual weight trend over time. It's just as likely neither your food calories or exercise calorie estimates are actually accurate - doesn't matter if you find your balance.

    Calorie cycling is purely personal preference, majoring in the minors if you like, not a requirement at all.
    You are cycling between deficit and surplus multiple times a day - not just day to day. No micro management required.
    Go for the eating pattern that you enjoy long term would be my advice.

    To have a successful recomp and not spin your wheels for months on end "majoring in the minors" is important. They are not minors when you are trying to recomp. Sure if you eat at maintenance and train hard for 10 years, you'll put on some muscle and lose some fat along the way, or you can be very strict and follow specific meal timing and macros and get the same results in 2 years, or anywhere in between.

    Just because someone is not willing to put in the effort and discipline into eating and training as someone else, does not mean it does not have value.

    sorry but meal timing is so totally irrelevant...I mean come on. If it were relevant people who do IF couldn't Recomp and I know lots who do.

    It's like saying you have to have X before you workout and X after...within X minutes.

    I hate it when people confuse and over complicate situations.

    Recomp is not that complicated. eat at Maintenance and do a progressive load resistance training program...ensure you are getting in enough Protein for repair.

    and Yes it's that simple.
  • Rammer123
    Rammer123 Posts: 679 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    Do I eat back excercise calories? Half? What do you guys think? Or just eat at maintenance.

    Remember everything is an estimate.
    But to maintain you MUST be eating all your exercise calories back - otherwise you are in a deficit.
    Irrelevant if you call them that (MFP method) or roll them up into same day allowance (average TDEE method).

    Whether the number you estimate and eat back (or roll up into TDEE) is correct is judged by your actual weight trend over time. It's just as likely neither your food calories or exercise calorie estimates are actually accurate - doesn't matter if you find your balance.

    Calorie cycling is purely personal preference, majoring in the minors if you like, not a requirement at all.
    You are cycling between deficit and surplus multiple times a day - not just day to day. No micro management required.
    Go for the eating pattern that you enjoy long term would be my advice.

    To have a successful recomp and not spin your wheels for months on end "majoring in the minors" is important. They are not minors when you are trying to recomp. Sure if you eat at maintenance and train hard for 10 years, you'll put on some muscle and lose some fat along the way, or you can be very strict and follow specific meal timing and macros and get the same results in 2 years, or anywhere in between.

    Just because someone is not willing to put in the effort and discipline into eating and training as someone else, does not mean it does not have value.

    sorry but meal timing is so totally irrelevant...I mean come on. If it were relevant people who do IF couldn't Recomp and I know lots who do.

    It's like saying you have to have X before you workout and X after...within X minutes.

    I hate it when people confuse and over complicate situations.

    Recomp is not that complicated. eat at Maintenance and do a progressive load resistance training program...ensure you are getting in enough Protein for repair.

    and Yes it's that simple.

    That's fine if that's your opinion.

    I have experience with myself and with working with others and I know for me and others, meal timing, macro counting, and calorie cycling have drastically improved success during a recomp.

    Not trying to win you over, just telling my experience, so no need for you to say you think I am wrong, I understand you do not agree with my experiences.