Lean Bulking and Guesswork

dpr73

I am not sure why my previous post was taken down. However, I am basically inquiring how often you guys will eat out at a restaurant or guess calories rather than being super accurate with calories. As in, how many meals (typically) a week especially on a lean bulk? Also, how do you allot the calories? I typically give one meal and allot 1200 calories to it, but am obviously cause it's all guesswork, I am unsure how often I can do this during a week and be fine with my goals. On the other hand, socializing is important in my life and I don't like to sacrifice that either.

livingleanlivingclean

You have to make choices that suit your goals as well as your lifestyle - if you don't like the results, change something.

I don't eat out a lot regardless of my goals - I pack food for work (I have to as I don't have time to go out), I usually cook and eat at home, and socialising isn't always around food.

If I was trying to achieve a specific physique goal I would be more accurate with my logging, and make choices that were easily trackable (or easier to guesstimate). If not, I'd be more lenient. I find it easy to eat too many calories so need to be mindful even in maintenance

dpr73

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

You have to make choices that suit your goals as well as your lifestyle - if you don't like the results, change something.

I don't eat out a lot regardless of my goals - I pack food for work (I have to as I don't have time to go out), I usually cook and eat at home, and socialising isn't always around food.

If I was trying to achieve a specific physique goal I would be more accurate with my logging, and make choices that were easily trackable (or easier to guesstimate). If not, I'd be more lenient. I find it easy to eat too many calories so need to be mindful even in maintenance

For sure, I like my lifestyle with counting and one meal a week where I save calories and guess. However, sometimes it just seems impossible to do that and maintain a social life (friends want to grab drinks or have a dinner). At my age (24), this is what I struggle with most--going out to social events and building my physique up as I am pretty light (5'7 and 135-140lbs, but lean) even after dedicated weightlifting for 5 years.

Seems like I have decisions to make, but I guess what I was hoping is that I could have the best of both worlds (a more consistent social life with friends and family and build up).

AnvilHead

Your other thread didn't get taken down - you posted it in General Discussion: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10686368/eating-out-guess-work-how-often

As to the question - whether you're lean bulking, maintaining, or trying to lose, the more often you eat out, the more often you introduce the potential for a larger margin of error. How much that risk is acceptable is up to you - if you want to keep very tight control, it's going to make things more difficult. If you're okay with winging it a bit and adjusting on the fly, you can try that too.

ForecasterJason

While lean bulking, I started tracking calories somewhat meticulously, but stopped for mental health reasons. I generally eat out at a fast food or restaurant once a week, sometimes twice. I do 3 solid meals a day, plus a snack or two. Sometimes one of my snacks will be fairly large (caloric wise) that is almost another meal.

Once I stopped tracking, I did struggle a bit with keeping the surplus where I wanted it, but I have managed OK.

dpr73

AnvilHead wrote: »

Your other thread didn't get taken down - you posted it in General Discussion: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10686368/eating-out-guess-work-how-often

As to the question - whether you're lean bulking, maintaining, or trying to lose, the more often you eat out, the more often you introduce the potential for a larger margin of error. How much that risk is acceptable is up to you - if you want to keep very tight control, it's going to make things more difficult. If you're okay with winging it a bit and adjusting on the fly, you can try that too.

I think the thread may have been moved over there. But thanks for finding it! I see your point. When you say adjust on the fly, do you mean tracking my weight trend over time with the guesswork and just limiting calories on days where I do count, for example, if the rate of gain proves to be a bit too fast?

AnvilHead

Yep, it might mean cutting back a little bit on the days you're tracking tightly if your trend shows you're gaining too fast. Or just accept that you're possibly going to gain a bit more fat with the extra surplus that you'll eventually have to cut.

sardelsa

I've run two successful bulks without tracking my intake (my first one I tracked fairly accurately). I don't think it's very common but it can be done. I tend to underestimate and eat less than I should so eating out was good in my case and would allow me to fill in those gaps. I use my trend weight app and adjust accordingly. I looked at the whole month and aimed for 1.5-2lbs total gain. Again this wasn't the most accurate way to do things, but really it was a few extra portions above maintenance.. pretty basic for me.

At the end of the day you make a decision and account for it best you can and adjust as you go. If you are gaining too fast over time, you either need to cut your intake elsewhere, eat less when you go out or go out less.