How to determine correct Macro and Calorie amounts

Fibrofighter13

I'm becoming discouraged with trying to determine my Macros and Calories. I read so many contradictory articles and had an appointment with a Registered Dietician which was practically useless. She gave me a bunch of links to look at protein smoothie recipes that I could have easily Google'd myself. I am 135lbs and looking to gain muscle. I work out about 5+ days a week for about 60+ min (depending on what type of workout I'm doing). I think I'm putting in the hard work, but I'm not seeing the results (I'm pretty sure it's because of nutrition). I've been doing this since March. It seems nearly impossible to find a nutritionist that will help develop a meal plan to gain muscle. I am lost. Where should I turn for competent help? Anyone struggled with this? Suggestions?

AnnPT77

No need to overcomplicate, IMO.

Start with your MFP calorie recommendation. Set activity level per instructions, considering daily life activity not including exercise. Log your exercise (carefully) and eat those calories back (or at least a big, arithmetically consistent chunk of them, like 50%-75%). Do that for 4-6 weeks, then adjust based on average weekly weight results (use a minimum of one full menstrual cycle if a premenopausal female, so you're comparing weights at the same relative point in at least two different cycles; if the first couple weeks are a roller coaster because of major eating/exercise changes causing unusual water weight shifts - which is common - throw out the weird week or two, and use 4-6 later weeks).

For macros, the MFP defaults aren't terrible for most people, so it's fine to start there. If you want to be a little more structured, this is reasonable:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

That also goes into other ways to estimate calorie needs, as a starting point. No matter what method you use - including a personal fitness tracker - the "test and adjust" process outlined above is a good plan. Any estimator just spits out a population average for the defined demographic values. That'll be close for most people, off (high or low) for a few, or way off (for a very rare few). Your early results tell you where you fall on the bell curve, basically.

If you want to consider recent research about protein, there's this article from an evidence-based site that is generally regarded as neutral and fairly sensible (and the article links to a protein "calculator" that can be adjusted for your details including goals):

https://examine.com/nutrition/how-much-protein-do-you-need/

The USDA's comprehensive nutrition recommendations for you can be determined via the calculator linked below. Personally, I think their recommendations are a little too focused on minimums (to avoid undernutrition) vs. optimization, and are seriously lowball for protein for active people or those losing weight, but I'm no expert.

https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dri-calculator/

The general run of blogs and such have some pretty varied and sometimes really nutty advice. The above are pretty mainstream . . . which may or may not suit you.

Regardless of where you start, you may find you need to adjust somewhat based on personal experience. IMO the big issues in that are energy level and satiation. Some people need more protein or fats to feel full. Some people need moderate to high carbs to sustain energy, while others find carbs appetite-spiking. You'll learn what you need, just make moderate changes, and pay attention to results.

One note: For anyone, muscle gain is a slow, slow thing. For a woman, under ideal conditions, a quarter pound of muscle mass gain per week would be a really good result (without dangerous/illegal performance enhancing drugs). For men, twice that. Ideal conditions include a well-designed progressive strength program faithfully performed, good nutrition (especially adequate high-quality protein), sensible recovery, relative youth, good genetics, and a calorie *surplus*. Most of us don't/can't hit all of those conditions. Strength gains can be quite rapid, especially for novices at first, through neuromuscular adaptation (better recruiting and using existing muscle fibers), and improvement in appearance can also be a bit faster. So, there can be positive outcomes in less than months/years. But actual mass gain is an investment in patience and consistency. I don't know for sure, but depending on exactly what you've been doing since march (5 months or so), you may be expecting too much, quickly.

Strength training is still worth doing, for a huge number of reasons. But mass gain? So slow. 😐

Best wishes!

nanastaci2020

The short answer:

To gain muscle, eat at or slightly above maintenance and consume a generous quantity of protein in addition to your strength training.

Dogmom1978

Fibrofighter13 wrote: »

I'm becoming discouraged with trying to determine my Macros and Calories. I read so many contradictory articles and had an appointment with a Registered Dietician which was practically useless. She gave me a bunch of links to look at protein smoothie recipes that I could have easily Google'd myself. I am 135lbs and looking to gain muscle. I work out about 5+ days a week for about 60+ min (depending on what type of workout I'm doing). I think I'm putting in the hard work, but I'm not seeing the results (I'm pretty sure it's because of nutrition). I've been doing this since March. It seems nearly impossible to find a nutritionist that will help develop a meal plan to gain muscle. I am lost. Where should I turn for competent help? Anyone struggled with this? Suggestions?

So, some questions: are you eating enough protein? Do you eat sufficiently pre workout to have enough energy to push yourself? Are your weights progressing weekly, biweekly, etc? What does your weight workout look like? What app are you using to track reps, weight, sets, etc? Are you consuming protein post workout? Are you tracking your calorie intake (you need to eat at a surplus and have enough protein each day)?

If you go to the gym and do 4 sets of 12 reps of a 50 lb bench press and that’s what you do EACH TIME, of course you won’t progress. Wouldn’t matter how much protein you ate.... part of building muscle is about progressive overload; hence many of my questions above. We can’t help you without some more info.

Talan79

Are you following a program?
What does your 60 min entail?

tinaamir3

Hi everyone, can someone please help with this. I am trying to set up my macros as 120g Protein, 50g fat and 150g carb. By my calculations this should add up to 2030 calories a day. However, MFP is calculating 1530 calories. Why? How do I change this?

MarttaHP

tinaamir3 wrote: »

Hi everyone, can someone please help with this. I am trying to set up my macros as 120g Protein, 50g fat and 150g carb. By my calculations this should add up to 2030 calories a day. However, MFP is calculating 1530 calories. Why? How do I change this?

Carbs and protein are 4 kcal/g and fats are 9 kcal/g.

150 g x 4 kcal/g + 50 g x 9 kcal/g + 120 g x 4 kcal/g = 1530 kcal

Looks right to me.

charmmeth

I tried to reproduce your calculation. Have you multiplied protein by 9 as well as the fat? (Though if I do that I get to 2130 kcal.)