Deducting exercise calories while on a clean bulk?

snacksdaily
snacksdaily Posts: 1 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I'm attempting to bulk up a little bit, going from 162 to 165-166ish (5' 10"). Doing a lot of resistance training and some running, jumproping, etc. to keep up my cardio. And walking ~10k steps a day just to keep moving.

I've set a modest calorie surplus goal of 10%, which is around 250 calories - so shooting to eat ~2750 cal per day.

My question is, should I be adding calories to my diet when I train and burn a substantial amount of calories?

I'm not worried about small differences in calories burned from stuff like resistance training. But on days I do a long run or something, I can easily burn 500-700+ calories. On a day like that, should I really be eating like 3,300+ calories?

Thanks!

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Yes
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    If you want to be a high exerciser and be in a calorie surplus you have to eat enough to put you into a surplus - simple really.

    But you haven't stated how you came up with 2,500 as your assumed maintenance calories.
    If that is MyFitnessPal's "maintain current weight" recommendation it really means 2,500 + exercise calories.
    If you got that from a TDEE site it would mean that 2,500 includes a daily average of the weekly exercise you told it.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,253 Member
    The EXACT in and out Calories do not necessarily count on an EXACT 24 hour basis!

    But, if after three or four weeks you've managed to eat a +/- 3.5 to 5K Cal.... you're likely to find yourself weighting a +/- lb or so more or less depending on that overall caloric balance over time.

    And this applies regardless of whether you spent your Calories running marathons, skipping rope, lifting weights, or walking your dog. And regardless of whether you acquired your calories through Kale, protein shakes, cake, or beer consumption.

    Now. I am not saying you should run marathons while skipping rope and drinking beer. You probably have a more sane plan in mind.

    But if you're spending all the calories you're taking in... that won't result in a bulk. THAT SAID. A slow bulk may be quite imperceptible. It most certainly is hard to see a -250 deficit without looking at one's weight level through a weight trend app. And I would suspect that it will be similar when bulking at the same rate.

    So no. You don't have to balance the books every night. But longer term the books better balance out the way you want them to!

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