Help balancing diet & exercise

Lucas4447

Hey all,

Need some advice here. I recently started using myfitnesspal and logging all of my workout routines/food intake. While I've always been fairly active/athletic and maintained a healthy diet, I've never got around to counting or taking things too seriously. And man does it show why I haven't been seeing many results over the years. I mostly lift lighter weight with high reps/sets to stay toned & hike/play soccer for cardio.

A week ago today I started logging into the app. I want to gain muscle and lose fat. I used a basic TDEE calculator which indicated I should consume 3,000 calories at a 40/30/30% Protein/Carb/Fat goal. Well I thought that was a bit much so I've decreased it down to 2,800.

I've got a pretty good grasp on food intake and balancing out macros but my issue is what approach I should take to receive the best results. After a week, I only hit the 2,800 Calorie goal twice which was insanely hard to do. I felt constantly full and workouts were miserable and now I'm 3 pounds heavier than when I started and constantly bloated. I'm worried I may just be gaining weight.

I'm a bit confused on which techniques I should take in working out and how many calories I should aim for burning while doing so. The app has an exercise tracker that's linked to my iphone but I'm not sure how exact that is
Anyways, I feel I should either decrease my intake or increase my exercise amount. Possibly down to 2,200 calories. I'm 6'1 and weigh 196 as of this morning. My BMI is 23, highest it's ever been but It could be inaccurate as it comes from my scale. I'm toned mostly in arms, legs and calves but fat storage is definitely stored in the belly.

I usually alternate between cardio and weight training every other day. Issue is, I'm working two jobs until the end of this year so that leaves little time for multiple exercise routines while maintaining a healthy sleep pattern. I have an office job by day, but I work from home so I try to get some small workouts in here and there, and I work a fairly active on foot job at night (thank god for meal prep).

Any thoughts for best results or tips? Thanks!

cwolfman13

The option for "gain muscle and lose fat" with a TDEE calculator is a maintenance calorie target whereby you're doing a body recomp (ie, not cutting and not bulking)...used to also just call this "getting in shape." Basically maintenance calories and working out...changes are much slower than running cycles of bulking and cutting, but recomp is my personal preference.

The number is something you're likely going to have to experiment with as these calculators are only giving you an estimate based on your inputs and population statistics. 2200 calories might be a reasonable target if you're actually trying to cut weight but if you're trying to maintain weight it would be far too low. I lose about 1 Lb per week eating anywhere between 2300-2500 calories per day...2800-3000 is my maintenance range.

Recomp is most efficient (but still slow) with a solid lifting plan rather than just doing willy nilly. I had my best results with full body programs 3x per week...which is something I really need to get back to. I work primarily in the 8-12 rep range with sets of 3 or 4 depending on the lift.

jtechmart

I use a calculator to figure out what my maintenance calories are without exercise. Then I figure out the rest myself.

If you want to cut, then add up all calories you consumed in a day and subtract activity calories. Be sure total calories consumed is less than maintenance or hits your cutting goal. If you want to increase for muscle, then do the same thing just be sure calories end up above maintenance or your bulking goal. Only other factor is if you are building muscle you need lots of good protein. So, getting enough protein matters too.

But, for me I just use maintenance calories as a base and figure out the rest on my own. As long as you know how many calories you consumed and how many calories were burned from activity, its pretty easy to see where you are at.

I would also take caution if you feel like you are stuffing yourself to hit your calorie goal. Your intuition is probably right when it comes to this. Maybe rethink your total again and see what your total calories in a day really needs to be. Again for me, I just like to figure out what the base calories are to maintain weight, and figure out the rest on my own. I think its easier and more flexible that way.

The other obvious thing is you will need consistency in your diet and workouts. Also you will need to have effort if building muscle. Push to failure. If you half-*kitten* it you probably won't get the results you want. Its a game, so you will learn as you go. The more experience you get the better you get at it all.

Lucas4447

I think I understand the TDEE calculator now, with deficits/surplus. So how would I adjust to the extra intake? Do I need to increase weight training activities to use the extra calories for bulking? Should I stop cardio completely?

heybales

Comment on BMI - it's a calculation from height and weight - I'm sure the scale has it correct. Enter it into the multitude of online BMI calcs and confirm if curious.

So the TDEE calc isn't TDEE if not including exercise.

That's what MFP is doing already. Daily activity, no exercise included yet. Called NEAT calculator by many.

If you had an eating level that was not causing any weight changes until now - then that amount is your TDEE for that level of activity.
If attempting to bulk, just need to eat more than that - whatever that real number is doesn't matter as much really.

Eat more. 250 more.

If you have added on a lot of exercise, then that eating level is obviously not TDEE for a newer higher level of activity.

Eat even more - now you need to estimate your calorie burn for whatever is extra and eat that, and 250 more.

Why are you doing the cardio, heart health? Warmup, cooldown? Enjoyment? Training for something?
As long as you take it into account to eat more.

If you can't eat enough to cover all the expenditure - then you do need to expend less, or figure out how to eat more.

As far as estimate for lifting calorie burn - use the MFP database - it's good estimate though it may seem low.
For the cardio - depends on what you are doing and how long.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

Your weight/strength/ resistance training is gonna be the thing that drives muscle growth. So what does your routine look like? Are you following a programme?

sijomial

Lucas4447 wrote: »

Should I stop cardio completely?

What do you do as regards cardio?
Do your fitness goals include CV fitness?
Why are you thinking of stopping it?

surfsupbruzz88

Try the weetbix diet 2 or 3 days per week for 3 month's and tell me how you go..
Natural Order for Human my belief only is there would of been somedays that we come back with a unsuccessful animal kill so not getting protein everyday is a natural thing..
We would of been still active on those days also..