How many calories should I be eating?

saturnhuman
saturnhuman Posts: 4 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Im a girl and im 5'9 and 152 lbs. I workout 4 times a week. Im on my feet all day at my parttime job. I want to gain muscle but not gain much. Im also vegetarian.

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    As I said in your last thread, at your height and weigh, perhaps your goal should be body recomposition rather than weight loss. In that case, you would set your weekly weight loss goal to 0 - eat at maintenance.

    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/2016072756018/fitness-blogger-kelsey-wells-shows-weight-doesnt-matter/

    f8o7dc762zns.png
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    ^^Photoshoped.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    That image is all kinds of wrong...I don't think it's photoshopped but no way I believe she's 18 pounds heavier in picture #3 than picture #2...but then again, she's further away from the camera so it's not really a fair comparison.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    That image is all kinds of wrong...I don't think it's photoshopped but no way I believe she's 18 pounds heavier in picture #3 than picture #2...but then again, she's further away from the camera so it's not really a fair comparison.

    Its photoshopped. I could blow up the areas and show you but it is a waste of time.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,732 Member
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    That image is all kinds of wrong...I don't think it's photoshopped but no way I believe she's 18 pounds heavier in picture #3 than picture #2...but then again, she's further away from the camera so it's not really a fair comparison.

    Its photoshopped. I could blow up the areas and show you but it is a waste of time.

    I’d actually be interested. I’ve seen this photo a lot, don’t know anything about the lady, and am just in a frame of mind not to believe anything I see online these days. Except photos of other MFP’ers. Usually. There’s been a couple lately I think have had a digital diet, sad to say.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited August 2021
    OK, I will post a little of it when I get in front of my work console. If you have photoshop I can tell you all you have to do is access a suspected area (like her leg which looks broken) and blow it up until the worked on area pixelates and the rest of the image doesn't. But, I could see with the naked eye her knee on the right hand image was tampered with probably not with a high level image editor. So I blew it up and it was all brushed out to make it thinner. I only did it because I think people seeking help should be honest.

    She is a very pretty girl in all the photos and needs photoshop like I need another mid life crisis.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Here are some more pictures of Kelsey Wells:

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/fitness-blogger-kelsey-wells-shows-her-bloated-belly-and-shares-a-body-positive-message-040130747.html
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Oh, I did not realize she is famous. I must be getting daft. I thought that was the OP.
    Hahaha! Its still photoshopped.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited August 2021
    udws6if6xzxy.jpg

    I kept away from intimate areas but, this shows it was photoshopped.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Here are some more pictures of Kelsey Wells:

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/fitness-blogger-kelsey-wells-shows-her-bloated-belly-and-shares-a-body-positive-message-040130747.html

    From that link:
    She calls Instagram “a highlight reel of sorts” filled with good lighting and all the right angles, acknowledging that she takes part in the illusion,

    Illusion.

    That composite picture is misleading, on purpose.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,688 Member
    I dunno about Kelsey, but body comp can make a pretty major difference in weight. There's a regular around here who IIRC is my height, truly excellently muscular, much lower BF% (I think low-mid teens, to my mid 20s), and I believe around 30 pounds heavier. We're both female. We look different. 🤣 Clothes sizes and *some* of the body measurements might be closer than the BF%s or appearance are, though I'm not sure.

    I'm not going to name a name without her permission, but it'd be familiar to other regulars.

    I'm not sure 18 pounds is all that much to add, going from pretty skinny to kind of muscular. I'm sure the Kelsey photos are chosen (and maybe manipulated) to make the point. (For clarity: I believe they're manipulated. I'm less certain that they're manipulated to paint a picture that's dramatically different from reality. That could go either way.)

    Bulk and cut would be quicker than recomp, I presume (because of others' anecdotes, not personal experience).

    Bringing it back to on-topic for the thread: I agree that recomp could be a good thing for OP. @saturnhuman, gaining "too much" muscle by accident is not a thing you'd need to worry about. Muscle gain is slow for anyone, but can be even more so for women.

    If you start working on it, and reach a look you like, you can drop back to a maintenance level of workout. It's not like we wake up one morning all muscle-y. It takes time and hard work, and you can stop or maintain at any point. (Vegetarianism, at proper nutrition, isn't an issue pro or con for weight loss or fitness, IMO. I'm vegetarian, have been for 47+ years.)

    Did someone link the recomp thread?

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

    OP, you'll find some nice progress photos interspersed here and there in that thread, to give you an idea of real world results for real people using specific programs over some particular timespan.

    As always, just my opinions.

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