Clean mini bulk query

damianzhang86

Hi all,

So as some of you know, just under 10 monthsish, i have lost 41kg and 20%+ bodyfat, so now standing at 79kg, 6ft, 8.5% bodyfat.

Strength is going well, visable abs, veins in arms popping and some muscle striations in chest and shoulders.

I am wanting to try to increase muscle with minimal body fat up take. Currently eating BMR cals of 2050 + exercise calls of c. 400 (1hr and 50 mins lifting, 6 days a week). I am slowly losing weight, how do I up cals when I am eating in a slight surplus + at 2g per kg bodyweight protein?

Thanks

damianzhang86

Appreciate the answer is eat more but on budget & the bmr and exercise calculations seem to be wrong?

Retroguy2000

You're obviously still in a deficit if you're still losing weight, and you probably want to be in a small surplus of about 200 calories to increase your chance of muscle building with minimal fat.

Your maintenance is definitely not BMR + exercise calories. For one thing, that's not how the body works with exercise. A rule of thumb is about 50% of exercise calories cause a deficit, and that will vary too with the intensity of exercise and also with diminishing returns.

You could look at recent calorie intake and recent weight loss to estimate your maintenance. e.g. if you've been losing 1 pound per week in the last 2-3 weeks, assume your maintenance is 500 above your current intake.

There's a good vid at RP about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoD7bj74QPQ

damianzhang86

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

You're obviously still in a deficit if you're still losing weight, and you probably want to be in a small surplus of about 200 calories to increase your chance of muscle building with minimal fat.

Your maintenance is definitely not BMR + exercise calories. For one thing, that's not how the body works with exercise. A rule of thumb is about 50% of exercise calories cause a deficit, and that will vary too with the intensity of exercise and also with diminishing returns.

You could look at recent calorie intake and recent weight loss to estimate your maintenance. e.g. if you've been losing 1 pound per week in the last 2-3 weeks, assume your maintenance is 500 above your current intake.

There's a good vid at RP about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoD7bj74QPQ

Very helpful @Retroguy2000, will watch this after work, as always, appreciate your responses.