Calorie intake please

beccasgarden

Can anyone help me with calories?? Every site i go to tells me different amounts, I am following a liftng program from womens muscle and fitness, I want to gain muscle not nessasarly loose wt. Right now I average 1700 calories a day, macros set at 40/40/20. Workouts are burning between 300 and 600 calories a day depending on cardio. According to mfp I should do like 1300 a day and I know that is way too low. Any suggestions?

prestigio

Try this calculator
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa64.htm

Then look if the result is as desired. If not, increase or decrease your calories and find out by practice what your maintenance calories are (so you know how much to eat to gain weight).

stt43

What you're on now seems fine to me, as long as you feel ok on this level of calories.

clambert1273

Mine is around 1710 calories with a 40/30/30 macro. Sometimes I am under, but do try to hit it when possible I am not doing cardio but you should be ok at that amount and doing cardio

Stage14

If you want to build muscle (as in actually add more muscle to what you currently have), you need to eat at a caloric surplus. Be aware that you will also likely gain some fat. That is why lifters often go through "bulking" and "cutting" cycles. They bulk up to add muscle, then cut to lose the fat that came with the muscle gains.

If you want to decrease your BF % and strengthen the muscles you have, then eat at a small deficit (like 10-15% under your TDEE) and make sure you have plenty of protein in your diet. I cant tell you if I think 1700 calories is a good deficit for you because I have no idea what your stats are.

beccasgarden

Thanks for the help!!!!