Macros/Daily food goals? HELP!

starspecks

First, I want to start off with being this conscious of my diet is brand new to me! For the past 3 years my focus has been eating clean and avoiding premade boxed foods. Only recently have I added measuring and calculating my food intake. I have been extremely active my entire life and wish to have more of a game plan since I feel I am MORE than ready. I have been exercising 5/ week while living a very active lifestyle outside of any exercise I do. I was burning 250-350 4 times a week and 500-600 calories 1 x week. I am now going to increase my workload to around 600-800 cals burned 5 x a week with a heavy lifting schedule. I obviously need to alter my diet and I know I haven't been doing the right things with it so far.

My goal is to lower body fat while gaining muscle.


So i'll start with the numbers I got

Height 5 6'
Weight 119
Goal lower body fat and increase/maintain muscle
Mifflin - St Jeor TDEE 1977 BMR 1352
Katch - McCardle TDEE 1959 BMR 1342
Harris Benedict BMR 1352
Moderatley Active (I workout 5 days a week) 2096 cals
MBF 16.8% (Bodyfat cal 16.83%)
99lbs lean body mass 99lbs 20lbs body fat
99 grams of protein 14 grams of fat

So when I want to actually use all this information I should go into customizing my goals on MFP and firstly change daily calories to 2096, correct? Now, do I eat back any calories burned with this method?

Secondly I want to change my macros, how do I got about changing my protein to 99grams and fat 14 grams when it is done by a percentage? That seems like an awful lot of carbs to me.

any and all advice is appreciated!

Thanks

TavistockToad

You're at 16% bodyfat but you want to get lower?

starspecks

I say lower because if I maintain my current body fat but add muscle won't the ratio shift? I'm looking to increase my calories and change my macros for muscle gain.

vismal

You goofed big time if you only plan on getting 14 grams of fat. Someone your weight should look to get around 50 minimum. If you plan on gaining muscle you will need to eat in a surplus. If you eat in a small surplus only a little bit of the weight gained will be fat. It is nearly impossible to put on only muscle with no fat so be prepared for a small increase in fat. That's okay though because it can always be cut once the muscle building phase is over. What did you use to calculate you macros?

starspecks

Ok that's exactly what I thought! Yeah I eat lots of healthy fats and 14 grams seemed way off. I haven't been doing that I'm still trying to figure it all out.

I just went off the info I had been told of 1 gram of protein per lb of lean body mass and .7grams of fat per fat.

I'm trying to do the IIFYM calculator right now but I don't know what to set everything to.

starspecks

So am I going to want to choose athletes formula or lean mass formula for starters? How do I know to choose 5 days a week or 5 days a week *intense for activity level? Then do I choose maintain or bulking? What plan do I choose?

jstout365

With all those being estimates, you will end up pinpointing more with trial and error. The numbers you have given all float around the 2000 calorie point. Since this isn't a race, you can try eating that for a few weeks and see what your weight does. If you lose, you need to up it a little, if you gain, you know you are in a surplus and no fluctuation means you found maintenance.

If your goal is to build muscle, you want bulking. Like Vismal said, a small surplus will help minimize the fat gain so you will probably want to be around 250 extra calories (half a pound gain a week estimate).

ndj1979

i would say set marco percents to 40 protein, 30 carbs, 30 fats…

as far as adding muscle, go for about a 200 per day surplus and see how that works for you and then adjust from there …

if the calculators are saying about 1950 to maintain then eat 2150 for four weeks and see how it goes..at the ned of the day you are going top have to use trial and error to pinpoint it…

eslcity

keeping an eye on this one...

starspecks

Thank you so much everyone for the help! Ok so I set my calories to 2096, 40 protein 30 fat 30 carb as my macros.

Now should I start this immediately or is this for when I start my new routine?

vismal

Thank you so much everyone for the help! Ok so I set my calories to 2096, 40 protein 30 fat 30 carb as my macros.

Now should I start this immediately or is this for when I start my new routine?

Don't use ratios, those will have you generally consuming more protein then needed. I'd try and get around 0.8 grams of protein per lb you weigh as a minimum. If you look at my profile I have a link to a video I made on how to calculate macros. It's based on fat loss being the goal so the only thing you'd need to do is increase the total calories.