Not positive whose calorie advice to take!
McLifterPants
Posts: 457 Member
I recently started lifting (a modified version of the NROL4W plan that my fiance and I do together), and I am just not sure how much I should be eating!
The problem is that I have two estimates of my inactive TDEE: 1755 from fitnessfrog.com, and 2024 from the NROL4W formula.
Some background: I've lose 18 lbs or so, and want to build muscle and lose another 2-4% body fat (I'm hovering around 22% right now). I couldn't care less about my scale weight, so long as my clothes fit and I can get rid of my tummy pudge and cottage cheese thighs. I'm 27, 5'7", and currently 144 lbs even. I've been eating at what I THOUGHT was my TDEE (1750) plus exercise calories for the past few weeks. I've actually lost a small amount of weight (1-1.5 lbs) but my BFP does not seem to be budging based on my body composition scale, which I acknowledge is an imperfect method.
I guess my question is, how much do I need to be eating to start putting on some muscle? Am I still under-doing it? For the past week or so, I averaged an intake of 2045 calories; 1790 net of exercise, and I lost 0.6 lbs. I still do some cardio, but not a ton. I lift 3x weekly, with weights heavy enough that I can usually only do 3 sets of 10 or less on each exercise. My current macro settings are 40C/30F/30P, and I usually get pretty close. I almost never eat under 100g of protein per day. My fiance thinks I need to net above my TDEE to put on muscle, but I'm nervous that I'm going to undo the progress I've made in terms of size-loss. I just had a bunch of clothes taken in, lol!
Any thoughts? Please feel free to just link me if there is stuff already on here; I tried to look through old topics but things get pushed back pretty fast.
Thanks for your help!
The problem is that I have two estimates of my inactive TDEE: 1755 from fitnessfrog.com, and 2024 from the NROL4W formula.
Some background: I've lose 18 lbs or so, and want to build muscle and lose another 2-4% body fat (I'm hovering around 22% right now). I couldn't care less about my scale weight, so long as my clothes fit and I can get rid of my tummy pudge and cottage cheese thighs. I'm 27, 5'7", and currently 144 lbs even. I've been eating at what I THOUGHT was my TDEE (1750) plus exercise calories for the past few weeks. I've actually lost a small amount of weight (1-1.5 lbs) but my BFP does not seem to be budging based on my body composition scale, which I acknowledge is an imperfect method.
I guess my question is, how much do I need to be eating to start putting on some muscle? Am I still under-doing it? For the past week or so, I averaged an intake of 2045 calories; 1790 net of exercise, and I lost 0.6 lbs. I still do some cardio, but not a ton. I lift 3x weekly, with weights heavy enough that I can usually only do 3 sets of 10 or less on each exercise. My current macro settings are 40C/30F/30P, and I usually get pretty close. I almost never eat under 100g of protein per day. My fiance thinks I need to net above my TDEE to put on muscle, but I'm nervous that I'm going to undo the progress I've made in terms of size-loss. I just had a bunch of clothes taken in, lol!
Any thoughts? Please feel free to just link me if there is stuff already on here; I tried to look through old topics but things get pushed back pretty fast.
Thanks for your help!
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Replies
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From everything I've read, in order to put on muscle, you need to eat at a surplus (over your tdee). Yes you will gain fat and muscle, but the idea of doing that is to then do a cut (eat below your tdee) to maintain the muscle you gained and lose the fat that was also gained. If you just eat at a cut level, you should maintain the muscle you have and lose fat. That should be enough to get you to where you want to be without actually gaining muscle. The last few lbs (BF%) is typically diet related. Meaning you have to eat VERY clean. I personally would start with the 2024 from the book and go from there. Give it a few weeks to see what happens, then you can adjust higher or lower by 50-100 calories at a time.
Hope that helps. I don't know if you've seen this site, but he has some great articles on how to change your body - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/0 -
Thank you so much! I'll take a look at that site. I got some advice on the topic from my friends list as well, and they agree that I should probably bump up. Gonna aim to do so gradually and see what happens!0
