Yet another weight lifting question...

BaileyBoo13524

I was curious if you are supposed to up your calories on a lifting day. I am doing an at home lifting program and the program suggests eating less than I normally would on lifting days. Does anyone know if I should be eating more or less on these days?

Gallowmere1984

Depends on what kind of lifts you are doing, how heavy, how many, what your short term goals are, etc.

I tend to stay within the same caloric range regardless of my activity for the day, except on re-feed days, which happen for me about once per week, if that.

kkauz42

I was curious if you are supposed to up your calories on a lifting day. I am doing an at home lifting program and the program suggests eating less than I normally would on lifting days. Does anyone know if I should be eating more or less on these days?

From wat I have read and understand, if you are lifing heavy (which I know you are) you should eat a decent amount of calories. I was doing the New Rules of Lifting for Women and it was recommended to eat a 300 calorie deficit at most. In order for your muscles to grow they need the food to fuel them. I hope that helps/makes sense!

Gallowmere1984

I was curious if you are supposed to up your calories on a lifting day. I am doing an at home lifting program and the program suggests eating less than I normally would on lifting days. Does anyone know if I should be eating more or less on these days?

From wat I have read and understand, if you are lifing heavy (which I know you are) you should eat a decent amount of calories. I was doing the New Rules of Lifting for Women and it was recommended to eat a 300 calorie deficit at most. In order for your muscles to grow they need the food to fuel them. I hope that helps/makes sense!

I've been in a 700-900 calorie deficit for the entirety of my early lifting experience, with the exception of 2000-2500 calorie re-feeds once per week or so. My strength is up, bf% is down, and the latter keeps going down a bit at a time, while I appear to be suffering no loss in strength, and no measurable loss in LBM. It sounds like they pulled out some arbitrary numbers to me, considering that every individual starts at a different place. Either that, or I am a cyborg who is immune to these rules that supposedly apply to everyone else. /shrug

BaileyBoo13524

That info does make sense and I thought the numbers in the program seemed a little too low, but a 300 calorie deficit is doable and I've actually been at way more than that which is probably why I haven't noticed progress in increasing my weights!

DavPul

It depends on what your goals are, Bailey. If you are still trying to get a lot leaner, I would not up the calories (this is assuming you're getting a decent baseline of nutrition. If anything, I'd suggest you eat around the same number of calories but have a higher percentage come from protein.

Now if you're bulking, that's a different story. Then I'd suggest you eat 300-500 above maintenance most days, whether you lifted or not. (Assuming an effective lifting program is in place)