upping my calories

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ashquin
ashquin Posts: 248 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
so mfp has given me 1200 calories a day . i work out pretty heavy 5 /6 days a week trying to build muscle. i eat high protein diet. im currently 5'3 and 127 pounds. i have read that eating more calories in important to gain muscle. is this true?? but im also trying loose just a few more pounds. on average how may calories should i be eating?

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  • baja572
    baja572 Posts: 94
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    bump
  • dawholeenchilada
    dawholeenchilada Posts: 7
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    bump
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    Read this success story.

    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

    I'd stop thinking about the weight on the scale and work on body composition. You'll need to eat more to fuel your workouts. In addition, if you want to gain muscle mass, you need to eat at a surplus. Often people near the end of their journey do cycles of bulk phases and cut phases. When you bulk, you'll gain both muscle and fat, and then in the cut stage you lose fat while preserving muscle.

    LOTS of good info in this group:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress
  • nolefan9399
    nolefan9399 Posts: 7
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    if you want to learn about adding/building muscle go to a message board like bodybuilding.com. a lot of good info on calorie intake and muscle building. here is what they will tell you

    to gain/add muscle you need to be at a calorie surplus
    to lose body fat you need to be at a calorie deficit


    my wife joined the gym 2 weeks ago. she got some free sessions with a trainer. I told her he will tell you are not eating enough, she is eating 1300 calories a day. he told her she was not eating enough. he told her to up her calories to 1800
  • reddcat
    reddcat Posts: 314 Member
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    bump. Great links.
  • sandradev1
    sandradev1 Posts: 786 Member
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    Are you logging your exercise. If so you must eat back almost all of the calories burned in exercise. The 1200 calories given my MFP is just to keep your body functioning, it has not taken into account the exercise you do yet. That is why the MFP system identifies your calorie burn during exercise, so that you know how many more calories you need to eat to keep your body sustained.

    There is plenty of information available on the forums in relation to building muscle and how best to do it. Do a search on the forums. I have done a lot of research on MFP forums and also various websites and have come to the conclusion that the best method for retaining muscle mass whilst losing weight is to do heavy lifting and I have just started Stronglifts 5 x 5. There is also plenty of information on the forum about this.
  • claritarejoice
    claritarejoice Posts: 461 Member
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    Because you aren't overweight, I would eat WAY more than 1200/day. You can't gain muscle while you are eating at a deficit either. I think your best bet is eating at maintenance calories (1700-2200-ish depending on the woman) and lifting progressively heavy weights. As you gain muscle you can still drop some body fat and get leaner, which will give you the body look you want. Check out the stickies in the general forum, the "in place of a road map" thread and the group "eat train progress" for more help.
  • elyelyse
    elyelyse Posts: 1,454 Member
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    so mfp has given me 1200 calories a day . i work out pretty heavy 5 /6 days a week trying to build muscle. i eat high protein diet. im currently 5'3 and 127 pounds. i have read that eating more calories in important to gain muscle. is this true?? but im also trying loose just a few more pounds. on average how may calories should i be eating?

    MFP only "gives" you 1200 calories a day if you plug in wanting to lose 2lbs a week. At your current weight, loss at that rate is probably unlikely, so you are going to be going hungry for nothing. I would say try plugging in .5 a week, which is more realistic for someone near their goal weight... but if you are trying to build muscle, you will need to eat more. (pretty sure the standard answer around here is you can't really build muscle while losing fat, one requires a deficit, the other a surplus)
  • ashquin
    ashquin Posts: 248 Member
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    thanks this is exactly what i was thinking. i have been going over the 1200 ranging up to 1500. but not realy worrying about it because im eating clean and lean. i just want to be sure i dont start gaining weight, as i do want to loose just a few more stubborn pounds


    Because you aren't overweight, I would eat WAY more than 1200/day. You can't gain muscle while you are eating at a deficit either. I think your best bet is eating at maintenance calories (1700-2200-ish depending on the woman) and lifting progressively heavy weights. As you gain muscle you can still drop some body fat and get leaner, which will give you the body look you want. Check out the stickies in the general forum, the "in place of a road map" thread and the group "eat train progress" for more help.
  • shmoony
    shmoony Posts: 237 Member
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    Unfortunately, there is no easy way to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. You need a surplus to gain muscle, which often leads to a little fat gain at the same time unless you can dial in exactly how many extra cals you need to only gain muscle, which is damn near impossible. I have been struggling with it myself for a while now. It seems like the best option is to eat just a couple hundred over maintanance and see what happens. Adjust accordingly after a few weeks.
  • Meg_78
    Meg_78 Posts: 998 Member
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    This is what has worked for me, but note, I have come from the other direction and needed to gain weight...I bounce between eating at maintenance and then a few hundred above, I lift 3x days a week and circuit train 1 day, I also eat an extra 250cals or so on my exercise days....
    I am very much in the process of altering my body comp, and would like to start working on getting more muscle, but you can see that weight loss is not always the best answer at a certain point, I know i look better at the higher weights, and i sill want another 2-5 lbs)...so I would defo advise you eating at maintenance at least, and then lifting weights.
    Anyway here was an early pic,
    19726820_4192.jpg
    And my most current,
    19726820_9541.jpg
  • Anjali
    Anjali Posts: 4
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    Hi!

    Wondered if If anyone could help? I am currently about 126 and trying to get to 115. I am 5 ft 4.5 and have a desk job in a surgery but try to do 1-1.5 h vinyasa yoga a day. I have been trying to eat at 1200 net w exercise but seem to be putting on weight. I am confused by all the tdee/BMW stuff. Have just changed my settings to 40 carb, 30 fat/fibre/protein and manually chosen weight loss of 2/week and 1400 cal a day. Is this right? Should I increase as TDEE is 2324 w 15%cut = 1975 and bar is 1343.

    Feel really alone and frustrated.

    Any help or friends along the way would be great! Thanks x
  • sandradev1
    sandradev1 Posts: 786 Member
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    Hi!

    Wondered if If anyone could help? I am currently about 126 and trying to get to 115. I am 5 ft 4.5 and have a desk job in a surgery but try to do 1-1.5 h vinyasa yoga a day. I have been trying to eat at 1200 net w exercise but seem to be putting on weight. I am confused by all the tdee/BMW stuff. Have just changed my settings to 40 carb, 30 fat/fibre/protein and manually chosen weight loss of 2/week and 1400 cal a day. Is this right? Should I increase as TDEE is 2324 w 15%cut = 1975 and bar is 1343.

    Feel really alone and frustrated.

    Any help or friends along the way would be great! Thanks x

    I can only think of two things, either do the same as has been suggested to the OP above and pick up heavy *kitten* and put it down again and change the composition of your body to decrease your dress size rather than decrease the scale number or:

    maybe start a new post with your question so that you can get some more answers.

    Good luck
  • kellyscomeback
    kellyscomeback Posts: 1,369 Member
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    Check out the spreadsheet in this group to help you figure out how much you should eat:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/7965-in-place-of-a-road-map

    And I echo the lift heavy comments, weight training is best.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    Hi!

    Wondered if If anyone could help? I am currently about 126 and trying to get to 115. I am 5 ft 4.5 and have a desk job in a surgery but try to do 1-1.5 h vinyasa yoga a day. I have been trying to eat at 1200 net w exercise but seem to be putting on weight. I am confused by all the tdee/BMW stuff. Have just changed my settings to 40 carb, 30 fat/fibre/protein and manually chosen weight loss of 2/week and 1400 cal a day. Is this right? Should I increase as TDEE is 2324 w 15%cut = 1975 and bar is 1343.

    Feel really alone and frustrated.

    Any help or friends along the way would be great! Thanks x

    With 11lbs to lose you should set a goal of about 0.5lbs per week. This will give you a lot more calories to work with. The goal isn't to crash diet to get to your goal weight as fast as possible, but set a moderate deficit and lose the weight in a healthy, sustainable way.

    Also, at 5'5", I'd look at my above post and read the link about Staci. 115 seems pretty low for your height, so you may be more interesting in improving body composition as opposed to just weight.

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