Conflicting Calorie info for Growth

toomanydogs99
toomanydogs99 Posts: 33 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have dropped about 70 lbs by eating a net calorie of about 1200 per day and am now close to my target goal of 205. My BF is around 18% and I am 6' 2". I am starting to look really skinny in the face, arms and legs with a small tire around my middle.
I started lifting weights around 3 weeks ago and have just booked a further month with a personal trainer. Everything I read tells me to Eat Big to Get Big but I am not wanting to increase my fat. My target is to work on changing my body composition to become better built and leaner. My overall target is to slowly build without doing a "dirty bulk, cutting" routine.

Today I asked my trainer how many calories and what protein percentages I should be looking at and he said 1600 calories total with 80% protein. This seems off to me.

My questions for those of you who have dropped a significant amount of fat and then started to build is-
What percentage body fat did you go down to before starting to increase calories to get the benefit of lifting? and what did you increase your calories to based on heavy lifting 3 times a week?
Do I have to start eating slowly due to having a slow metabolism after doing 4 month's of low calorie diet.

My BMR is about 2,090.

Thanks in advance

Replies

  • toomanydogs99
    toomanydogs99 Posts: 33 Member
    Shameless bump looking for ideas
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    just to clarify, you're 6ft2, 200lbs and your trainer is telling you to only eat 1600 cals?
  • jeffpettis
    jeffpettis Posts: 865 Member
    Wow!!! I hate to tell you this but you might want to shop around for trainers... I don't even think your maintenance calories would be that low, hell that's too low for cutting. Your maintenance calories are probably somewhere around 2500 calories so you are going to have to eat more that. I would figure out exactly what maintenance is for you then add 250 and see how that works. Add or subtract from there until you are gaining consistently. Keep in mind you WILL gain some fat while "bulking" but the idea is to gain as little as possible. Also you may want to rethink starting to bulk at 20% BF all together. Most people start a bulk cycle somewhere below 15%. That is a personal preference and only you can make that decision, but you will gain some fat along with the muscle so you want to be lean enough when you start that you're not setting yourself up for a longer cutting cycle.

    Also 80% protein is way high... Shoot for 1 gram per pound of body weight...
  • ElliottTN
    ElliottTN Posts: 1,614 Member
    Get down to around 12% bf or less before you go with the eat big to get big deal. Also listen to your trainer right now sbout calorie intake overall although I personally think 80% is insanely high. I would go with the .7 grams per lean body mass way (you can do your own math there)

    But yeah, don't freak out about the 1600. Ride it down to a lower bf% while lifting. I've been around that or lower for around a year slowing trying to reach my goal of 10% (started at around 25)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    If your BMR is 2090 you are obviously going to be losing weight at a pretty fast rate at 1600 - is that what you really want to do? Seems dreadfully low to me.
    I'm much older and only 5'9" maintaining on net of 1800.

    Protein percentage of 80% is plain ludicrous. Hardly a balanced diet. :grumble:
    IMO you would be better setting protein on a target number of grams per day (0.8 to 1g per pound of LBM perhaps).

    I went to maintenance based on weight rather than BF % and doing a recomp so can't answer some of your questions but would suggest building your calories up slowly to find the point where you are SLOWLY losing (if you continue to cut) or SLOWLY gaining if you decide to bulk.
  • 0OneTwo3
    0OneTwo3 Posts: 149 Member
    first, get a new trainer. someone who actually knows what he is doing.

    second, don't diet below your bmr. ever.

    third, yes your metabolism is probably damaged badly by now. reverse diet back up slowly. (if you don't know what a reverse diet is the information is readily available on the internet.) if you want to clean bulk, clean bulk. that means you have to go in a slight caloric surplus. you wont gain muscle at 1600 kcals. actually you will loose a lot of it.

    and for protein requirements see the above post.
  • tricksee
    tricksee Posts: 835 Member
    1. Eat +300 calories above TDEE.
    2. Ensure 0.7-1g of protein per pound of LBM.
    3. Begin a simple, novice full body 5x5 routine.

    In 6 months time, you won't even need to be here...

    Any questions, PM me.
  • toomanydogs99
    toomanydogs99 Posts: 33 Member
    Thanks for the replies, makes sense.

    I had a feeling 1600 was way to low, I was feeling hungry the day after a workout and couldn't figure out how I would gain at 1600.

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