Advice on Food intake

Hi Guys,

Currently i'm recovering from bad eating habits. I slowly cut out all "bad" foods in the hope of getting a nice lean female sixpack and muscle bum.

I'm 5ft3 and 88.8lbs, I calculated that my daily calorie intake should be around 1800 to gain 0.55lbs a week. I'm a bit scared to eat much more than that because at the moment i don't have time to work out, and i absolutely don't wanna lose my lean belly.
I'm only doing 10minutes of squats/abb exercises a day.

Could someone give me advice on my food diary. I really would like to gain slowly some more muscles (and fat because thats part of the deal right? ;-)

All the advice is more than welkom!!

Thanks a lot! xx

Thanks for you advice guys!

Sorry for the dutch!


It is based upon my TDEE +200. My TDEE would be around 1500, but there is a difference between the formulas. What's the best one to use?
What would be a good intake? i'm 25 and work as a nurse in a hospital 3 days a week but the rest of my time i'm sitting behind a desk.

Thanks a lot, i really appreciate the help!

Thanks for you advice guys!

Sorry for the dutch!


It is based upon my TDEE +200. My TDEE would be around 1500, but there is a difference between the formulas. What's the best one to use?
What would be a good intake? i'm 25 and work as a nurse in a hospital 3 days a week but the rest of my time i'm sitting behind a desk.

Thanks a lot, i really appreciate the help!

Optimal intake isn't possible to determine through numbers. You can only get an estimate. The rest is trial and error whether you use MFP's default or you use one of the TDEE methods instead.

I had the same issue, and never got a good answer...so I started with the MFP method instead and still use it today. It's based on "NEAT" (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). I have mine set to active...and then I log all intense physical activity in addition, and eat back the exercise calories...and then a surplus for weight gain. My surplus is usually 400-500 calories (I started out eating at maintenance, then added a 150-cal surplus, and slowly worked up as needed). Obviously the exercise burns are an estimation, but so would your TDEE be one.

TDEE would be good for someone who does the same level and type of activity each week.

MFP's method is better if you have a diverse range of calorie burn activities over time.

But if i eat more healthy fats, isn't that going to go straight to fat on my body, as if i use carbs the body still first uses that?

Thanks a lot! I'm going to proceed and will change some things around when i don't get results.

Everyone thinks fat goes to body fat. It's not true. It can only happen if you're eating a fairly large surplus consistently.

Fat does create body fat more readily than protein, because protein takes more energy to digest/metabolize than fat.

But if you're working out enough with weights and it's challenging, and you're getting enough protein and carbs, your body isn't to going to invest a lot of effort into storing fat, so it's not an issue. I like 50% carbs/20-25% protein/25-30% fat for building muscle. There are calculators online that let you figure out those percentages from the numbers of grams of each you've eaten.

Meal timing isn't important when on a surplus, but...

Make sure you get enough protein in the part of the day before your workout. Or if you workout early, eat protein right after. And definitely eat some of your carbs right after the workout. If you're going to eat stuff with sugar, right after the workout is probably the best time.