Calorie intake whilst resistance training

BearRileyx
BearRileyx Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Just wondering whether anyone can help me? I used to eat 1200 cals per day and go to the gym doing a mix of cardio and resistance around 5x per week but I was told to snack and eat 6x per day. So now I am doing, snacking on vegetables, protein bars/ cookies and making sure I eat a smaller meal at night and a larger breakfast. I've recorded what I've been eating lately and I've increased my calories to 2,000 on average per day. Before I didn't watch my protein and I know I didn't eat enough of the stuff. I'm wanting to stay around the same size but tone up and gain muscle. Am I doing it the right way or am I just going to balloon? I also make sure I drink at least two litres of water a day and go to the gym 6x per week (4 days of which are resistance training)..

Replies

  • Cc215
    Cc215 Posts: 228 Member
    before any one can guess at how many calories you might need to eat they are going to need a lot more information.

    how old are you? what is your weight and height?

    you say you want to remain the same size - do you mean size or do you mean weight? If you are happy to gain muscle and weight then you will need to eat more than if you want to remain your current weight and work on body recompositon.

    have you tried putting your information into a TDEE calculator and seen what numbers they come up with?
  • BearRileyx
    BearRileyx Posts: 7 Member
    I'm 22, 9stone 13lbs and I'm wanting to stay the same dress size.. I don't care if I weigh 15 stone so long as I'm toned!
    I've not tried a TDEE calculator, although I have tried others and they vary too much to rely on any of them. I just don't want to end up piling on the fat after loosing over 2 stone!
  • Cc215
    Cc215 Posts: 228 Member
    obviously the calculators are all estimates - but if you don't trust them the only way you can do this is work it out for your body.

    if you've been logging your calorie intake accurately you can use this and your weightloss to work out what your maintence number will be.

    you could reduce your intake back down for a bit for a while then increase it slowly until you find the point for you that your body maintains at.

    or you stick to what you've already started. See what happens when you eat at 2000 calories and work up or down from there depending on whether you start to gain or lose weight. Don't forget though the sudden increase in calories will probably lead to a water gain at first - so you'll need to give it a few weeks to settle back down.

    or you can ignore me completely - i'm still ages away from where you are - but i lurk around here a bit - and see these suggestions crop up time and time again!
  • cajuntank
    cajuntank Posts: 924 Member
    Just going to affirm what @Cc215 mentioned. You can run the online calculators, but they are estimates only and will get you usually in a ballpark to start. Pick a number (if from online or from what you are eating now) and run it for a couple of weeks, take average weight lost or weight gain and deduce from there what your estimate maintenance calories are daily. Then, as long as your average activity does not change, run a 10-20% deficit from your maintenance (TDEE) to lose. Keep your loss around the .5-1% of bodyweight weekly average (on the lower end if you are leaner and can be on the higher end if you have lots to lose). As far as meal frequency daily...does not matter. Eat 6 times a day, 3 times a day, or 1 time a day, etc.... If someone told you to eat more frequently because it will help you lose weight, increase metabolism, etc... They don't know what they are talking about. It is about your overall average of caloric intake vs your overall average of caloric expenditure. Not because one day you ate less, or exercised more, or had a cheat meal, or could not exercise, etc.... Your body is not on a hourly or daily clock to lose weight....these things happen over a period of time and usually its better to gauge these things over a matter of several weeks and take an average from that.
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
    The best thing that you can do is to eat as much as you can while still making progress towards your goals. If you can eat 2000 cal/day, that's fantastic. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for a week. If you lose 1-2 lbs, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few weeks, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

    Allan
  • BearRileyx
    BearRileyx Posts: 7 Member
    Thank-you guys, I'm going to slowly up my calorie and protein intake and hope for the best! I've decided it's no good starving myself at 1,200 cals a day whilst exercising 6x a week- I'm just going to end up loosing muscle I'm working for!
    I'm also going to change my workout every few weeks so my body doesn't get used to it so fingers crossed and thank-you again!
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    :flowerforyou:
  • 5stringjeff
    5stringjeff Posts: 790 Member
    I'm 22, 9stone 13lbs and I'm wanting to stay the same dress size.. I don't care if I weigh 15 stone so long as I'm toned!
    I've not tried a TDEE calculator, although I have tried others and they vary too much to rely on any of them. I just don't want to end up piling on the fat after loosing over 2 stone!

    I punched in your data here: http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/ (You didn't say how tall you are, so I'm guessing 5'4". Go there and punch in your data if that's wrong.)

    Here's your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) - in other words, how much you burn on average each day, at the given activity levels:
    Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job): 1750
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk): 2005
    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk): 2260
    Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk): 2515

    As much as you say you work out, I'd guess that you're at least "Moderately Active," so you should be aiming for about 2260 calories per day to maintain your weight.
  • BearRileyx
    BearRileyx Posts: 7 Member
    I've checked out the blog/post thing and it's basically what I'm planning on sticking to, I'm just worried about piling on fat!
    And I'm 5'8, I'll have to get on the site and re-calculate.. thanks !

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