I need to gain weight, but not sure how.

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  • craigmandu
    craigmandu Posts: 976 Member
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    iwishiwasbatman wrote: »
    So my BMR came out to 1507, and my TDEE came out to 2204.

    So that BMR looks right, and the TDEE would indicate you chose something like 5 workouts a week or something similar...so understand that those are simply estimates, and there are different formulas that give slightly different results.

    So that would mean in my scenario you should be eating at least 2454 daily calories. I would go ahead and give that a shot and ensure you get there everyday while keeping as close to your desired macros as you can (it doesn't have to be perfect and don't sweat it if it takes you a while to dial in your diet to get there).

    Me personally, I would shoot for a bit more protein than what has been laid out in this thread...not saying it will matter too much one way or the other given your light weight...I have always gone on a 1-1.2g protein/lb of bodyweight instead of the 0.8 recommended earlier, but that is up to you...I don't really think it will make/break anything you are trying to do.

    You may want to set your MFP profile at a "sedentary" activity level to get the lowest possible daily expenditure and actually record all your exercise back to get a more "true" estimate of your daily expenditure. I had to do that when I started losing weight..I selected an activity level that I really wasn't maintaining...and because of that I was eating more on days than I should have been, it works the same when you are trying to gain. If you are actually working out "more" than the calculators estimate, then you shortchange your caloric surplus and thus gain slower than you should. Up to you. I wish you the best.

    auddii wrote: »
    And again, don't fall in the trap as viewing food as "good" or "bad" or "healthy" and "unhealthy". Consider your diet as a whole, and eat the foods that will get you to your goals.

    ^^^This
  • iwishiwasbatman
    iwishiwasbatman Posts: 44
    edited February 2015
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    auddii wrote: »
    Well, you can figure out your amounts of carbs through a lot of math or by messing around in MFP.

    To be lazy and mess around in MFP:
    Go in to manually adjust your calorie goal, set your total calorie goal (2600 is likely a good starting point given what your TDEE was calculated at, but you may need to adjust). Then set your percentages until you get the grams in line with what you calculated. I call this the lazy way, but it can often be difficult because if you change one percentage, it often messes up the others and you have to save changes every time you want to get it to calculate grams. Might be a long process.

    If you're not afraid of math:
    Fat: 42.7 g * 9 calories per gram of fat = 384 calories from fat
    384 calories from fat / total calories = 15%
    Protein: 96.7 g * 4 calories per gram of protein = 386 calories from protein
    386 calories from protein / total calories = 15%
    Carbs: everything else = 70%

    The numbers seem a little skewed, which is likely because you are so light (mine breaks down into 35/35/30 c/p/f). I would be starving all the time if I ate so little fat and protein (which would be a good thing if I were bulking, so this may work for you). I end up with 130ish grams of protein a day and 60g of fat for comparison. I also outweigh you by 65lbs...

    Those are starting points, but you will need to mess with the levels based on how hungry you are, and if you're able to eat enough. With those splits at that calorie intake level, you will likely find it very difficult to exceed your carb intake. You might want to slowly increase your calorie level each week to get used to eating more. It isn't that hard to add an extra 100 calories a day, and then once you are used to that for a week, add another 100.

    And again, don't fall in the trap as viewing food as "good" or "bad" or "healthy" and "unhealthy". Consider your diet as a whole, and eat the foods that will get you to your goals.

    Thank you.
    I usually have my carbs at 30%, fat at 30%, and protein at 30%. The thing is that I don't know exactly were to check my fat and protein on here because it only shows the percentage, but doesn't tell me how much more grams I need.
    I usually end up going over my carbs though.
    Most of the time, it looks like this:
    60% carbs, 20% fat (sometimes 12%), and 20% protein (sometimes 30% or 25%).
  • iwishiwasbatman
    iwishiwasbatman Posts: 44
    edited February 2015
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    craigmandu wrote: »
    iwishiwasbatman wrote: »
    So my BMR came out to 1507, and my TDEE came out to 2204.

    So that BMR looks right, and the TDEE would indicate you chose something like 5 workouts a week or something similar...so understand that those are simply estimates, and there are different formulas that give slightly different results.

    So that would mean in my scenario you should be eating at least 2454 daily calories. I would go ahead and give that a shot and ensure you get there everyday while keeping as close to your desired macros as you can (it doesn't have to be perfect and don't sweat it if it takes you a while to dial in your diet to get there).

    Me personally, I would shoot for a bit more protein than what has been laid out in this thread...not saying it will matter too much one way or the other given your light weight...I have always gone on a 1-1.2g protein/lb of bodyweight instead of the 0.8 recommended earlier, but that is up to you...I don't really think it will make/break anything you are trying to do.

    You may want to set your MFP profile at a "sedentary" activity level to get the lowest possible daily expenditure and actually record all your exercise back to get a more "true" estimate of your daily expenditure. I had to do that when I started losing weight..I selected an activity level that I really wasn't maintaining...and because of that I was eating more on days than I should have been, it works the same when you are trying to gain. If you are actually working out "more" than the calculators estimate, then you shortchange your caloric surplus and thus gain slower than you should. Up to you. I wish you the best.

    auddii wrote: »
    And again, don't fall in the trap as viewing food as "good" or "bad" or "healthy" and "unhealthy". Consider your diet as a whole, and eat the foods that will get you to your goals.

    ^^^This

    Thank you!

    I workout 5 days a week.
    It's what I put on the profile here, if I skip one day, I do a workout at home, but I try not to skip any.

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