what i'm doing wrong?

TomerDavid1
TomerDavid1 Posts: 7 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
i'm a male 26 years old weighing 158 lbs height 5'9

i'm eating around 1500-1700 calories sometimes even less for the last month and half.

before that I used to eat a lot of junk, drinking soda eating chocolates etc

for the last month and a half i'm eating good foods - vegetables, proteins , good crabs and macros are around: 50% carbs, 20% protein, 30% fats.

waistline is drop by few sizes I feel some jeans are really loose now and i need to tight the belt really strong lol

but my belly got kind of fat i feel like its swollen

i'm also training 5 , 6 days a week 2 times Brezilian jujitsu and 3-4 times gym lifting weights and sometimes cardio.

i wanna gain muscle but without loosing fat and i'm kind of frustrated...

i'm also taking multivitamins and protein shake in morning and after gym...

please advise ... ://

Replies

  • jtboner
    jtboner Posts: 59 Member
    It's one thing to gain muscle, but if you want to SEE the muscles you gotta life the pooch too. Also what most people do is keep the weight but they end up losing fat and gaining muscle. You need to eat a decent amount to gain muscle.

    For exercise what most people make mistakes is that they don't do intense exercise for strength then give themselves a break. You should be sore from your strength training for a day or two then give yourself a RECOVERY. You don't gain muscle well if you just do moderate repetitive motions. They literally needed to TEAR then REPAIR to gain muscle. That's how muscles work. That tear then they grow bigger by recovery.

    Hope I helped
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
    edited April 2015
    Based on you being 26 years old, 5'9 and 158, you need to eat in upwards of about 3500-4000 calories a day to start building.

    I'm going to assume you have a normal active lifestyle. Basically you work and you train 5 days a week between weight training and MMA. If I were to guess based on experience, I'd say your TDEE is about 3200 calories a day on average and probably closer to 3700 on your MMA days.

    What job do you do? Are you sitting at a desk? Construction?

    In order to build muscle tissue, you need to be eating in a caloric surplus. You also will not be able to build muscle without gaining some fat as well. It's the nature of the beast.

    I'd start at 3500 calories a day. Eat about 170-200g of protein a day and go decently heavy on the carb intake.

    Give it about 2-3 months. You will retain a good amount of water as well while bulking but this is also the nature of the beast. Look to gain about 1lb of muscle a month while keeping fat gain to a minimum.

    If you want to bulk, do it right. You can cut back down after.
  • TomerDavid1
    TomerDavid1 Posts: 7 Member
    Thank you guys for the replies now i understand it better

    And joe i work sedentary infront of a desk

    Is there a way to bulk up clean?
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
    edited April 2015
    TomerDavid1 wrote: »
    Thank you guys for the replies now i understand it better

    And joe i work sedentary infront of a desk

    Is there a way to bulk up clean?

    If by bulking up clean you mean that you can build muscle without fat gain? You could but it will take 3 times as long to do. So let's say that you have a TDEE of 3200 calories on average (you might be higher some days). You would probably eat about 3250-3300 a day and cycle the carbs a bit to slowly build new muscle tissue and minimize the fat gain.

    It will be slow but it will work.

    But keep in mind that a guy that bulks up, gains some fat also, and cuts back down will end up gaining faster than you will over the course of a year. Not saying you want to build muscle to compete on stage, but this is why most IFBB pro's will go through bulking and cut cycles.
  • TomerDavid1
    TomerDavid1 Posts: 7 Member
    okay ill read about bulking more but in general how much time bulking should take? it depends of what i want to achieve ?
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
    edited April 2015
    TomerDavid1 wrote: »
    okay ill read about bulking more but in general how much time bulking should take? it depends of what i want to achieve ?

    That depends on many factors. People gain differently. Genetics play a huge role also. At your age with a good training routine and a solid diet doing the bulk and cut route, you can probably expect to gain about 25lbs of muscle for a year.

    Allow me to introduce to you Lyle McDonald.

    Check this link out and it explains things in detail on how the entire bulking/cutting vs slow "clean" muscle gain. Also, feel free to peruse the other parts of his wonderful site as there's a plethora of info here. :)

    General Philosophies of Muscle Mass Gain
  • TomerDavid1
    TomerDavid1 Posts: 7 Member
    ill check this out, thank you joe again!
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