Calorie Intake - Feeding the (Very Short) Body During Maintenance vs. Bulk

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peaceout_aly
peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hey guys, me again! As we enter into fall, I've been more curious about slowly upping my calories and potentially gaining a small amount of fat yet increasing lifts to also gain more muscle and strength before next summer. Up to this point, I've been eating 1,400 calories per day (around there) and as of late I've been loosely eating back exercise calories putting me at 1,600. A quick BMR calculation shows that 1,330 is my BMR (I'm 5' and 115 lbs.)

I know a large bulk is necessary to gain a massive amount of muscle, but I'm not exactly looking for "massive gains." If I continue on with this 1,600 x day intake do you think I will have success or is that more of a "maintenance" amount? I am questioning the calculations because at 1,400 I was basically maintaining, yet definitely gaining muscle and strength. Do you think my metabolic rate was damaged from years of under-eating (1,000 calories + tons of cardio and no eating back exercise calories)? I am nervous to do a large increase and a straight-up bulk since I'm still fairly new to lifting (1-year) and I'm not sure if I lift at an intense enough rate to keep up with the increased calorie-intake and not just gain pure fat. And the fact that I'm so short makes 1-lb. look like 5-lbs. on a tiny frame, so I'm sure you can understand why I'm being so wary and cautious.

Also, just for further information, I strictly log everything, I work a desk job (8-hours x day) and have a long commute (3-hours) so I am "sedentary" however my at-home time is rarely spent sitting down, I am always up and about cleaning and tidying or cooking. My gym sessions are typically 90-minutes, 20-minutes cardio and the remaining time heavy lifting with stretches in between sets.

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  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    Bump. Anyone?
  • Ben_there_done_that
    Ben_there_done_that Posts: 732 Member
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    Wish I could help. I'm still figuring it all out, as well. Bump.
  • leajas1
    leajas1 Posts: 823 Member
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    You haven't ruined your metabolism, put that out of your head. Here is another macro calculator you can use, just as a second opinion (scroll down in the article and you'll see where you can plug in your information). This calculator gives a slight increase over maintenance so that you gain as little fat as possible. Just keep track of your weight as you increase calories. A lot of women aim for a gain of 1/2 lb/week.

    https://legionathletics.com/macronutrient-calculator/
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,598 Member
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    It sounds like what they call a "clean" bulk (small number of added calories rather than large). I don't see anything wrong with that idea.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    gothchiq wrote: »
    It sounds like what they call a "clean" bulk (small number of added calories rather than large). I don't see anything wrong with that idea.

    I think that's what I want to aim for. 1,600 is about a 250 surplus to my BMR and with a small frame it will probably make a pretty significant difference over a lengthy amount of time (say now to March of 2017). And it's a small enough amount that I could easily switch back to 1,400 x day or lower calories gradually without getting to accustomed to a huge intake.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
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    You keep referring to your BMR - do you mean TDEE? Because that's how you bulk - go over your TDEE. And your TDEE will be a bit above your BMR.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    TR0berts wrote: »
    You keep referring to your BMR - do you mean TDEE? Because that's how you bulk - go over your TDEE. And your TDEE will be a bit above your BMR.

    Oh man, I definitely used the wrong calculator then. On a TDEE calculator it says 1,418. So a little higher than the BMR calculator.
  • robdowns1300
    robdowns1300 Posts: 152 Member
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    It took me a few months to zero in on the slow bulk. It took a lot more calories than I expected to actually gain some weight while weight training. The thing to remember is that weight fluctuates dramatically from day to day. you have to go long enough to watch the pattern between the waves. This guy: strengthunbound.com/ was a lot of help. Just for background I'm doing the 5x5 program & eating over 3500 calories a day & just barely gaining. (Everyone's numbers will be different.)
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    robdowns1300 wrote: »
    It took me a few months to zero in on the slow bulk. It took a lot more calories than I expected to actually gain some weight while weight training. The thing to remember is that weight fluctuates dramatically from day to day. you have to go long enough to watch the pattern between the waves. This guy: strengthunbound.com/ was a lot of help. Just for background I'm doing the 5x5 program & eating over 3500 calories a day & just barely gaining. (Everyone's numbers will be different.)

    This is very interesting! So it's basically just a matter of increasing, measuring, weighing and figuring out exactly what works for your body?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Figure a woman eating above maintenance lifting heavy could gain upwards of 1 lb of muscle in 4 weeks.

    That's a 250 cal surplus daily. (only because some studies have shown at maintenance an even trade of fat weight for LBM (which is of course NOT just muscle but anything NOT fat))

    Of course as lifts get better, and repairs increase metabolism, maintenance probably goes higher.

    It's why so many when they first bulk find they don't gain weight, until they eat yet more and more.

    But at least gives a start to the numbers.

    So if you have been eating on average 1600 for a month (as a woman, your BMR changes through the month, so you require that much time to discern anything) and not changing weight - that is your maintenance for whatever the level of activity was then.

    So eating 1850 would give that minor bulk. Start their and adjust after a month.

    Scale on valid weigh in days, and tape measure for waist (since that is usually where fat is added first) to give indication what weight is going up.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    Figure a woman eating above maintenance lifting heavy could gain upwards of 1 lb of muscle in 4 weeks.

    That's a 250 cal surplus daily. (only because some studies have shown at maintenance an even trade of fat weight for LBM (which is of course NOT just muscle but anything NOT fat))

    Of course as lifts get better, and repairs increase metabolism, maintenance probably goes higher.

    It's why so many when they first bulk find they don't gain weight, until they eat yet more and more.

    But at least gives a start to the numbers.

    So if you have been eating on average 1600 for a month (as a woman, your BMR changes through the month, so you require that much time to discern anything) and not changing weight - that is your maintenance for whatever the level of activity was then.

    So eating 1850 would give that minor bulk. Start their and adjust after a month.

    Scale on valid weigh in days, and tape measure for waist (since that is usually where fat is added first) to give indication what weight is going up.

    Great advice! Thank you so much for your input
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,391 MFP Moderator
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    heybales wrote: »
    Figure a woman eating above maintenance lifting heavy could gain upwards of 1 lb of muscle in 4 weeks.

    That's a 250 cal surplus daily. (only because some studies have shown at maintenance an even trade of fat weight for LBM (which is of course NOT just muscle but anything NOT fat))

    Of course as lifts get better, and repairs increase metabolism, maintenance probably goes higher.

    It's why so many when they first bulk find they don't gain weight, until they eat yet more and more.

    But at least gives a start to the numbers.

    So if you have been eating on average 1600 for a month (as a woman, your BMR changes through the month, so you require that much time to discern anything) and not changing weight - that is your maintenance for whatever the level of activity was then.

    So eating 1850 would give that minor bulk. Start their and adjust after a month.

    Scale on valid weigh in days, and tape measure for waist (since that is usually where fat is added first) to give indication what weight is going up.

    Pretty much what I would have said.


    Also, on the lifting front, just make sure you are following a program focused on primarily compound lifts, which progressive increases. If you continue to push the threshold of strength gains, you will naturally see increases in muscle mass. Some of the recent studies have shown, that muscle increase are equal at 6 reps or 15 reps, the biggest discernible difference is 1RM.

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