New! Need help getting 3000 calories

thelastsonxx
thelastsonxx Posts: 4 Member
edited November 19 in Getting Started
I weight about 217 and want to pretty much maintain the weight, but keep lifting more, but getting stronger and healthier by eating better. It says I need about 1300 more calories.
Breakfast I usually do 3 eggs
lunch 4 chicken breast, 2 potatoes and veggies. I do the same for dinner. It says I need 1300 and my sodium is in the red. Anyone have some suggestions. Ultimately I want to get bigger and stronger look wise. Thanks for the help. I usually lift 3 to 4 times a week and do cardio a couple of times a week. I am in decent shape now but think my diet is holding me back. Thank you all for the help and have a good day.

Replies

  • Rammer123
    Rammer123 Posts: 679 Member
    You've eaten 8 chicken breasts today? That's probably at least 3 pounds of chicken, maybe even closer to 4. That would be like 1500-2000 calories right there.... 3 eggs adds another 200 and 4 potatoes...

    Sounds like you're not too far off from 3,000 calories... maybe another 400-600?
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Ice cream!
  • thelastsonxx
    thelastsonxx Posts: 4 Member
    Well it said with 8 chicken breast and 4 eggs 2 potatoes I'm only at 1500 calories. Thanks for the help. Will eat some ice cream.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    You weighed your chicken and potatoes? Logged your veggies? What did you cook them with? A tablespoon of oil adds 120 calories
  • thelastsonxx
    thelastsonxx Posts: 4 Member
    Weigh? I have no scale. I'm pretty new to this. Logged veggies. No I didn't usually about a cup of green stuff either broccoli or green beans. I'll keep in mind the tablespoon of oil. Thank you.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    thelastsonxx wrote: »
    Weigh? I have no scale. I'm pretty new to this. Logged veggies. No I didn't usually about a cup of green stuff either broccoli or green beans. I'll keep in mind the tablespoon of oil. Thank you.

    Yes. Chicken breasts are different sizes. How will you know how many calories are in one if you don't know the weight?
  • iamhylian
    iamhylian Posts: 13 Member
    You will fail unless you weigh your food.
  • thelastsonxx
    thelastsonxx Posts: 4 Member
    I just thought a general guess would be good enough. I have a lot to learn.
  • tiffaninghs
    tiffaninghs Posts: 200 Member
    i have a food scale in my purse. at home and at work!! they really make the difference!!
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    thelastsonxx wrote: »
    Well it said with 8 chicken breast and 4 eggs 2 potatoes I'm only at 1500 calories. Thanks for the help. Will eat some ice cream.

    no way (unless they were the tiniest little breasts ever) would that add up to 1500 calories. as others said, you need to weigh - you currently have no clue how many calories you are consuming.
  • fbchick51
    fbchick51 Posts: 240 Member
    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    thelastsonxx wrote: »
    Well it said with 8 chicken breast and 4 eggs 2 potatoes I'm only at 1500 calories. Thanks for the help. Will eat some ice cream.

    no way (unless they were the tiniest little breasts ever) would that add up to 1500 calories. as others said, you need to weigh - you currently have no clue how many calories you are consuming.

    Ditto.

    On average, chicken breast at my local store weigh anywhere from 5-8oz a piece. Even with the smaller size, 5oz, 4 of those would give you roughly 937 cals. Doing that twice a day gives you 1874 cals on just the chicken breast alone.

    Add in the potatoes and eggs and you are easily over 2500 cals. If you use oils or butter to cook the eggs and chicken, you've probably already added 200-300 calories from the oils alone. Are your potatoes all baked with nothing added? Or are you putting a little butter and/or sour cream on them?

    I think you are easily already getting 3000 calories or more. The only thing I'd change is to weigh you chicken to make sure you are "only" consuming about 20 oz of meat each meal. Probably measure the potatoes too. They also tend to run larger then the database entries suggest (5oz).
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    Unless your sodium is running to the 6-7gram range or you have a medical necessity to limit sodium, going over isn't that big of a deal.

    Also, since your goal is maintaining, You're going to have to experiment for a month or two with diet and activity to find out what maintenance actually is with your activity levels.
  • thewindandthework
    thewindandthework Posts: 531 Member
    I definitely recommend getting a food scale. They're cheap and make a world of difference. You're almost certainly eating way more calories than you think.

    Seriously, weighing all your food and logging accurately will BLOW YOUR MIND. Almost everyone who starts weighing food is surprised at how far off their estimates were, including me!

    Don't just weigh the chicken, either! Weigh your potatoes and vegetables. Using volume (cups, tablespoons, etc) is completely unreliable for things like that--only use volume measurements for liquids (some powders are okay, but really weighing is best for most of these, too)!
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