Eating 3200 calories a day is annoying. Bulking or Cutting is easier

mkirklions
mkirklions Posts: 10 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I find the aspect of counting 3200 calories worth of food extremely annoying.

When I bulk, I make a gigantic stir fry, 8 cups of rice, 4-5 chicken breasts, 4 eggs, 2 lbs of peas, dump of peanut oil, and a stick of butter.

This lasts a few days, and I gorge on it. I probably eat it in the course of 4 meals.

Bulking is easy after 5 years of practice.

Cutting 2lbs a week is easy, I eat what feels pretty normal. Counting calories, doing IF, lots of coffee, occasionally lazy days where I skip eating meals. As long as I can keep my lifts at my previous bulking heavy weights, I dont feel bad about losing weight.

Now, 3200 calories is annoying. Nearly every day 9pm rolls around and I ate between 1500 and 2200 calories so far. I basically need to eat 1 more large meal to hit my goal. This means cooking or spending time eating before bed. Its an annoyance for time, and I'm not exactly hungry.

If this sounds weird, it kinda is. 5 years of lifting, I got big, and my body apparently needs lots of food, and I need to spend serious time feeding it.

Looking for ideas to make these 9pm lazy calories easy and trackable. Any suggestions?

Replies

  • Cbean08
    Cbean08 Posts: 1,092 Member
    Eat more earlier then. If you'd rather only have a 400 calorie snack at night, then spread the remaining 700 or so calories out. That's a glass of milk (200 cals) at breakfast, 2 hardboiled eggs at lunch (160), and a chocolate bar in the middle of the day (240)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Well I sure as **kittens** wouldn't waste my time eating "high volume/lower calorie" foods if I were too tired to log and had no need to bulk up my food in order to meet a satiation goal!

    I mean a nice 350g piece of cheesecake is over 1000 Cal.

    Just one piece, and a single line item to log! And I've seldom had to spend too much time desperately trying to finish one!!! Heck add some whip cream and a bit of sauce...

    Make sure to weigh your piece... cause you wouldn't want to under-estimate, or anything :wink:

    Grief, did my stomach just rumble.
    Tomorrow night, perhaps not that size, but I'm finding some cheesecake!

    And yeah, on 4000 cal long bike days - not hard when you count drinking some calories right after the ride, nutrition drink is 400, other before bed.
  • raindawg
    raindawg Posts: 348 Member
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    The answer is always ice cream and top it with peanut butter and banana. yum

    I'm voting for the ice cream...........
  • jusca
    jusca Posts: 28 Member
    edited April 2018
    Sounds like you got a little wiggle room to eat a little junk. :)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    so learn to maintain without counting calories if it bothers you so much?
  • h1udd
    h1udd Posts: 623 Member
    bag of tortilla chips and a cheese dip ... carbs and fat + fat and lactose ... doesnt get much better .. that normally leaves me wanting something sweet as well, so more calories
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    mkirklions wrote: »
    I find the aspect of counting 3200 calories worth of food extremely annoying.

    When I bulk, I make a gigantic stir fry, 8 cups of rice, 4-5 chicken breasts, 4 eggs, 2 lbs of peas, dump of peanut oil, and a stick of butter.

    This lasts a few days, and I gorge on it. I probably eat it in the course of 4 meals.

    Be careful of repeatedly reheating food, especially food including rice. You might have rather sudden weight loss..

    I have a high calorie allowance (c.3000 and rising) and don't find it a problem to eat enough without food logging.
    Eat more earlier in the day, snack more (nuts and cheese can be very high calorie for small volume), grab a quick sandwich (can easily be 500 cals for little preparation time), fruit, pasta, drink some calories.....

    Yesterday was probably more like 3500 cals for me and the lime and coconut sponge cake I had at a coffee stop while out cycling was delicious.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,128 Member
    Pre-log your day, a day ahead, that way you can figure out in advance if you need to make up extra.
  • BeccaLoves2lift
    BeccaLoves2lift Posts: 375 Member
    I wish I had your problem.
  • BattyKnitter
    BattyKnitter Posts: 503 Member
    Yep wish I had that "annoyance" damn being short and female!
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    Is there a reason you can't (pretty easily) get more calories in earlier in the day?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    edited April 2018
    Ice cream with melted peanut butter. Not very filling and full of calories.

    Or pop tart ice cream sandwich. My fav 2 strawberry pop tarts, put a bit of peanut butter on both sides, and a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited April 2018
    I could get to 3200 without a flinch.

    there is a list of calorie dense foods in this link, maybe it will help.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    edited April 2018
    If I'm understanding correctly, it's that kind of in between calorie amount that is annoying? Bulking you just eat tons, cutting you eat less, and maintenance is this unsatisfying limbo between the two? Or are you bulking on 3200 cals.. I'm a bit confused.

    You may have to adjust your eating windows to get more food in. Your intake doesn't have to be exact if you are at maintenance, you can save some extra cals for weekends or intense workout days. You have more flexibility. If you notice your weight getting too high or too low, just adjust over time.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    Oh boy. I can’t understand this dilemma. I love to eat. If you don’t want to wind up with needing to fill in 1500 calories at the end of the day then plan better and eat more for breakfast lunch and dinner.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    i maintain on an average of 3000cal a day - sometimes it feels like eating is my job (and my coworkers comment on the fact that i'm always eating) - but i'm not complaining - it was definately a bit of a mental shift to start eating so much, and enjoying ice cream, waffles etc
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I had 3,400 calories yesterday and "annoying" is not how I would describe it.

    A couple of beers, two bagels, some onion rings . . . it added up pretty quickly.
  • gamesandgains
    gamesandgains Posts: 640 Member
    lol I would love to maintain at 3200 calories man, jeez. I currently maintain at 2350. Plenty of good suggestions above. Stick to denser food options.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    If I needed to add an extra 1k calories without going for a single calorie bomb I'd probably add some sort of baked good in the AM, hit the nuts and dark chocolate mid day, and top it all off with a bowl of buttered popcorn (fiber!) and a second glass of wine. Nom nom.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    With a sufficiently tasty bread and some butter, I can scarf down 1000 cal worth of toast easily. Toast is how I finish of my day's calories when I'm maintaining or gaining. (I hesitate to call what I do "bulking".) Losing weight simply involves cutting out my bedtime toast snack.

    But then, I love toast and am probably addicted.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    ccsernica wrote: »
    With a sufficiently tasty bread and some butter, I can scarf down 1000 cal worth of toast easily. Toast is how I finish of my day's calories when I'm maintaining or gaining. (I hesitate to call what I do "bulking".) Losing weight simply involves cutting out my bedtime toast snack.

    But then, I love toast and am probably addicted.
    I've totally been on a toast kick! When it's perfectly toasted, warm and crispy, and butter is running into all the little pockets... Oh man!

Categories