Caloric Intake Advice

[bluej79]

I went on a pretty serious cardio / diet plan and dropped down to about 164 (I’m 5’ 10”). I was eating abiut 1200 cals/day. That was a little too lean (had that unhealthy sunken-face look). I moved from a cardio-focused routine to a better balance of strength training. While I definitely have gained more muscle mass, the scale now reads 185-190. I can’t imagine gaining 20+ pounds in muscle, but my daily caloric intake is about 2000-2200 cals.

Being significantly overweight at one point, I’m very mindful of what I put in my mouth. I’ve tracked everything I’ve eaten with MFP for the last two years.

So anyway - now I’m trying to wrestle with feeling like I’m putting on fat, but getting enough calories to continue building muscle, and having a low body fat %. Any guide out there says I should be consuming more calories than what I’m even doing now. Any thoughts? Should I dial back cal intake again? Got to the gym almost everyday - do 20 mins of cardio (run 2 miles) and then another 30-45 of strength. Thx...

[Plateauplower]

I would guess that you are not accurately tracking your intake. Do you weigh all of your portions on a food scale and cross check MFPs "data" with other sources? MFP can have wildly inaccurate data in some categories due to user input for values. You need to decide where you are happy in terms of leanness. If you want to get leaner adjust your intake to ensure you are hitting your protein and fat minimums and losing no more than 1% body weight per week. If you want to focus on gaining muscle, if you have been training on effective programming for awhile I would try to gain 2-3lbs poer month for several months then diet back down a little. If someone is newer to training or has been training ineffectively they can usually gain a little faster since they have more untapped potential. Bottom line is you keep training hard on effective programming, focusing on compound lifts and adjust food intake depending on your goals...

[hmmmm16417]

I would guess that you are not accurately tracking your intake.

^^this^^

especially when you say "my daily caloric intake is about 2000-2200 cals"

2000-2200 = calories variation of 10%
about = at least another 10%

unless you get more accurate and consistent you will continue to struggle to s where your progress actually is

[bamazav]

I would guess that you are not accurately tracking your intake. Do you weigh all of your portions on a food scale and cross check MFPs "data" with other sources? MFP can have wildly inaccurate data in some categories due to user input for values. You need to decide where you are happy in terms of leanness. If you want to get leaner adjust your intake to ensure you are hitting your protein and fat minimums and losing no more than 1% body weight per week. If you want to focus on gaining muscle, if you have been training on effective programming for awhile I would try to gain 2-3lbs poer month for several months then diet back down a little. If someone is newer to training or has been training ineffectively they can usually gain a little faster since they have more untapped potential. Bottom line is you keep training hard on effective programming, focusing on compound lifts and adjust food intake depending on your goals...

This.

Just using the rough calculations based on your posted age, activity, weight and height, you are still under eating for muscle gain. So the likely hood is you or your app are miscalculating. Follow Plateau's advise and you should gain muscle and limit fat.

That said, congrats on losing the weight and desiring to live a healthy lifestyle. I encourage you to start a training log and let us all help you.

[bluej79]

Thanks! I added some pics to my profile / gallery, if you want to give me some feedback. I’m pretty strict about logging and matching what’s on the label and log as I go ... I lost 80lbs from my heaviest to my lowest, leaving me with loose skin, which doesn’t help either. I’m curious to know what you do for calories daily too.

[Plateauplower]

Nice job. If you lost 80lbs you have likely been dieting awhile. I started back to training really fat at about 250lbs and have gone as low as 175 last summer so pretty close to 80lbs. I have done it in stages though, where I would cut then build for awhile (chasing numbers) then cut again. I track things pretty closely especially when dieting and I have noticed some metabolic slowdown from long extended periods in a deficit. I can usually slowly cut on around 2200 cals\day right now, but last summer I got to where 2050 avg was pretty slow loss rate. It might be a good time to try to eat around maintance for awhile and slowly try to increase calories a little without gaining much fat. It will be good change of pace just don’t let it get out of hand. After a month or so, if you wanted to get leaner, you could work toward that goal again and you might be at a slightly higher TDEE (not by much though maybe 200 cals/day). The loose skin will improve some over time. When I get really lean it’s there for me, but staying leaner for the last year has helped and when I’m not depleted the loose skin has really improved. So stay on the leaner side going forward if you want the skin to tighten up. I kind of go more by the mirror now but still weigh myself daily. If my abs and veins start fading I pull calories back until I get where I want to be. Great accomplishment. To lose 80lbs you have the dedication to do what you want. So just adjust calories to your goals. At 180-185 range my TDEE is about 2450-2600 depending on how active I am (extra cardio etc). I usually cut on 1800-2200 cals depending on how aggressive i want to be with the deficit, and how hungry I’m feeling.

Great job though.

[Payton1221]

I kind of go more by the mirror now but still weigh myself daily. If my abs and veins start fading I pull calories back until I get where I want to be.

Tim, I'm the same way. I remarked to my assistant at work that I have gained 10 lbs over the last few months that I wanted to get rid of, and she said "well you can't tell." And in my clothes, you really cant, but like you, I can see that there's no blurry 4 or 6 pack in the am anymore. With that said, I know it's different strokes for different folks, but my reasoning for staying closer to my ideal is that dieting sucks. Being on a diet for months on end is no fun.

[JeremyM07201978]

My current stats are close to where you were before increasing your calories. I agree with others that you may have an accuracy issue. I did not have any increase in strength and was not putting on weight on until I hit about 2400 calories and slowed cardio....that is not to say I am the most accurate either, but I do measure and weigh food often to check.

I have not achieved a look as lean as you, but my focus right now is building muscle. At 5'8" 167 (up 7 lbs. Over last 2 months) I have quite a bit of muscle I hope to add before I consider another deficit. When I get back up to 175, I will scale back to maintenance for a few months before slowly working down to deficit. Depending on your specific goal, you may want to hang out at maintenance for a bit, but make sure you have nutrition dialed first and foremost. I personally wasted time trying to build muscle on too few calories before I realized I was just not getting enough food.

[bluej79]

Thanks all! It’s just interesting I guess - I’d say I have increased strength and muscle mass. If I use almost any online cal calc and even pick sedentary, to maintain 175 lbs (less than I am now), it’s like 2500 cals. I run 2 miles almost everyday and do strength for 30+ minutes after running (push whatever muscle group I’m working, to fatigue). I guess I’ve just got a slow metabolism - even if I was really far off with counting, I’d still be under the 2500.

[OldFartTom]

OK, Not the question you originally posted but... I'm thinking you can probably do a more effective strength session than the pushing to failure approach, also if at all possible to keep the running and the strength sessions apart even just by a few hours (but we've got busy lives so I know that's not always possible) it'd be even better. Just thinking out loud...

[tblodg15]

Congrats on losing weight and it looks like good progress gaining in your pics.

If you are gaining weight without a lot of body fat as it appears in your pics then keep doing what you are doing. If you are actually eating 2,600 calories vs 2,200 it doesn't really matter if you are getting good results. Your daily calories do sound low to be gaining 20 pounds but the results in the mirror and on the scale are more important than the numbers you put into MFP.