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Nutrition Muscle Gain + Fat Loss meal prep

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scottienomad

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I know there's a ton of info on this online...

I avoid learning on youtube so much, so many of those youtubers aren't natural. So I want to clear it up on here with people who have experience with it while being totally natural.


I'm 24 , 182cm and 85kg. My BMR is around 1900 calories.

I work from my laptop, so I'm not burning so many calories throughout the day.

My routine looks like this. It's a slight variation of StrongLifts 5x5.

A.
Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5
Row 5x5
Tricep pull down 3x10

B.
Squat 5x5
Shoulder press 5x5
deadlift 1x5
Lat pulldown 3x10

I'm recently just back in the gym training with barbells. So I think I'm in a sweet spot for burning fat while gaining size back.

How should I eat ?

I do like doing low intensity cardio also, 30 minute walk on the treadmill every morning. I haven't been doing this recently though.

I was thinking to eat 1900 - 2000 calories per day. With my protein intake around 150+ everyday.

I fast anyway, I think I've been fasting so long that it's sort of stopped working for me. So I plan to start eating first thing in the morning for a month. Then start to fast again.

Hope there's enough information here for people!

P.S. I don't look fat whatsoever.. Just have a gut I need to get off

Cheers :)
 
I was thinking to eat 1900 - 2000 calories per day. With my protein intake around 150+ everyday.

Sounds about right to me! Maybe even a little more protein. Try using an app like My Fitness Pal... I'm doing a lot better job getting my targeted protein now that I'm actually tracking it. Also that way if your body isn't responding the way you want, you can re-target your numbers accordingly.

Walking along with lifting is a great combo.
 
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1900 cal for a guy your size on a serious strength routine like that one seems a bit low to me. You can give it a try for 2 weeks and adjust maybe.
 
The general recommendations around here are: adequate protein (such as 1g/pound), low starch, and high good fat and veggies.

So you would start with the calories from your protein target, then maybe stsrt with 50/50 proportion of remaining calories from fat and carbs (keeping in mind fat has ~9 calories per gram, carbs and protein ~4g), then adjust those proportions to find your sweet spot.
 
Hello,

@scottienomad
In general, about 1.3-1.5g of protein / kg of bdw is enough to maintain muscle mass. However, we do not have to forget that for the same volume, muscle is heavier than fat ;)

Regarding diet, a lot of folk here are more or less "low carb / medium protein / high fat". I should precise "good" fats. Of course, plenty of fruits and vegetables. Nonetheless, this is not necessary to go to a ketonic diet which may be tough to follow on the long haul.

Nevertheless, a "low fat" diet may also work, but you may counterbalance by carbs. For instance, I am very comfortable with a "Japanese-like" diet: a lot of vegetables, special rice cooking techniques, good fats and proteins, sea products.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
I've been reasonably serious with diet before, MyFitnessPal is the only thing that made it possible haha. Such a good app.

I find high protein really difficult, before when i was fasting it was hard for me to eat the correct amount 180g. Probably doesn't help I can't find a protein powder that tastes good with water. I have 5kg of banana that tastes so terrible..

If I'm not fasting maybe it will be much easier to get all the protein in.

So eating at maintenance with my three days strength training and 20 mins cardio everyday ?

Keep protein as high as possible. I should be losing while gaining size back ?
 
Your calorie number looks too low to me.
I'd to the following:

-find out how many calories you need in order to maintain your weight. Ideally you already know that number from experience/observation

-if you do not know that number calculate it using the Mifflin-St. Jeor-equation

-I think your goal is feasible: eat at maintance or at a slight deficit of ~10%

-keep your "cardio" low intensity i.e. walking is a good choice (why not go outdoors for that?) and aim to progress with the weight and you should be covered
 
So your calculated basal metabolic rate is 1900 calories. If thats based on a formula then its very approximate, but we’ll take that as a starting point. I think by definition you cannot put on muscle eating 1900-2000 calories a day. As soon as you get out of bed and get to the gym you’re already at a calorie deficit fir the day, unless your bmr is actually lower than that number. Bmr means that if you just rested all day, no movement, how many calories would your body burn. With the priority being fat loss you dont want to increase too much, but some more calories would help with those twice a week 5x5. That kind of program normally does best with good caloric surplus since the dense volume favors muscle growth.
 
Just used www.calculator.net for sedentary maintenance calories.

2250

Also my workout is 3 days per day, alternating between A and B workouts.

So eat at this maintenance, do my weight routine, keep protein high, low intensity fasted cardio every morning 20mins..

how does this look? I'll do this for a couple of weeks then decide if I need to drop some calories, or just add in longer cardio.

Going travelling again in around 12 weeks. So need to get this diet dialed down quickly so I can afford to gain a few lbs when I'm away travelling again haha!
 
There are differences of opinion/clinical findings on this, but anecdotally people have had success cycling between moderate and low carb (starches in particular) days: moderate on strength training days, low on rest/aerobic days.

You can experiment to find the sweet spot of starches on the fat loss / performance spectrum. Too much and you won’t lose fat as fast / at all, but too little and your lifts may suffer - which may be okay if you’re just trying to give yourself enough training stimulus to grow lean tissue, not hit a PR.
 
Since youre trainging, sedentary maintenance might still be low. Since it sounds like fat loss is your primary goal, thats a good starting point. If you find that you arent recovering from your program or would like to gain more muscle, try to up the calories a few hundred, at least after training sessions.
 
Just used www.calculator.net for sedentary maintenance calories.

2250

Also my workout is 3 days per day, alternating between A and B workouts.

So eat at this maintenance, do my weight routine, keep protein high, low intensity fasted cardio every morning 20mins..

how does this look? I'll do this for a couple of weeks then decide if I need to drop some calories, or just add in longer cardio.

Going travelling again in around 12 weeks. So need to get this diet dialed down quickly so I can afford to gain a few lbs when I'm away travelling again haha!

Looks good!
Make sure to use the Mifflin-St. Jeor-equation since it is the most accurate unless you haven't figured out your maintance cals yourself.
You can cycle calories but it does not make too much of a difference. Carb cycling really only makes sense once you reach the very low bodyfat levels (below 10 or so). Just make sure to eat that number on average. If you skrew up one day make up for it on the following days so that it averages put in the course of the week.
Don't rely on cardio for fat loss, rather try to do as much low intensity movement as possible i.e. walk whenever possible, stairs insted of elevator etc. In your training focus on geting stronger! This in conjunction with all the other factors will get you there.
 
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