Eating Enough

[mamajoy]

Hi Y'all!

I need your help! I have hit a bit of a stall on my fitness progress and I am beginning to think that I may not be eating enough calories to continue to build muscle. Currently I am eating around 1600 calories a day, give or take a couple hundred. I am 111 lbs and 5ft 2in tall. My body seems to be in a place of continued maintenance but I really would like to see some more muscle mass built.

I work out enough, I believe, with 5 to 6 days of intense workouts and strength routines a week. I lift as heavy as I can with the equipment that I have access too and alternate types of workout programs, etc. I am not looking to lose weight, but to be honest, I don't particularly like to eat and feel like I am already forcing myself to get 1600 cals into me each day. I don't diet but the only reason for this continued stall seems to be nutrition.

Google hasn't been too helpful in enlightening me on where I should be at and the thought of adding more food to my daily intake is so counterintuitive that I keep putting it off.

Let me know what y'all think, I know it is hard to have advice when there is so much dependent on body composition etc. But I appreciate any and all thoughts.

Thank You!

Joy

 

[mini-natty]

Hi there,

This website seems to be helping many people increase their caloric intake for optimum muscle growth and performance:
ETP Calculator | Eat to PerformEat to Perform

From my own personal experience with trying to build more muscle mass, you DO need to be in a caloric surplus, not maintenance or deficit. I would recommend you increase you calories slightly at first, even 200cal might to the trick. You can get this easily by having a protein shake w/milk, banana, or any fruit of choice. It all boils down to trial error, and genetics also play a role (unfortunately ). Like I said, I would increase calories slowly, and tweak as the weeks go by. With the added calories, you might possibly gain a little fat, but don't fear! This is absolutely normal and sometimes necessary when trying to gain muscle mass. Here is a link to a video which discusses this. I found it to be extremely helpful and have adapted the info into my own training regime:

BULKING OR GAINING MUSCLE WITHOUT GETTING FAT - YouTube
(You *might* perceive this info to be geared for only men, but woman IMO can also benefit from this).

HTH! Good luck!

Natasha

 

[mamajoy]

Thank you so much for your reply. I appreciated both of those links and the last two days I have been eating more then the norm. It has been great, in that, it has shown me that my view of food is unhealthy. No one should feel shame or guilt for eating the amount of food necessary to fuel their body! Hopefully I can recalibrate my brain even more then my body

Thanks again,

Joy