Counting Macros - Week 1

This years goal is to gain more weight, and not just a few extra kilos, but actual lean muscle.
In order to know how much to eat to gain muscle, you need to know what you're currently eating, and since I have basically been the same weight for over a year, I can conclude that I'm eating around my maintenance level in calories, with the obvious fluctuations of eating either a bit over or under.

The first week of counting my macros is done, and I must say, it's very interesting to see what you're consuming in actual numbers. You have to be really honest to yourself, and not be tempted to skimp on a glass of wine or 2. In addition, eating more food has proven to be quite hard.

No matter how you look at it, in order to gain weight, you need to eat more. But doing that in a responsible way (so not by eating pints of Ben & Jerry's every day, although I wish I could be like Rich Piana)
FYI: a whole pint of Ben & Jerry's: 1050 calories (and a total of 105 grams of sugar)
Sure, you can stuff your face with cakes, ice cream and fatty foods, but I don't think your body will thank you for that.
(CT Fletcher did it and ended up having open heart surgery)

So how do you know how much to eat? 
First of all, you need to calculate your basic metabolic rate (BMR) wich is basically the amount of calories you need to survive every day. There are many tools online you can use, I used this one and after doing several tests with other tools, my BMR came out at 1400 calories on average.
With exercise on top, the daily requirement came out at 2100 calories. This is called your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)
An article I wrote on this topic can be found here.

How much do you eat now?
The only way to find out, is to keep track! Starting last week, I logged everything in MyFitnessPal, not necessarily with the aim to already start eating more, but to document how much I'm currently eating. After 4 weeks, I will evaluate (weight, calorie-intake) and make a nutrition-plan accordingly.
My starting weight is 60.2 kg. Below, the numbers of the first week:






For the full overview of my food-intake, check my MyFitnessPal profile.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...