Some Diet/Nutrition/Meal Plan help please :}

[.DeadPool.]

Hey All,

Could really use some help, my head feels like it's going to explode! I have been reading articles and doing calculations for 4 days and nothing is sounding right.

Age: 33
Height: 5'5/6
Weight: 127 lbs
LBW: 108 lbs
BF: approx. 15%
BMR: 1430 Cal/Day (iifymDOTCOM/tdee-calculator/]TDEE Calculator[/url])
TDEE: 2029 Cal/Day (iifymDOTCOM/tdee-calculator/]TDEE Calculator[/url])

Goal is to lean bulk before I start cutting for summer. The problem I am having is according to the calculations my total daily Cals should be 1,620 daily (LBW x15) which is far off from my TDEE (2029 Cal/Day + 300-500 surplus cals for bulking). I am going to possibly be doing the MI40 program just to give you an idea where the calculations/Meals plans are coming from.

To make it a little simpler lets say I rounded up to 2,000 cal/day my totals would look like this:

*Training Days: P 150g / C 250g / F 44g *Non Training Days: P 250g / C 125g / F 55g

Meal Plan/Training Days:

Meal 1 - Protein + Fat + Veg
Meal 2 - Protein + Carbs
Meal 3 - (3 hour PW) Protein + Carbs
Meal 4 - Protein + Veg or Protein Shake (PW)
30 minutes into 40 minute workout - High Glycemic Carb Powder (Vitargo)
Post Workout - Protein Shake
Meal 5 - (Within 2 hours of training) Protein + Carbs
Meal 6 - Protein + Fats + Veg
Before Bed - Protein Shake + Fats

Meal Plan/Non Training Days:

Meal 1 - P+F+v
Meal 2 - P+C
Meal 3 - P+C+V
Meal 4 - P SHAKE
Meal 5 - P SHAKE+C+V
Meal 6 - P+F+V
Before Bed - P SHAKE+F

Anyway what do you think? My total cals just sound to low to me, I think maybe I should be more in the range of 2,500 cal/day for bulking or am I wrong?

The meal plans seem legit but I am conflicted about no carbs in the morning!? As far as getting out of catabolic state in the morning without carbs seems a little iffy to me and training day meal plan maybe a little overboard?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, Really will appreciate it

[Buster Brown]

Some of the formulas do vary quite a bit which is frustrating to find a jumping off point. There is a formula right here in the stickies (educational threads) that a lot of guys use. Not sure if Gbrice posted it but that will help you with your TDEE and then yes add 300-500 calories over day to bulk.... I encourage you to also look into carb cycling as well.

[Khazima]

Don't worry about all the mumbo jumbo there is out there, just get into a caloric surplus. 2500 is probably a good place to start, eat that for a few weeks and see how much you gain then adjust accordingly.

Changing calories around on training and non training days makes no sense other than theoretically, the energy your body uses varies depending on glycogen stores (ie what you've previously eaten).

Just eat 2500, every day, 150 protein, stay above 60 fat and fill the rest with carbs and you should be good to go. Micromanaging isn't going to do much for you.

[gbrice75]

I responded to you in my thread.

[.DeadPool.]

Thanks all for the help, much appreciated!

[Hard_Body]

Honestly man you don't need to complicate things so much to the point where your stressing out, Its quite easy, just have fun with it man dont stress out with it. I dont even feel the need to count macros unless in a situation where I was dieting down for a comp then it would become much more important. but since I already roughly no my protein intake is somewhere around 200, carbs, 300-350, cals over 3000. Counting cals becomes much more important as you get advanced but once you have an idea of how much your eating you shouldn't really need to track, but if your just about to do your first cut or something then you will most likley need to for a few weeks just to get a rough idea of what your numbers are. Just make sure your eating whole foods, not tons of protein shakes. People worry way to much about diet and all this macro counting stuff but they still look like shit. just go kill it in the gym, get your 5-6 meals in, and sleep 8-10 hours. All these calculations are so unnecessary you aren't prepping for the Olympia. Keep it simple.

[Buster Brown]

Don't worry about all the mumbo jumbo there is out there, just get into a caloric surplus. 2500 is probably a good place to start, eat that for a few weeks and see how much you gain then adjust accordingly. Changing calories around on training and non training days makes no sense other than theoretically, the energy your body uses varies depending on glycogen stores (ie what you've previously eaten). Just eat 2500, every day, 150 protein, stay above 60 fat and fill the rest with carbs and you should be good to go. Micromanaging isn't going to do much for you.

So from your experience carb cycling does not work?