It seems a lot of people eat the same amount of calories per day, but on the more or less active days, shouldn’t your calories reflect that? For a long time, I’ve had trouble putting on muscle, and whenever I would try to lose fat I could only do it for a short while before I hit a plateau.
So I finally bought a bodybugg, and while I thought my maintenance was about ~2300 calories, it’s actually closer to 3500 on most days. So while I put on a lot of water weight and thought I was actually getting fat, I wasnt. And so I would try to lose weight, but my calories would be so low under my actual maintenance that I think my body just started trying to hang on to everything.However, I only burn that much if I work a full shift, If I work less which I occasionally do, I burn a few hundred calories less.
On my days off my maintenance is usually 2300. Now I’ve been using the bodybugg for a few weeks now and have put on about 2 pounds, so I believe it’s giving accurate numbers. I’ve been eating 500 calories over whatever it is that I burn that day so once or twice a week its 2800 and the other days it’s usually 3800-4000, but is this bad to do? It just seems that if I eat the same calories every day, I’ll either be eating too much and put on too much fat, or I’ll have to cut back my calories a little which I would think would be negative for muscle gains. So is it bad to alternate my calories like this?
[quote]woodard2589 wrote:
It seems a lot of people eat the same amount of calories per day, but on the more or less active days, shouldn’t your calories reflect that? For a long time, I’ve had trouble putting on muscle, and whenever I would try to lose fat I could only do it for a short while before I hit a plateau.
So I finally bought a bodybugg, and while I thought my maintenance was about ~2300 calories, it’s actually closer to 3500 on most days. So while I put on a lot of water weight and thought I was actually getting fat, I wasnt. And so I would try to lose weight, but my calories would be so low under my actual maintenance that I think my body just started trying to hang on to everything.However, I only burn that much if I work a full shift, If I work less which I occasionally do, I burn a few hundred calories less.
On my days off my maintenance is usually 2300. Now I’ve been using the bodybugg for a few weeks now and have put on about 2 pounds, so I believe it’s giving accurate numbers. I’ve been eating 500 calories over whatever it is that I burn that day so once or twice a week its 2800 and the other days it’s usually 3800-4000, but is this bad to do? It just seems that if I eat the same calories every day, I’ll either be eating too much and put on too much fat, or I’ll have to cut back my calories a little which I would think would be negative for muscle gains. So is it bad to alternate my calories like this?[/quote]
I think a lot of people here who have been in the game for a little bit and have experimented with their caloric intake actually eat differently each day based of if it’s a workout day or an off day or maybe even depending on what they are working out and their goals.
I see nothing wrong with what you are doing. Assuming your bodybug is giving you some solid numbers. I mean if your numbers are spot on it would be more beneficial to eat this way than to eat a bunch of calories you don’t need on your off days.
When you lower your caloric intake to 2800ish calories what are you taking away to make such a drastic drop from 3800-4000.
just use the mirror and things like a tape measure to make sure you’re not gaining too much of the wrong kind of weight.
Yeah I’d control intake as long as you’re in a small surplus on days off. People can get agressive with “bulking” and eating the same calories on workout days and non-workout days just leads to unnecessary fat gain–it’ll keep you leaner in the long run.
For my macros I always hit at least 200g of protein, 90g fat and carbs I just fill in with whatever. So on the days I eat less, I just cut back on everything, carbs probably the biggest. I usually end up getting 220-230g protein and 120g fat on my 4000cal days. Think I’m going to start cutting the fat back more and keep it at 100 on the higher cal days tho too.
Using the mirror, my weight gain seems to be good, haven’t noticed any fat gain yet, or water weight put on either. Before when I thought I was bulking and would eat 2800, I would put on about 10 pounds in about 4-6 weeks and thought I was always bulking too high, but I would end up getting rid of it in a week. So I’m surprised this time that I havent gained a bunch of weight yet, going to contribute that to food selection and drinking more water this time around.
Thanks for the replies