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Need to adjust my macros? Need Help with Nutrition

Not making any gains but I think I'm eating enough -- where do I need to make changes?

garetjax
garetjax g Eric Snitchler
2 Post(s)
2 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: March 3, 2018
Posted

Am not making gains (is it my nutrition)?

43 year old male

163 lbs

5' 11"

16% Body Fat 

On rest days I average:

2570 calories

275 g protein

220 g carbs

57 g fat

On workout days (5 days a week of weight training -- about 60-75 minutes per day (and no cardio)

I consume 2800 calories

Protein 280 g

Carb 265 

Fat 60 

I am not gainign any weight -- been pretty consistent and regular these #'s for two months. I have always been skinny - and will lose weight if I am not eating enough. 

The typical foods eaten consist of eggs, milk,, oatmeal, protein shakes, chicken (lunch and dinner), sweet potatoes, cous cous, quinoa, yogurt, cottage cheese. I cheat with a soda every day at lunch (haven't been able to go no soda). I drink plenty of water throughout the day. Further, I have a sedentary job and am at this job about 60 hours a week so I am not very active outside of my workouts.   Due to my work - most all of my calories are gained with 3 big meals and two protein shakes in total (V-core, Milk, Flax Seed). The protein shake is 470 calories

Give me some advice nation -- 

Do I need to increase calories and if so should I focus on increasing proetein, carbs, fat? Changing my food sources? I am trying for lean gains (I was able to gain to 173 lbs last year but my body fat went above 20% and I was eating more crap. 

 

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: garetjax

Am not making gains (is it my nutrition)?

43 year old male

163 lbs

5' 11"

16% Body Fat 

On rest days I average:

2570 calories

275 g protein

220 g carbs

57 g fat

On workout days (5 days a week of weight training -- about 60-75 minutes per day (and no cardio)

I consume 2800 calories

Protein 280 g

Carb 265 

Fat 60 

I am not gainign any weight -- been pretty consistent and regular these #'s for two months. I have always been skinny - and will lose weight if I am not eating enough. 

The typical foods eaten consist of eggs, milk,, oatmeal, protein shakes, chicken (lunch and dinner), sweet potatoes, cous cous, quinoa, yogurt, cottage cheese. I cheat with a soda every day at lunch (haven't been able to go no soda). I drink plenty of water throughout the day. Further, I have a sedentary job and am at this job about 60 hours a week so I am not very active outside of my workouts.   Due to my work - most all of my calories are gained with 3 big meals and two protein shakes in total (V-core, Milk, Flax Seed). The protein shake is 470 calories

Give me some advice nation -- 

Do I need to increase calories and if so should I focus on increasing proetein, carbs, fat? Changing my food sources? I am trying for lean gains (I was able to gain to 173 lbs last year but my body fat went above 20% and I was eating more crap. 

 

If you aren't gaining weight, then you need to eat more food bro. It's as simple as that.

 

A good start might be having the same number of calories on your off days as your on days. Just bump up the fats to more like 70g-80g and cut the carbs back to 200g.

 

Your food options look good, but if you HAVE to have a soda daily with lunch.. could you at least make it a diet soda? Still not the best.. but better than regular sugar-filled soda.

 

If increasing your calories just on rest days doesn't make a difference, then try boosting your overall calories to about 3000 daily for a while and see if that gets you gaining weight consistently. I would simply suggest boosting your fats to add the extra 200 calories. You'll only need another 23-25g fat.

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garetjax
garetjax g Eric Snitchler
2 Post(s)
2 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: March 3, 2018
Posted

Thank you for the reply -- I'll make those changes and post back in a month to let you know of the progress. I have gone from 6 sodas a day down to the 1. Diet soda sucks and I tried that Coke Zero - it'll do in a pinch. I'll work on getting it down to 0 in time. .

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: garetjax

Thank you for the reply -- I'll make those changes and post back in a month to let you know of the progress. I have gone from 6 sodas a day down to the 1. Diet soda sucks and I tried that Coke Zero - it'll do in a pinch. I'll work on getting it down to 0 in time. .

That's good man. It's actually helpful to break an addication by doing it slowly like that, rather than just going straight cold turkey. 1 is better than 6 at least haha. Have you seen the new BCAAs from BSN? Tastes just like soda without all the sugar.. might be something that could help too! https://muscularstrength.com/Supplements

Need 1 on 1 coaching? Send me a direct message to learn more!
conradb92
conradb92 g Conrad Brown
3 Post(s)
3 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: April 4, 2018
Posted

Hey Scott.  I am loving the site so far, it is awesome.  I am wondering if i can lose fat and build muscle on a low carb diet.  If my macros were 44% fat, 37% protein, and 19% carbs could i keep and build muscle? daily calories are 2180. 

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: conradb92

Hey Scott.  I am loving the site so far, it is awesome.  I am wondering if i can lose fat and build muscle on a low carb diet.  If my macros were 44% fat, 37% protein, and 19% carbs could i keep and build muscle? daily calories are 2180. 

Hey Conrad.

 

Depends.. how long have you been training? If you're a newbie.. yes you might be able to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.. but to do that you would be best served in a surplus. You'll gain muscle no matter what as a newbie, but to help that, you'll want to be in a 250-500 calorie surplus.

 

If you're not a newbie, then it's much harder to do, and in my experience you can't really build much muscle in a deficit once you're intermediate to advanced. In which case you would have to chose between losing fat or building muscle, which is more important?

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