age 30
weight 212
bf% 14ish
lifting mon, wed, fri (heavy)
cardio, fasted every morning and twice on tues and thurs.
the diet I came up with is this:
protein 354g
carbs 300g
fats 25g
This should equal +2750 per day. to me this seems like a lot more than I normally eat and gain weight on.
according to the calculators online my bmr is about 2150 and my tdee is about 3500, how was I gaining eating less than that?
meals look like this:
meal 1: one scoope whey
meal 2: 1/2 cup oats, 1 whole wheat bagel, 1 cup egg whites. 41c,32pro,2fat
meal 3: 2 whole wheat bread sandwiches, 1 can tuna, 1 can chicken. 60 carb, 52pro, 5 fat
meal 4: 1 serv brn rice, 1 cup bl. beans, 6oz chicken
meal 5: 2 scoop whey (pre) 6 carb, 48pro, 2fat
meal 6: 2 scoops whey, 1 packet oats (instant) 39carb, 52 pro, 4 fat
meal 7: black beans, whole wheat pasta, broc. carrots 6oz chicken. 74carb, 54 pro, 4 fat
meal 8: 1 scoop casein 5carb, 25 pro 3 fat
After looking over this should I up the fats? Having trouble getting all this food in early in the day as keeping away from carbs at night. My weight training in usually 4pm mon wed fri.
Ok first things first: the BMR and TDEE calculations are only estimates, very good ones at that, but you will need to dial them in as you progress through the recomp. These numbers are not fixed in stone and will vary in accuracy from person to person. The reason it seems like you're eating more foods is due to nutrient density. Think broccoli vs peanut butter. 300 calories of broccoli is a lot more VOLUME of food than 300 calories of peanut butter. If you were gaining weight at less than your TDEE it means one of two things: either the TDEE calculation was a high estimate or you weren't counting calories accurately and eating more than you thought. What I suggest is to eat at maintenance for 2-3
Weeks and get an accurate measure of your maintenance calories. This will help later for the recomp.
Fasted Cardio and Fat Loss - Q&A | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald
^^^a great article regarding fasted cardio. Cardio is not necessary for weight or fat loss. Cardio simply helps create a deficit or enlarges a current deficit. Weight training is much more important to body decomposition as it aids in the preservation of lbm even when in a caloric deficit. Do your cardio whether its steady state low intensity, HIIT, fasted or non-fasted but DO NOT let it interfere with your weight training or recovery from your training. Doing cardio everyday and twice in Tuesday and Thursday sounds like it may be a bit much unless you're recovery is phenomenal or you're not pushing yourself as hard as you thought with the weights. I would suggest to start off with cardio 3x per week, either on off days from the weights, at least a few hours before your weight training on training days, or after your weight training on workout days. Do this for a couple weeks and if you notice no impact on recovery bump it up slightly in either duration, intensity, or frequency. Remember your AAS cycle will help with recovery but by being in a deficit you are still prone to overtraining.
A recomp is typically done by short periods of cyclical dieting. Instead of going into months-long bulking and cutting cycles, you break it down into a weekly cycle. You want a slight calorie surplus on training days, anywhere from 300-600 calories and a slight caloric deficit on non-training days 300-600 calories. Since you workout 3days/wk and Depending in which end of the spectrum you're favoring (more lbm or more fat loss) you might do 3days bulk and 4days deficit or 4days bulk and 3 days deficit). Another approach to recomp by Layne Norton suggests doing ~6wks bulk cycles immediately followed by ~2wks cut cycles. The length of the cycles again can be changed depending in what your primary goal is. Another option is carb-cycling in some forms since reducing carbs but keeping other macronutrient levels the same can also create a deficit on days and a surplus on others.
The problem I see with your diet is that its around an 800calorie deficit across the board, making it a pure cut not a recomp. If you really want a recomp you're going to need days or weeks of surpluses followed by days or weeks of deficits. An 800 calorie deficit on a 3500 calorie TDEE is also a 22% deficit in terms of calories which is pretty aggressive. The more aggressive the deficit the more recovery becomes a problem, especially with all the cardio you're doing.
You're macros for carbs and protein aren't bad but your dietary fat is lacking. For optimal hormonal efficiency and nutrient sufficiency you want to maintain a minimum dietary fat intake of around .3-.4g/lb of BW. For you at 212lbs that translates to a minimum of at least 65-70grams of fat per day which will bring your caloric intake to 3250~ if left unadjusted.
A good deal of your protein intake is reliant upon powders. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but can lead to issues with satiety. Also micronutrients found in whole protein sources such as chicken, beef, fish, etc will be lacking so I would suggest to keep an eye on that and possibly use more whole food sources of protein.
My basic advice to you would be:
1) meet a minimum protein intake of 1.3-1.5g/lb BW
2) meet minimum of .3-.4g/lb BW of dietary fat
3) the rest of your calories can come from any other macronutrient or combination thereof. I would prefer carbs as they will help keep your intensity up with weight training since they're a great source of fuel for the body.
4) decide which recomp method you'd like to try: either the weekly one with fluctuating days during each week or the layne Norton style one with a few weeks of bulking followed by a few weeks of cutting. Adjust your macros and diet accordingly.
5) keep protein intake the same on deficits and surpluses to take advantage of increased protein synthesis and optimized p-ratio (calorie partitioning) with AAS.
6) if you decide to keep fats at a minimum, take carbs out on deficit days as you don't want to go much under ~70g fats/day.
7) make sure you meet micronutrient needs with a wide array of food choices, lots of fruits and veggies, and possibly a multi-vitamin
8) stop worrying about carbs at night making you fat, this is false thinking
9) create varying surpluses and deficits bc if you stick to your original 800cal/day deficit you will be doing a cut not a recomp.
