Hey guys! Long time reader first time poster here. I've been going through a bit of a mental battle and had to reach out to see if I can get some help whichever way it falls :)
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Here's a summary for those that don't want to read below (I get it):
- I'm 5'8
- I workout 4-6 days a week (a mix of cardio & lifting.. more towards lifting and mix up body groups)
- 3 weeks ago I realized I was eating only 1400-1600 calories a day (I weighed 157lb)
- I bumped up the calories to ~2300
- I've gained a noticeable amount of fat in my mid-section and 7lb on the scale (which is less important to me, the fat shaking on my stomach worries me (I now weigh 164lb) :))
- The question I have is at the end :)
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In a really brief summary, my name's Mike, I'm 5'8" on a good day and have a relatively athletic build. Like most people I've gone through cycles in the past where I've been in better and worse shape, with the best being sometime around when I met my wife a few years ago. Since then I've kept up a very consistent workout schedule (both lifting and running 2-4 miles a day, 4-6 days a week, she's a personal trainer so she practically lives at the gym) but noticed that if anything I was getting in a bit worse shape... and losing muscle.
I've stayed at almost exactly the same 157lb for a few years give or take a few lbs here and there. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why, since I eat "healthy" with salads, fish, meat, etc. and don't overdo it on carbs or junk food (even cut out burgers and even bread for a while, eek, that was hard...and stupid). Regardless, nothing stuck out to me so I decided to start tracking it.
That gets me to where I was at a few weeks ago. I started tracking it for 2 weeks and noticed that I was reaching about 1400-1600 calories a day, and of course working out and burning a large portion of those. That was crazy to me, I never thought it was that low! Anyways, obviously that's not enough for the working out I was doing and I'd been doing that for years now, without changing the diet much at all.
I decided to start upping the calories and have been tracking it for around 3 weeks now, eating between 2100-2400 cals a day and filling the goals I'm setting like:
180g Protein (31%)
191g Carbs (33%)
91g Fat (36%)
I've stuck to that roughly, obviously not exact but never too far off (except thanksgiving... who tracks thanksgiving...).
The problem is, i'm now 3 weeks in to bumping up the calories while increasing my workouts to more lifting (and reducing cardio to about 1mile per workout as a warmup) and I'm up 7lb to 164, and I can feel/see the added fat around my midsection. My wife says I'm starting to look stronger, so, haha I guess that's fine... but I really don't enjoy the fat gain that's coming along with it.
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The question is (after all that):
Is it normal to gain fat that quickly when you bump up calories after a long time? Assuming it is, and assuming I'll probably get a bunch of "water weight" type answers which are probably accurate as well, is there anything you'd recommend I change to mitigate the fat gain or should I just keep it up for a while and push through this part while my body adjusts to the new food intake?
Thanks again for all the useful info over the years, and appreciate any insight/motivation/help/literally-anything :) It's tough to feel the added fat and I don't enjoy it.
Mike
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