F training for a bikini fitness comp

[sinnersavedsaint]

I'm on this journey for quite some time with ups and downs but I made myself the goal to start competing in October. I know I have a long way to go but I also have the time to get where I want to be.

Some background info:
I'm a 29 year old female, mom of 2 kids and there are some pics in my history if it's needed. Stats: 5'1.5 and 116 lbs right now. I go to the gym around 4-5 times a week where I start off with 15 min cardio, 40 mins of weights/body weight exercises and machines and a 10 min walking cooling down. Also I go to the gym on my bike which is around 2x15 mins extra. Besides that I'm a part time stay at home mom and part time teacher. At my job, I walk a lot since my classroom is big and my students ask a lot from me. On my mom days, I don't do a lot besides my gym and the normal caring about my kids and helping them and walk them to and from school.

My plan is to bulk till June, and start cutting afterwards for 4 months to get myself in the competition shape.
I want to start at 1600 kcal a day (I've been losing my weight at around 1300 kcal a day so it is an increase!). I calculated it in the sailrabbits calculator based on a slightly active lifestyle.

My macros will be the following:
116 grams of protein per day (30%)
36 grams of fat (20%)
204 grams of carbs (50%)

Is this alright? Or should I increase/decrease something)

Every little bit of help is super welcome and thanks for reading it ♡

 

[levi9]

@sinnersavedsaint Did you factor in your active calories? I would go 10-20% over maintenance calories for a bulk. If you only go slightly above you will probably just increase your NEAT and not gain. Check out Layne Norton on YouTube or instagram.

 

[sinnersavedsaint]

@levi9 I will check it out, thanks!

From the sailrabbits calculator my tdee is around 1600-1700 kcal. That is including my activity level. Since I was losing weight, my caloric intake was lower and I want to slowly increase it to not shock my body by suddenly increasing it a lot. So my starting point will be 1600 kcal and I want to increase that overtime

 

[levi9]

@sinnersavedsaint Good luck! Also note depending on how long you’ve been cutting your TDEE might be lower than you expect, so keep an eye on average weekly weight gain to make sure you aren’t gaining to fast.

 

[sinnersavedsaint]

@levi9 Yeah that was what I was thinking. Been cutting for around a year, but with some ups and downs now and then.

How do I know that I'm gaining too fast? The 2 lbs per month?

 

[levi9]

@sinnersavedsaint So there’s a few things to watch.

1. Averaging weight gain. Weigh everyday in the morning after you pee. On Sunday (or whatever day really) take the 7 day average and compare.
2. BF% if you use calipers or a machine keep track of BF% change. You can check on the same day you do weight average.
3. Waist circumference take three waist measurements and average each week to check progress. You could also do Hips/Butt

Since you are bulking the goal is to gain muscle, with minimal fat gain. You have to decide what is comfortable. I don’t like to gain over 1% weight and .5% bf in a week, so that’s how I gauge if I’m getting enough calories.

The interesting part about bulking though is there is an increase in cal that won’t lead to any weight gain. The reason for this is that as you increase calories your body is going to burn more via NEAT. You’ll start tapping your leg more, moving more, blinking more etc. without noticing. This is why it’s important to monitor that you are actually gaining. You may find your bulking calories end up being 2500, 3000, or maybe just 2000. You won’t know unless you track everything you eat and how your body responds.

 

[micah111]

@sinnersavedsaint There's nothing wrong with starting at 1600 kcal and slowly adding calories. Honestly if more people took a more methodical approach they'd be much better off. Just monitor average bodyweight and make adjustments. Muscle gain is a slow process and even slower for a female, if averages are trending up half a pound a month, you're doing well. Your main goal right now is to at least get out of a deficit, but gaining weight too fast is just going to result in additional fat gain that will put you further away from contest shape. Getting out of a deficit will ensure you recover metabolically and can use the next 4 months as an opportunity to work on any weak points. Think of it less of a bulking phase and more "gaintaining."

Your training is the stimulus for growth, so focus on your training and worry less about what the scale weight is doing (since changes should be minimal). If you used the next 4 months to really get after it in the gym and focus on performance and you added ~3 lbs of scale weight, I think you did well.

For the macros I'd prefer slightly higher fat for hormonal reasons. So maybe - 45f/180c/120p (I like to round to nearest 5, no need to be exact)

Good luck with everything and if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to help.

 

[justanyone]

@sinnersavedsaint Based on your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), you should be eating 1528 calories per day minimum. You cannot expect to gain muscle if you eat less than that.

 

[sinnersavedsaint]

@justanyone That's why I'm starting with 1600, and increasing it slowly as time goes by

 

[nicolegriff]

@sinnersavedsaint You will likely need to go quite a bit higher...I eat almost 500 calories more than my RMR just to maintain with a somewhat similar activity level to you.

 

[sinnersavedsaint]

@nicolegriff My activity level is really low though. If I don't work or go to the gym, I'm taking like max 1k steps a day. I gain weight really easily when I increase my caloric intake so that's why I want to start with 1600 and see how it'll go. I'm increasing it if I feel okay with it

 

[nicolegriff]

@sinnersavedsaint I have a desk job. My main activity is also gym 4-5x/week. RMR is what you would burn if you were in a coma pretty much.

 

[sinnersavedsaint]

@nicolegriff What's the difference between tdee and rmr? Have you ever used the sailrabbits calculator?

https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

 

[nicolegriff]

@sinnersavedsaint I have. Your RMR/BMR is just the calories your body uses for keeping you alive. Things like breathing and regulating body temperature. Your TDEE accounts for your day's movements and exercises, including NEAT which is things like fidgeting, foot tapping, cooking, brushing your teeth, etc. That calculator gives me the 1,500 RMR/BMR and 2,075 TDEE for "Slightly Active, Exercise or Light Sports 1 to 3 Days a Week, Light Jogging or Walking 3 to 4 Days a Week" - this is a slight underestimation in my case, but close.

I won't be able to gain weight unless I exceed my TDEE, since that is actually the net calories I burn.

 

[sinnersavedsaint]

@nicolegriff That's weird, my rmr says 1519 and my tdee is only 1652 with the same activity as you used. How could it be such a big difference for you and so little for me?

Thanks for the clear explanation though!