How do I eat more?

[langley7]

I'm 5'4 125lbs, my maintenance macros seem to be 1650-1700 cals with 125g p

An acquaintance of mine is shorter than me (like maybe 5') 120lbs and her CUTTING cals are 1800. How? I'm so jealous.

She's been lifting for about 8 or 10 years while I've been lifting for 4. Is that the difference? I'm also about 5 years older than her but I try to work hard and not to blame things on hormones

 

[can_belle]

@langley7 Usually comes down to activity and muscle mass. The more active you are and the more lean muscle mass you have the more calories your body needs to maintain its weight.

 

[mj_1969]

@langley7 Muscle mass is a really big factor, but so is overall lifestyle.

Is this person working an active job? Do they move around a lot in their typical day? What does their training look like? And do they honest-to-god track every morsel? I personally tend to take other people's numbers with a grain of salt because I can't validate them.

If you want to eat more, it might be worth it to consider a building phase to add some more muscle mass.

Have you attempted to bump your calories up? Anecdotal, but when I move my calories up, especially after a diet, my NEAT tends to trend up to compensate and I end up maintaining. Something like MacroFactor might be great if you wanted to experiment with more calories.

 

[langley7]

@mj_1969 Thanks. I think they do more cardio than me, I don't do much.

Every time I bump up, I hate the fat gain. I've been at 1600-1700 cals for years now. I recently noticed that those were initially my cutting cals when I started lifting. I don't know how much truth there is to your metabolism slowing to match the cals that you eat. There's just too much info out there!

 

[gemlover89]

@langley7 If you want to eat more, you have to workout harder.

 

[langley7]

@gemlover89 Truth hurts LOL

 

[sandralois]

@langley7 Its probably activity level. She could be working out more often, getting more steps, etc

 

[jeanjason0209]

@langley7 You build muscle mass and be more active. That’s it.

 

[langley7]

@jeanjason0209 Working my ass off for the muscle. But, I could definitely do more cardio. Thank you