How many calories a day?

[xojessica]

I have recently started going to the gym to gain some muscle weight. I am 5’5 and 114 lbs. I have no idea how many calories I should be eating a day. I have a small appetite and I’ve been eating about 1 300 calories a day, and I know that’s not enough, especially when going to the gym. I was wondering, how exactly I’m supposed to calculate this? Now, I’m a beginner and I’m still very weak, so I do only 4 exercises. 2 for legs and 2 for arms. I also walk a lot, approximately 15 000 steps a day. I only want to gain muscle weight. Is there a website I could use to count how much I need? (Also I know protein is good, I already eat about 70 g of protein a day)

 

[lewis1994]

@xojessica Use TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator.

This will give you an estimate of what your daily maintenance calories is.

 

[xojessica]

@lewis1994 Thank you! I will try that

 

[lewis1994]

@xojessica No prob!

About just gaining muscle weight — it's hard to gain only muscle weight when bulking.

However, you can gain mostly muscle weight by not gaining weight too fast and training properly.

This can be done with a small daily surplus over your TDEE (200 to 300 calories over) paired with a good workout program.

You mentioned you're already eating a good amount of protein, and that's awesome — nice job!

 

[xojessica]

@lewis1994 I see. The calculator gave me about 1 900 calories, so eating 2 200 sounds like a crazy amount. I don’t know how I’m even going to hit that without eating junk food.

Also, what is too fast? I’ve now been doing just 4 exercises , 10 x 4 reps. Takes me about 30 mins. I do that maybe 4 days a week, is that too fast? Or too slow. Haha I’m such a newbie.

 

[lewis1994]

@xojessica The calculator is an estimate/starting point.

I recommend tracking what you currently eat for two weeks alongside your weight.

So if you track that you eat 1900 calories daily over two weeks and you gained a pound of weight, your TDEE is likely lower than 1900.

By too fast, I meant gaining weight too fast — not the speed of yout workout, haha.

For your workout, 30 minutes or more if you need it is fine. I would just recommend tracking your reps/weight so you can make sure you're progressing week by week. For example, if you hit 4 x 10 with 45 pounds on squat this week, next week you can try 4 x 8 with 50 pounds. If you're able to do that, then you can progress to 4 x 10 with 50 pounds the following week.

 

[xojessica]

@lewis1994 Okay. Thank you so much for helping, I learned so much!

 

[lewis1994]

@xojessica No prob, happy to help! Feel free to DM me if you have any more questions.

 

[jeffr0x]

@xojessica Focus on weight training rather than cardio.

 

[xojessica]

@jeffr0x Yeah the exercises that I do are only weight training.

 

[dawn16]

@xojessica Make sure you record each item of food you consume in a day, some are deceptively high in calories. Although cardio is essential, if your goal is muscle building then focus more on strength training.

1300 calories a day are fine if you have been on this diet for quite a while. Make sure the amount of protein (in grams) you take a day is 0.75 * your body weight and everything is good.

Best of luck

 

[theadmiral]

@xojessica The wiki has this info, give it a read

https://thefitness.wiki

 

[xojessica]

@theadmiral Thank you, I’ll look into it