Eat as much as you NEED TO GROW not as much as you CAN. How much you can eat is irrelevant in this case. If I were to eat as much as I can Im sure I can get fat sooner or later.
Come up with a meal plan per day. Follow that and see how you react. Then make adjustments based on that more or less calories based on your needs. Bodybuilding is not a sprint but a marathon. It takes time to build muscle, so consistently eating the correct amount of calories per day will yield the best results minimizing fat gain.
Eating when it comes to bodybuilding is not as much about pleasure as it is about results. Of course cheat day once a week is def a well deserved time off from your diet.
One important factor to keep in mind is that an over abundance of calories for too long period of time will affect your methabolism at a cellular level....meaning the muscle cells will become less sensitive to nutrient intake. That's when adipose fat takes place.
So I'd argue that it is more important to eat the right amount of food to grow rather than x amount of caloires over maintenance. Caloric maintenance is a complicated process and it depends on hormon levels and type of food you eat, work you do and other factors. Our bodies always make adjustments to adapt to the environment so caloric mantenance is really not too accurate to be honest. So it's safer to eat based on how you feel and look and make adjustments from
Awesome advice thanks, so when Im hungry eat plenty but dont just force caloriep down myself-do you have any more tips?
In terms of cheating I just had a huge donought there before bed since I ate super clean all week. I''ll eat clean for next 2 weeks then, thanks!
sure, np
Hunger from my experience is a great indicator how the body operates. If it works well, being hungry is a good thing. It established a good working order between hormones and the brain. So yes when you hungry eat a well proportioned meal to feed the body but dont go overboard. If the body cant digest what you ate in a few hours you ate too much or the wrong things. On the other hand keep in mind total daily caloric intake. Balance eveything out so you eat enough to meet your caloric need but not so much that your body takes forever to digest what you eat.
My rule is 3 hours. If I cant digest the food in 3 hours I make adjustments so I can.
Another tip is to have whey isolate protein after workout. Dont be shy on amounts in this case 40-70g of protein is ok. Just try different amounts and see what you can handle. Personally I dont use any sugars after workout. I dont feel like it does much good but protein sure does.
Another tip is to always run on a slight glucose deficit. Basically, the muscle and liver stores about 250g of glucose. Dont overwhelm the body with glucose between this storage amount and the body's energy use. If you do, your body fat will go up quicker than what you have experienced so far. When that happens lower the carbs and increase fat slightly to get back to a more equilibrium state rather than fat storage state and do 15min of HIIT few times a week to re-establish insulin sensitivity.
Last tip, you cant gain weight all the time. If you were to do that let's say 1lb a week that 52 lbs a year! So some weeks you will gains a few lbs a week and sometimes a few weeks go by and nothing will happen. This process doesnt follow a linear progress but rather a scribble type progression, up sometimes then it flat lines for a while then up again which is normal. Give it at least few weeks before you up your calories. Sometimes your body just takes a break and eating more food will not help. If it persists beyond the few week without progress then up the calories.