# Macros/calories for clean bulk???



## Yorkshirelad (Apr 6, 2017)

I was hoping I could tap into all you seasoned pros for some guidance and advice as I'm tired of hearing so much conflicting advice from people.

So, I'm just coming to the end of my cut, going from 84.5kg to currently 78.3kg with a move from 14% body fat to 9% now (or at least as accurate as the fat scales say!)

My fitness/workouts consist of:
Tues-Circuit training
Wed-Weights
Thurs-2.5mile run
Sat-weights
Sun-weights

I can go into more detail on my workouts if needed....

Please could you help me out with how my diet should look on a clean bulk at my weight of 78kg, my aim is to reach 89kg with as little body fat as possible (keep my abs!) and I'm 35 years old.

How many calories per day should I be eating? What macro ratio should I be looking at?

Also, in terms of weight training programmes, again conflicting advice, some saying focus on multi-joint exercises and alternate upper body and lower due to the fact that I'm only training 3 times per week, others saying focus on certain parts each workout : Chest & triceps/back & biceps/legs & shoulders

Bloody confused!! So any advice and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers


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## nWo (Mar 25, 2014)

Keeping your food clean won't ensure that you'll stay lean, mate. How much over maintenance you eat determines this. Eat a few hundred calories a day over maintenance with 0.8-1g of protein per BW in lbs.


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## JohhnyC (Mar 16, 2015)

Yorkshirelad said:


> I was hoping I could tap into all you seasoned pros for some guidance and advice as I'm tired of hearing so much conflicting advice from people.
> 
> So, I'm just coming to the end of my cut, going from 84.5kg to currently 78.3kg with a move from 14% body fat to 9% now (or at least as accurate as the fat scales say!)
> 
> ...


 If you are 9% would will have very clean cut abs. Home fat scales are almost pointless due to mechanism involved. I have see people stand on that and are clearly 25+ and reading 17

As he said above a key point is that you don't need a lot of over maintenance to grow, Any more and you get fat. To find maintenance is actually not that easy

A very simple way is to start off with a TDEE calculator and take that as rough guide as "maintenance". Eat at that for a week or two, see how you are getting on, no progress add in a few hundred calories then reassess (week by week). At all times may sure you abs are visible, this will by under 15%

Usually its not the training that is wrong its the diet. Eating clean should really be called "don't eat crap". It doesn't have to be chicken and rice all day. Its more or less obvious what you need to minimise, i.e. fast foot due to lots of trans fats and high calories

Just dump all you eat into MyFitnessPal and be honest in what you eat. You macros (fats / carbs/ protein) just need to be sensible with a higher concentration on protein


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## Yorkshirelad (Apr 6, 2017)

Cheers.

You're right about the scales as I'm taking it with a pinch of salt as abs are not very clean, I'm finding it really difficult to get rid of the last bit of fat and so dropped from 60carbs/20 protein/20 fat/ to35/45/20 at 2000 cals which seems to have had an effect but I'm worried I'm losing muscle aswell as muscle...I use MyFitnessPal religiously and can stick to routine as I've no issue with willpower but just need a know a proper tight plan to follow, which seems to be like rocking horse ?


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## JohhnyC (Mar 16, 2015)

Yorkshirelad said:


> Cheers.
> 
> You're right about the scales as I'm taking it with a pinch of salt as abs are not very clean, I'm finding it really difficult to get rid *of the last bit of fat* and so dropped from *60carbs/20 protein/20 fat/ *to35/45/20 at 2000 cals which seems to have had an effect but* I'm worried I'm losing muscl*e aswell as muscle...I use MyFitnessPal religiously and can stick to routine as I've no issue with willpower but just need a know a proper tight plan to follow, which seems to be like rocking horse ?


 you can get too caught up on that too much , don't worry, if the general trend is downward (strength wise), that is week after week (not day after day) you are continuously down a rep or two, then start increasing cals again (slowly)

Your original protein was too low, it should be higher than that . 40-50 is a good place to start . The new marcos look good

Use Whey protein and it gives you a lot more choices with your diet.

As for the last bit of fat, yes that's a problem we all face, especially with age


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

Yorkshirelad said:


> Cheers.
> 
> You're right about the scales as I'm taking it with a pinch of salt as abs are not very clean, I'm finding it really difficult to get rid of the last bit of fat and so dropped from 60carbs/20 protein/20 fat/ to35/45/20 at 2000 cals which seems to have had an effect but I'm worried I'm losing muscle aswell as muscle...I use MyFitnessPal religiously and can stick to routine as I've no issue with willpower but just need a know a proper tight plan to follow, which seems to be like rocking horse ?


 Reducing your carbs like that probably means your muscles now have less glycogen in them, meaning they also contain less water and therefore look smaller. My point being you almost certainly haven't lost the muscle you think you have.

I thought you were looking to bulk not cut though?

Generally I'd base protein intake on body weight not as a percentage of total calories, as I'mNotAPervert suggested above. Higher protein when cutting can help with satiety though.


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## JohhnyC (Mar 16, 2015)

Ultrasonic said:


> Reducing your carbs like that probably means your muscles now have less glycogen in them, meaning they also contain less water and therefore look smaller. My point being you almost certainly haven't lost the muscle you think you have.
> 
> I thought you were looking to bulk not cut though?
> 
> *Generally I'd base protein intake on body weight not as a percentage of total calories,* as I'mNotAPervert suggested above. Higher protein when cutting can help with satiety though.


 yes thats the place to start, not the percentage! I should have mentioned that. thanks Ultrasonic.


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