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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2253 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for February 8, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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I'm about to enter the world of lifting, as it is about damn time I got around to it. I've got a personal trainer who is going to run me through techniques and build a program but I'm a bit lost when it comes to the nutrition side of it - any tips out there for a 30 year old male in reasonable condition looking to get stronger and not wear himself down?

Download a calorie tracker (I recommend Macros but MyFitnessPal is the most popular). Estimate TDEE*. You want TDEE - 500 worth of calories for losing fat** ("cut") or TDEE + 300 for building muscle ("bulk"). The other big thing is getting enough protein, which your tracker will calculate. Here's how many grams/day you're looking for.

Everything else like nutrient timing is an advanced lifter's concern.

* You should expect to to gain/lose a pound of weight for every 3500kcal of surplus/deficit. If this doesn't go as expected after your initial water weight changes in the first week, adjust your TDEE estimation.

** If you're obese, make it 500 times how many BMI classifications you're overweight by

EDIT: If you want the math behind it, the rule of thumb is to have 30kcal~ of deficit for each pound of fat in your body. But that's a little complicated and it's hard to know the exact amount without an advanced body scan anyway.

Thank you!

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