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Increasing caloric intake ....confusing

eRRic Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/07/13	2006/07/13, 10:38 PM I am having a huge problem eating enough food. I am 22 years old, 157-160 pounds 5'10". I work in an office on a computer and conference rooms all day, but go to the gym 4 days a week and mountain bike or run 2-3 days a week. Every online calculator I have gone to recommends 3200-3500 maintenance calories a day. That seems very high to me. As I said, I don't eat enough. My question, if I usually eat 1800-2000 (I know no where near enough) calories a day, and JUMP up to 3500+ if trying to gain how will my body react to this change? How should I go about increasing my diet?
eRRic Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/07/13	2006/07/13, 10:44 PM Here is a regular days worth of eating for me. 6:30 - 2c skim milk, 2 slices dry whole wheat toast 9:00 - 1 carton low fat yogurt, maybe 1-2 whole wheat rice cakes and 1 qt. water 12:00 - 3-4 oz. turkey, 2 slices whole wheat bread, broccoli or celery, 1 qt. water 2:30 - either a few handfulls of pecans or walnuts, or 8-14 sticks of celery with natural peanut butter 1 qt. water 6:00 - 2 scoops protein powder with 16 oz water 7:30 - Dinner (this varies from a huge meal, to next to nothing) I think my biggest problem falls with dinner here. 10:00 - 2c skim milk, or cottage cheese, or if a non-workout day I will add protein powder to the milk.
eRRic Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/07/13	2006/07/13, 10:47 PM Where can I add more calories? To me it seems like I eat all day already, I am not sure if I can add more food. Should I start eating more calorie dense foods that may not be as healthy? Also, weekends are also a very very weak point for me. Even when my diet is good during the week it falls off during the weekends. Any tips for helping this?
eRRic Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/07/13	2006/07/15, 11:55 AM Should I post this somewhere else to get an answer?
maxcdc Posts: 180 Joined: 2005/02/26	2006/07/15, 03:09 PM Eat different stuff like pasta, rice (high in carbs), your timing seems good... eat more put milk instead of water Do not go from 2000 to 3500 in a day, + 500 calories every week or two till you reach your target Why weekends are weak point...?
bb1fit Posts: 11,105 Joined: 2001/06/30	2006/07/15, 08:30 PM Your ticket is calorie dense foods....beef, peanut butter, heavy cream, etc. 6 oz. of Beef for instance will have approx. 360 calories, where 6 oz. chicken will have about 185. -------------- Maximus from Gladiator....Strength and Honor!
eRRic Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/07/13	2006/07/16, 01:52 PM Thanks guys for the replies. For the other question, how will my body react to jumping up right away? Should I increase like 500 cal. a week until I get there, or just make the jump and deal with the repurcussions?
bb1fit Posts: 11,105 Joined: 2001/06/30	2006/07/16, 06:59 PM Increase like you would decrease....10-15% is a good starting place. -------------- Maximus from Gladiator....Strength and Honor!