Building phase calories intake

Hi,
do you incraese the calories intake during the building phase?

It depends on your goals regarding weight. If you want to gain weight then you’ll want to eat more than you’re burning.

However, you may find it hard to lose weight in the build phase compared to base. So if you had been eating at a deficit in base the I would increase your calorie consumption when you move to build.

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In the UK there is currently no racing that I’m interested in (only TT’s) are on at the moment. With that I’m not too fussy about race weight so, as long as its clean food, I just eat what I want (approx 3500cals). FWIW I’m 1.78cm and 80kg, 12% Bf and train between 9-11 hours. Id rather have my workouts fuelled and give myself the best chance of getting the workouts completed with extra volume than try and lose weight and be in a bad place during build (I’ve been there beforeand it hurts).

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it’s almost the same for me. I’m 185cm, 73-74kg, 12% bf ( I’ve never had a professional measuring it). I eat around 3500 kcal and train 8 hours/week. I tried to lose some weght starting on march but I quit, the locksdown didn’t help (this is my excuse right now). Loosing on speciality and mantaining on building? Could be an idea?

I’m on my first week of Build after completing the first two Base training blocks. As this is my first attempt at Build, I am focusing on the following, which has worked for the past 12 weeks:

  1. having a good carb loaded breakfast in the morning 1 1/2 to 2 hours before my workout. Porridge works well.
  2. making sure that I have adequate fuel during the workout. I eat a banana just before, then use energy drinks during.
  3. have a recovery drink to load protein within 20-30 minutes after workout, then have lunch as normal.
  4. just eat when I feel hungry the rest of the time. After lunch, I eat an afternoon snack, dinner and supper.

I’ve managed to maintain weight to within +/- 1kg (I’m 80kg) during the past 12 weeks using this method. I think the trick is that if you stay away from junk food, you’ll be fine.

I am going to see how my weight is at the end of the first 4 week build block, but gut feel tells me that I will maintain or maybe even trim a little as the efforts are higher than Base.

I agree with @Matthew_Taylor. I’d rather be properly fuelled for workouts than scrimp on food and fail. You can always recalibrate later if needed.

Good luck with Build :+1:

Can you train with 1500 cal? How many hours per week? Crazy

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With that much workload, and so few calories, wouldn’t you risk losing lean muscle over fat? I think the recommended loss is about 1/2 kilo per week (c3,000 Kcal deficit of total workout calories + BMR I think - if anyone can validate?).

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Nice work @anon20047708 - If you know what works for you, keep doing it i guess :+1: