Go for it. I upped the calories like i asked above. This was almost a year ago - did not gain any unwanted weight - performing and feeling much better.
I wasnt really underfueling before, but the classic approach does put you near that.
Its all n=1 in my case but:
Classic approach → do the training, feel kind of drained and dont adapt
EA approach → do the training and have enough availability to adapt to the training and get better
Thanks for the n+1 on this. I’m happy to make the plunge on this cause I’m training very hard at the moment and I would prefer to think less about restricting calories and more about fueling to a point where I feel like I’m recovering from the workouts.
From the calculations provided, its clear my intake is going to go up significantly; almost 1000 calories a day. Did you experience initial weight gain and then leveling? Would love to know more about how you found your experience.
I was curious about the OEA target in the study TR shared. They identified a factor of 50 as being the optimum and was the value the control group used in the study.
Currently I’m interested in eating more to fuel my workouts and to build muscle with a hypertrophy workout plan. My focus is primarily adding some lean muscle to my upper body (which has not been focused on ever) and hitting some basic strength targets (achieving pull ups, higher bench etc). Running a 5x a week lifting program currently in addition to following a low volume TR plan to simply get my endurance up.
In my case, with a focus on building muscle, would setting an energy balance target factor of 50 (with added amount to recover from workouts) be a suggested route? Or should I move up to 40-45 and see how I’m responding?
Currently I’ve looked over my last 3 weeks and I’ve been eating at around a factor of 30 when accounting for energy expenditure. I’m happy to make a larger jump in eating but I’m wondering if its better to be moderate rather than going in head first as I like to do. Planning to set macros according to TR’s suggestion since the protein % matches 2.2g per kilo perfectly for me. Thoughts?
@killroy123 curious as to what your approach might look like here? I.E., where / when are you planning on increasing your food intake?
I’m unable to weigh food or my bodyweight at the moment and for the next few months, but i’m consciously consuming more food and tracking my feelings, sleep, performance and the mirror - from today.
Plan is pretty much now. Just setting my calories at an energy availability factor of 45 as described above and then going in to see what happens. I’ve set the ratio of carbs:protein:fat to the recommended level from the TR video; 65:18:17 ratio
Currently I’m on a bodybuilding program to put on lean muscle and ok with some fat gain. I do TR as a way to keep cardio up and improve FTP performance broadly.
Admittedly it’s a bit scary because the increase is 1000 calories daily. This doesn’t include calories that are added due to concerted exercise as stated above. I expect a daily increase of 500+ for exercise alone as I do around 8 workouts a week with some 2 a days. 5x weightlifting and 3x-4x cycling.
I’m comfortable with going all in to the recommended calorie intake. I know this will increase my weight but, at the same time, my goal is to put on muscle. Weight gain won’t really bother me because I know I need the energy to put on muscle. Ideally that happens while reducing body fat. So I might be heavier but if I’m heavier because I have more muscle rather than fat…that’d be grand.
From the TR linked study in their video, an optimal energy availability for the control group was 50 and in that study the participants stayed the same weight but lost fat and gained muscle. Such results are enticing for me. I’d like to put on 5-10 lbs of muscle on my frame first and learn what eating for performance feels like in that way.
My plan is to set my intake at 45 and see how it goes for about 6 weeks. That should give me time to see what happens and to see trends. I am going to commit to this for roughly 30 weeks or more. I want to see what happens and am curious enough to try it out.
I’ll be honest I’m enjoying this so far. Performance in the gym is good and I feel ready to hit my planned work. It’s a nice change.
If people are interested, happy to do a weekly write up or whatever on how this goes. Happy to discuss my lifting and low volume cycling performance.
I must also say that the first day I increased my food I got really emotional. It was really freaky and it suggested to me that I don’t have a good relationship with food that I thought I did. That finally pushed me to just go all in and see how this goes.
Please do! I’ve lost a bunch of weight this year but still have an unhealthy relationship with food, which is a real challenge when trying to progress on the bike and now the gym! I’d love to hear how things progress and wish you luck.
Just wanted to chime in here…I’d say to bump up your calories over the course of 2-3 weeks if you can. I don’t know how much you are eating now, but 1,000 kcal is pretty substantial unless you are really underfed. At the same time, you can add the extra calories as juice or energy dense foods to your existing meals so that it doesn’t feel like such a big change for your body. Good luck, enjoy the additional fuel and hope you get the results you are looking for.
Thanks! Yeah I’ve lost and gained like a yo yo. But it’s also due to health factors that hit me hard this year. Since then I’m in a better place but now I think is the time to fuel and see how I do.
I’ll update here etc and let people know how the week goes. Don’t want to spam the forum with daily updates. Let me know what you want me to talk about as I do it.
Kk. I’ll aim for Sundays for a write up. Rest day and all and I typically calibrate the week’s exercise plan on the same day (ensuring progressive overload etc). Happy to address whatever questions you may have too so ping me as needed