Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure(maintenance) or bulking or cutting calories
Whether you're cutting or bulking, we suggest you exercise at least 3X a week, for at least 40 min per session. Preferably doing some form of resistance training, like weightlifting.
If you don't exercise while cutting, you will likely lose more lean muscle than you would otherwise.
Conversely, if you don't exercise while bulking, you will probably just gain fat.
When doing a cut, you can expect to lose between 300-400g per week.
You won't want to cut faster that, it'll be too hard and will not be healthy.
Basic Rules
- Track everything you consume(except water) with a calorie tracker. No guessing, my friend. This is math.
- No cheat days. If you can't avoid going over for a day(birthdays etc), at least try not to exceed your daily maintenance calorie amount.
- To track your progress, record your weight every morning, before consuming anything, and after visiting the bathroom. Then every Sunday, average out your entire week's weights and compare with the previous week's average.
- Half of your meal must be a lean protein.
When doing a bulk, you can expect to gain between 100-200g per week.
Adding more calories that that will likely result in you gaining more fat than muscle, but if you're very new to lifting weights and you're still under 30 years of age, you might get away with eating a bit more.