Advice on calorie surplus

[undrgrndH20miner]

What is a good surplus to start at? According to the calculators I have used i should be around 2500 calories for maintenance. Was thinking about shooting for 3000, and trying the carb cycling/recomp style nutrition plan from the helios sticky in this section. I have been running a keto type diet for the last 6 months, and dropped down to about 13% b/f, and don't want to lose that progress, but want to start packing on muscle. I'm 34 years old, 5' 7", and 170 lbs. My ultimate goal at this time is to get to 180-185 and get to the point of visible abs, so 10% ish?

 

[Jin]

500 calories is a good place to start. Adjust from there.

 

[CJ]

If you know what you've been eating, go by YOUR numbers, not the calculator. The calculator equation number can vary wildly from person to person in its accuracy, so you'll save yourself a few weeks of trying to dial it in if you go by the data you already have on yourself.

And as already stated, 300-500 cals is a good place to start, and adjust accordingly to your progress or lack thereof.

 

[undrgrndH20miner]

Thanks for the feedback CJ! I haven't counted a calorie, or macro the whole time I was doing to keto thing. But ill plug the numbers for what a typical day of eating looked like, and at least get a ballpark to compare to the calculator numbers!

 

[CJ]

Thanks for the feedback CJ! I haven't counted a calorie, or macro the whole time I was doing to keto thing. But ill plug the numbers for what a typical day of eating looked like, and at least get a ballpark to compare to the calculator numbers!

I'd also suggest that those Cals you'll be adding should be in carbohydrate, before and after your training. Something like 50g pre and post should help greatly, and not be too much of a drastic change from your current low Cal diet.

 

[transcend2007]

Consider using MyFitnessPal ... I know many people do KETO to avoid counting calories ... however the truth is building muscle takes protein ... its easy to over eat fat on keto and under consume protein ...if gaining muscle is your goal aim for 1 gram of protein for each pound of body weight ... this is difficult if not impossible to hit without counting macros ...

 

[dk8594]

If I were you, I would track calories for a week or so without changing you eating habits just to get a baseline ( I.e not use the calculator) Then, like Jin said, start by adding 5OO calories to your baseline to see how it goes.