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jennifer778
New member
Hey Jennifer!Oh lord I'm obsessed with sports nutrition I'd love to help you if I could! Although this all whole calorie intake depends on your activity level, but I'm glad you asked because I do think 1200 calorie is a little too low. Can I ask about your height/weight and what do you do? Do you lift weights, cardio? Frequency/intensity? And what's your goal? Shooting for a low calorie intake for a long time will force your body to have a 'low calorie standard' so you will burn less calories and ironically be less capable of burning fat. Muscle is a VERY active tissue so gaining muscle upgrades your metabolism, you'd have to eat more just to keep up! Once you figure your maintenance calories (You can also google those), from there I'd say add 10-15% of your intake to your total calories if you want to gain, subtract 10-15% of your intake if you want to lose. If you want to gain muscle/lose fat at the same time, eat to maintain-clean though, maximize your intensity at the gym to force your body to build muscle out of the stored fat--since you're not creating any surplus, your body is forced to adapt into a better shape just to keep up with this lifestyle. That's the whole recomposition theory--and it works fine with a lot of people!
My baseline is about 1700-1900 calories a day split into 5 small meals: breakfast (egg whites omelets), lunch (turkey sandwiches) pre-workout (greek yogurt or oatmeal with some fruits) post workout (whey protein with some fruit) dinner (chicken and baked potatoe or tuna salad or something) and a pre-bed shake (casien protein, peanut butter and sometimes greek yogurt), I still eat the same stuff right now but just less. I like to keep my carbohydrates closer to my workout time so that I benefit from the energy, also because carbs cause insulin spike, which speeds up the process of your cells absorbing nutrients--unfortunately if your cells are not active this can lead to fat gain, that's why people try to avoid sugars at night. If, however you're currently active and you digest carbs long with protein, your muscles will absorb protein at a faster rate--faster recovery--better! You see, so take advantage of those timings. ;-)
I eat 1 g protein per lb bodyweight so it's high in protein, moderate to low in both fats and carbs. Whether you want to gain or lose, always make sure at least 90% of your diet is healthy (not processed foods) and make sure you're getting enough protein.
As for creatine, many bodybuilders take creatine to temporarily look fuller because it basically stores water inside the muscles so they appear to look bigger. The real benefit you get from this is an accelerated process of recycling ATP molecules in your muscles while you're lifting. (ATP is an energy molecule) Creatine helps convert ADP (a by- product of ATP) back into ATP! So it simply gives you a good energy boost at the gym--that if you don't use to lift you may no benefit from. In the long run, it really should be a good investment for you to lift heavier and eventually gain more muscles. What brand gives you a headache though? I take the pill form myself to avoid water bloat--the powder form usually causes water gain for so many people. I useKre-Alkalyn and love it!
PS: I also take vitamin B complex, it helps you metabolize food--burn calories for energy use so it actually is a pretty good fat burner in itself if you're curious about fat loss supplementation.
Ok one other question I thought of. I see that you are getting a lot of protein through shakes. I think I've been trying to get more through actual meals, and honestly, sometimes I think if I have to eat one more piece of meat (of any kind) that I'm going to barf! So, if I start doing a few more shakes and getting protein that way, that still counts as a good source, right?
