I have been actively working out at planet fitness with the goal of muscle building for 2 years. I have been consistently putting in the workouts at the best every other day, at the worst 4 days in between each workout, working an effective split (Back/Biceps, Chest/Triceps, Shoulders/Abs, Legs). During the 2 years I was reading daily, watching weight lifting science videos, fat loss science videos, motivating myself.

To help you understand, I live in a community home where there is no community kitchen with a stove, a microwave, an oven, and we can’t have those items in our rooms. I can only have an egg maker (one that can hardboil eggs or make a small omelette up to 3 eggs), a fridge, and room for dry pantry items.

This limits me entirely.

What really separated me from getting the body changes that I wanted was my nutrition. I wasn’t dialed in on what I wanted in the outcome–was it to gain muscle? Was it to lose weight? Was it to try to maintain and effectively look for “newbie” recomposition to occur?

I am roughly 27% bodyfat, maybe 28%, and I know I put on a good amount of muscle, but by now I should have lost the extra bodyfat in order to prepare myself for a moderate caloric surplus in order to build muscle slowly and consistently, and not have waste time with what my day’s worth of food looks like.

I think I know the right results are to track, track, track, and KNOW WHAT YOUR OUTCOME IS. Don’t go about your body goals blindfolded, do it 100% to your ablility.

Should you be Cutting or Gaining? This matters.

I think if you are over 25-26% bodyfat, your main goal should be to get in a calorie deficit and at the same time be very consistent in the gym, going every other day (meaning at least 3 times a week, unless sick). Yes, I’m talking to myself. How can I make it to the gym every other or every 3rd day consistently? It’s definitely seeing results, that’s the main motivator. Here’s how I found out that’s possible.

Know your outcome and stop listening to arbitrary self-talk about figuring out what you’re eating.

You’ll need to effectively know your TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is simply an estimate of how many calories your body burns in an average day after taking into account your age, height, weight, sex, and activity level. Think of it as your maintenance calories.

Calculating Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)

If you consistently eat around your TDEE, your weight should stay roughly the same over time.

If you consistently eat below your TDEE, you’ll lose weight, and if you’re working out and eating protein, you’ll lose fat and maintain muscle.

If you consistently eat above your TDEE, you’ll gain weight, and if you’re working out and eating lots of protein, you’ll gain muscle mass.

One of the easiest calculators I’ve found is:

https://tdeecalculator.net/

It isn’t perfect—no online calculator is—but it gives you a very good starting point. Think of it like this. A workout at the gym lasts for an average of 50-60 minutes (for me). If I go to the gym 3 times a week for 1 hour a session (that’s an awesome week), that’s 3 hours a week of exercising in order to stress my muscle fibers in order to grow and push my bodies limits in resisting weight under pressure.

Got your TDEE? Good, skip the following. Mine is: ~2,760 calories/day. I am 200lb, 37 years old, male, and moderately active.

If you want to do it on pen and paper, you can use the following method:

If you want you can use this formula on pen and paper.

The most commonly used equation is the Mifflin-St Jeor Equation, which estimates your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)—the calories your body burns at complete rest.

Step 1: Calculate Your BMR

If you’d rather calculate everything using pounds and inches instead of kilograms and centimeters, you can use the Harris-Benedict equation.

Men

BMR =
66
+
(6.23 × weight in pounds)
+
(12.7 × height in inches)
-
(6.8 × age)

Women

BMR =
655
+
(4.35 × weight in pounds)
+
(4.7 × height in inches)
-
(4.7 × age)

This gives you your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is the estimated number of calories your body burns at complete rest.

Step 2: Multiply by Your Activity Level

The result is your estimated Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

Example

Suppose you’re:

• Male
• 27 years old
• 200 lbs
• 68 inches (5'8")

BMR =
66
+
(6.23 × 200)
+
(12.7 × 68)
-
(6.8 × 27)

=
1,989 calories/day

Now multiply by your activity level.

TDEE =
1,989 × 1.55

≈ 3,083 calories/day

That means you would maintain your current weight at approximately 3,080 calories per day.

Once you know your maintenance calories, you can choose your goal.

What the correct numbers are for you now…

Fat Loss (Cutting)

For most people trying to lose body fat while keeping as much muscle as possible, a moderate calorie deficit works best. The law of thermodynamics says that in order for you to lose weight, you must consume less than you expend. So that’s why knowing your cutting caloric goal is so important.

A common starting point is 250–500 calories below your maintenance calories.

For example:

• Maintenance (TDEE): 2,700 calories
• Cutting calories: 2,200–2,450 calories

A smaller deficit usually means slower but easier progress and better gym performance. A larger deficit may produce faster weight loss but can make training, recovery, and hunger more difficult. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Maintenance

If you’re happy with your current body composition or simply want to maintain your weight while improving your lifting performance, aim to eat around your maintenance calories. This strategy is perfect for beginner gym goer’s too because it will allow body recomposition to occur, meaning you might lose fat while gaining muscle. Check out this YouTube video with one of my favorite sports science theorist Jeff Nippard on Body Recomposition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4K0s792wAU

For example:

• Maintenance (TDEE): 2,700 calories
• Daily calories: About 2,700 calories

You may notice your weight fluctuating by a pound or two throughout the week because of water, sodium, and glycogen. That’s completely normal.

Building Muscle (Bulking)

If you’ve already reached a body fat percentage you’re comfortable with, it’s time to slowly increase calories.

A good place to start is 250–500 calories above your maintenance calories.

For example:

• Maintenance (TDEE): 2,700 calories
• Bulking calories: 2,950–3,200 calories

A smaller surplus takes a little longer to build muscle, but you generally gain less unnecessary body fat and spend less time dieting later.

Great, you got your caloric number, now track.

1. Get a phone app like Lose It! or MyFitnessPal to track your calories. Lose It! has a 1-time pro fee for like $20, meaning you can use it’s pro features forever.
2. Use a food scale to measure out things like nuts, berries, other things that aren’t based on a serving size.
3. Log everything. If you’re cutting, you might not know that you’re eating too much until you track. Especially if you eat out at restaurants (and fast food). A breakfast burrito could cost you >50% of your daily calories, and you’ll quickly realize that if you mess up while tracking.
4. Check your weight every morning after using the bathroom. You’re body will fluctute based on what’s in the digestive system at the time, water weight, and other small factors. You take your weekly average and compare it to your next weekly average. That’s how you determine if you’ve been on track with how you’re eating at your deficit or surplus. If you haven’t lossed weight, you need to drod intake.
5. You’ll slowly start migrating to eating home cooked and store-bought food. This is how you’ll eat your macros easier and better.

That’s what I wanted to say.

I wanted to help people get on track with their caloric goals, because there’s nothing bad like wasting time. I did all the 2 years of effort and got good results, but I could have been more ripped by now and cut. So that’s what this article is for, people who might need to redirect their rutter, change the angle of their direction, back on track.

If you don’t want to wait for my next article about macronutrients and eating for each state (cutting, bulking, maintenance), do some self-research on macronutrient goals on YouTube.

In future articles, I will talk about

• Tracking body measurements (waist, thigh, hip, chest, neck, etc…) for extra evidence of effective results.
• The importance of macronutrient goals and the importance of protein for in muscle protein synthesis.