2018 W4 of 52 – Bryn’s Body Progress Journal

So if you read my intro blog on my body goals  you will know that my aim is to build size and strength over 2018/19 with specific body goal targets that I want to achieve before my 30th Birthday in August 2019.

The most important lesson I have learnt when trying to achieve your goals, whether they are in the gym or not, is that you can have the best laid plan, but you will always have struggles and road blocks. The journey will never be linear. This is something that we all experience and have to accept, that is what journeys are about, hence why we develop and grow stronger.

So today’s blog is about my struggle with not eating enough calories consistently which I know a lot of other ectomorphs like myself struggle with.

Eating Enough Calories

We know that if we want to increase our strength and build muscle we need to be in a calorie surplus. We need that extra energy coming in our body in order to grow right?

My goal originally was to eat up to 3,500 calories a day, but I’m soon realising I need to be eating more like 4000 calories a day if I really want to make some serious progress. I will be completely open here and say that sometimes I struggle to even hit 3,500 on some days not alone 4000.

Why am I struggling to reach my calories?

Time. This is a big one for me, I struggle to find the time to stay on top and prepare enough food for the day.

What’s the fix. Finding as many convenient foods or ways that take little to no preparation such as blending my food or buying pre packaged foods, finding snacks such as protein bars, fruit, nuts to eat on the go.

Feeling Full. My problem here is that I avoid eating processed foods as much as I can but this then means I’m eating low calorie foods in high volume. Processed foods are usually calorie dense with less volume.

What’s the fix. Drinking your calories is a great way to not overly tax your digestive system to much. So sticking to mostly unprocessed foods I need to be looking at more calorie dense foods such as fats (1g of fat = 9kcals, 1g protein and carbs = 4kcals) so I will be adjusting to a higher fat macro split to make it easier to hit my calories. The other great thing about fats is you can chuck in things like butter, milk and oils into your foods to increase the calories. Lastly, if you are happy to compromise on healthy eating then processed foods tend to be a great way of getting in those calories; If your diet is 80-90% full of good whole nutritious foods then then having some processed foods in your diet won’t do any real detriment to your health.

So apart from showing you guys that this is a great way to get your calories in I am still going to have to work on these two fixes myself to ensure that I hit my calorie target more consistently. I will keep you updated on any extra tips or tricks I find to hitting my calories. Stay tuned!