Hi, recently I’ve gone through a small lifestyle cut (130.5-125.5lbs) for the past 3 months. I’m planning on going to a 3-4 week maintenance phase before doing a slight surplus, aiming to gain around 1-2lbs per month. At this new bodyweight the NIH calculator says my maintenance would be around 2760 calories, also because I:
-am male (17)
-am 5 foot 6
-have inputted an activity multiplier of 1.8 (average 19k steps per day at ~4mph pace + resistance training 4x per week)
-Additionally, my current waist circumference is <29in, with a bodyfat at around ~15% (Navy Method calculates 12%, I’m more convinced by 15%).
For the past three months I’ve averaged a 300 calorie deficit, which would typically result in around 8lbs lost rather than 5lbs (what I lost). I am aware that there is a very high likelihood for individual variability in regard to weight change, as NEAT is a variable that can change quite a bit, as well I do know that each month wasn’t the same average deficit, with the range being a deficit of 250-450 calories as a weekly average.
(This information above is to inform the upcoming questions that relate to calculating maintenance with the possibility of error in the NIH planner)
So, my questions are as follows:
1a.) For calculating my current maintenance, should I simply go with the NIH BW planner recommendation for a few weeks and track my weight from there?
1b.) I am aware acute gains in water and glycogen will most likely occur, so what general range of fluctuation in weight would make sense going from an average of 2560 (current average intake) calories to 2760? As to not increase above the theoretical maintenance.
2.) Does a PAL of 1.8 seem appropriate for the provided average activity?
3.) After finding my own maintenance intake and sticking with it for a few weeks, would an approximately 150 calorie surplus make sense for gaining 1-2lbs a month to increase LBM while minimizing fat gain at my current bodyweight? I’m not super lean currently, but many of my lifting friends have said I should gain weight and I agree so a slower approach would make more sense I think.
4.) Not a question but thank you for all the information you put out, it’s all incredibly useful for showing to friends and family who have fairly rigid belief systems as a quality source, while being formatted excellently. Especially the article regarding Sex and Gender in Sport, absolutely stellar, I’ve actually posted it in the chat of a livestream with around 8k people watching, and the streamer put it on screen and suggested everyone to go read it!