How Gradually To Increase Calories?

[_noozie]

Hi. I finished a cut to pretty low body-fat (~9%) about a month ago (at the deep end I was eating 1700-1800 kcal and doing 2000 kcal low intensity cardio per week) and increased my calories slightly shortly after that. I've been at about 2000 kcal, 160-170g protein, 55-60g fat, and 200-210g carbs for a few weeks now. Also, last week I dropped formal cardio completely, focusing instead on healthy NEAT habits. Now my goal is to maintain my physique as best I can, and improve metabolic health while slowly gaining lean mass and limiting excessive fat gain. I lift consistently 5 times a week.

Last week my daily waking temperature has floated around 96 F and pulse at around 60 bpm. I know I have to increase calories if I want to have more energy, maintain my weight on more food, and improve my mood. For those of you that have 'reverse dieted', or have come out of low calories:

1. How gradually did you do it?
2. Any recommendations and/or methodologies for calorie (and more specifically, macro) increments to adapt to higher caloric intake?
3. Do you think it's possible to maintain weight (or at least leanness, considering some superficial weight will come on from glycogen) on a significantly higher intake?

Thank you!

 

[paymanz]

In my opinion most of the times, eating in accordance to hunger is better than calorie counting.

Monitor how your body reacts to food, energy/warmth/well being wise.

 

[_noozie]

In my opinion most of the times, eating in accordance to hunger is better than calorie counting.

Monitor how your body reacts to food, energy/warmth/well being wise.

If I ate according to hunger I'd be obese. Especially for those with experience dieting or any recreational physique athlete, hunger is not a good indicator of one's natural energy requirements. While calorie counting can get too restrictive, with the right flexible mindset I think it's extremely useful for anyone who pays attention to physique and/or performance.

That being said, I regularly monitor temperature, pulse, and well-being. I just want to understand how calories can be increased without putting on an unnecessary amount of body fat. A healthy metabolism shouldn't have to come at the expense of one's body composition.

 

[paymanz]

Your right.

But I think if you limit fats in your diet you control your hunger.I think most of the times its like that.