Hi comrades
I want to start handling my nutrition and fitness better. I usually work out at home and can do pushups etc., I would say I’m quite underweight.
While I’m reading the guide by CriticalResist on Prolewiki, I decided to count my calories. I barely reach 1500 calories a day which at this point I’ll go malnourished. I just feel full very quickly. I do not eat processed sugars and avoid sweets, and I’m basically vegan at this point.
I exercise too and can do push ups, squats etc with no problems whatsoever, though as expected I cannot build muscular mass, most likely because of my nutrition. I don’t have the money to go to a gym so I want as much as possible to work out at home, I saw that calisthenics might be a good option? Though they seem unreliable for building muscle mass and strength. I want to put more weight but not fatty weight, which had happened to me in the past. I do eat healthy, but I eat way too less because I feel I just get full quickly. This might be due that in the past I was overweight and conditioned myself to not eat much, but now I’m basically starving myself.
How would I go about increasing my caloric intake while putting muscle mass (preferably at home)?
You want to gain weight slowly but surely if you’re underweight. Since your muscle mass is low you may be insulin resistant and overeating may cause health problems. Avoid saturated fats, eat a moderate amount of carbs at every meal, and do 10-25 minutes easy to moderate physical activity like walking, light strength training exercises that are used in physical therapy, or housework after you eat, especially a big meal, to help move the nutrients into your tissue. Do do normal resistance training with heavy weights as well but increase the difficulty slowly and don’t do too much as you are probably deconditioned. Make sure to get enough rest and sleep as this is the time when your muscles grow.
Fat and carbohydrates are also necessary to help move the protein into place. I don’t recommend getting more than about 10 grams per day from protein powder as it can throw off your microbiome.
As for specific foods I recommend tempeh, olives, lentil soup, hemp seeds, and vollkornbrot. Eat fruits and vegetables too. And make sure to take your damn B12 supplements!