Sport Too much conflicting info on high calorie diets

Sport Fitness
I have been doing a ton of research and I have been noticing an inverse relationship between amount of research and my understanding of nutrition and training.

The one thing that has remained consistent is that you need to establish your goals, so here are mine:

MY GOALS (in order of importance):

1) maintain a healthy, enjoyable, sustainable lifestyle

2) increase muscular strength

3) increase agility

4) increase balance/stability

5) increase endurance

6) increase weight from 135 (9%fat) to 140-145 (6-9% body fat) with a high performance athletic body composition


I am not trying to bulk up, or be able to boast my bench press number to girls at the bar. I would much rather be able to brag about my results in the sports I enjoy: alpine skiing, biking (road/mountain), racquetball, tennis, bodyboarding, water skiing. I do not want my ability to perform any of these activities at a high level to be at all impeded by my fitness. Attaining the fitness requirement is the easy part, mastering the dynamic skills of these sports is far more difficult, and to me impressive than lifting metal disks several times heavier than anything I will ever lift outside the gym.


NUTRITION:
I have increased my daily caloric intake to approximately 4,000Cal/day as I was losing weight at 3,500. I have been doing this for a week and have remained pretty stable, bouncing between 134-136 depending on the day/time of weighing. I determine my daily calories by taking a base consumption of 2,400 and adding in the exercise I do. I use the numbers provided by the equipment at the gym or estimates I find online. I know they are not 100% accurate, but they provide a point of reference to compare from day to day which is all that really matters.

Macro breakdown: 60% carb, 25% protein, 15% fat which I stay pretty close to each day

I have found it easier to manage my hunger by eating 6, 600 Calorie meals and a few light snacks throughout the day.


WORKOUT:

I enjoy doing stuff outside the gym and with the weather getting nicer I plan to incorporate one outside session around 7pm and a morning gym session around 7am 6 times per week, and then either a day of a decent cardio-only workout.

I have been doing 2 60-120min workouts per day for the past 6 weeks and have seen gains every week in all categories, but am seeing the lowest gains in agility.

The outdoor sessions will largely consist of a 8-10 mile run with different activities every 1-2 miles. Activities may include ab workouts, hill runs, sprints/skips, pushups, stairs, jumps,..., basically I will just keep an eye out for what looks like it could provide me with a good opportunity and take advantage of it. I have done Insanity workouts in the past and will incorporate those types of activities into my run.

In the morning I will do 20 min on a bike/elliptical, then lift for 30, and finish with another 20 on the bike/elliptical. I will go through a cycle on muscle groups (back/bis, chest/tris, legs, repeat with core everyday)

On the 7th day, I will continue with my long bike (30-40 miles...hopefully increasing to 40-60) / run (10-14 miles)

OTHER:

I currently get about 6 hours of sleep per night and will be increasing to 7.5 in a week and a half...once the semester ends.

Please critique any and all parts of my plan. I am obviously looking for maximum gains in a minimal amount of time, but I want them to, as I said in Goal 1, to be healthy, enjoyable, and sustaninable. I want this to be a lifestyle, not a 4 month training program.

Thanks
 
Considering the title of the thread, it sounds like you've actually got a good handle on nutrition, at least at a macro level. It should go without saying, but if you want a healthy lifestyle and a healthy life, make sure that there's plenty of good quality food in your diet -- lots of vegetables and quality meat, dairy and fruit will serve you well.

The exercise side of things looks like it could use some more work, though. Your program seems to focus on endurance, despite this being down the bottom of your list of priorities. Strength is at the top of your list and it seems you aren't training very optimally for it (although you didn't give much detail on the strength portion of your program, so I won't stand firm with that opinion), however it does look like you're doing it in a balanced manner, so that's something. I don't think I see anything in your program for agility, even though that's also fairly high up your list of priorities.

Given your goals, I'd recommend you do 2-3 strength training sessions per week, 1-2 agility sessions per week, and 2-5 endurance sessions per week. Build balance into the above sessions, for example by doing split squats, step ups or lunges. You'll develop stability both through exercises that require lots of balance, and simple strength exercises. A regular squat or overhead press, no gimmicks or modifications to reduce stability, done heavily and through a full range of motion with good technique, will develop a lot of stability in and of itself.

As time goes on, you'll go through phases of prioritising strength first, and times of prioritising agility first, and times of prioritising endurance. That's normal. You'll go through phases of working to improve whatever's at the top of your priorities, while maintaining everything else. That's normal. It's all part of strength and conditioning.
 
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