How to Gain Weight, Lose Fat and Build Muscle
I'm 54, 5'11'' and 170lbs. I'm vegetarian. No dairy but I do eat eggs. I'm in decent shape, done weight training on and off since high school. I'd estimate by my slightly showing abs that I probably have about 17-20% body fat. I'd like to put on about 10-15 pounds of muscle and get down to a lean 10-12% bodyfat.
I weight train about 5 days a week for about 30-45 min and do 30 min of zone 2 cardio those same 5 days.
Cronometer tells me in order to gain 1 pound a week, my calories should be around 2938 with the exercise and 2785 without. I guess the target becomes higher when you add exercise?
I'm not sure why the protein targets change daily because my weight has stayed between 168 and 170 for the last 3 months. I have not been consistently hitting my protein goals. Many days I do. Some days I'm at the 2/3 mark. It's a lot of work to eat 170-180 grams of protein on a primarily plant based diet. I'm doing protein powder shakes with raw eggs. Tempeh, seitan, legumes.
I notice that my weight starts to climb if I eat over 3000 calories/ day. It climbs slowly. However I find it hard to eat that many calories in a day. It's work.
That's the background. They say to gain weight/ muscle you need a calorie surplus. However, I am finding it hard to gain muscle/weight and lose belly fat. If I wanted to lose weight, I could do it easily. Seems when I skip a meal or two, I immediately drop weight. My problem is keeping the weight on as I get older. I've seen my father who has the same metabolism as me, wither away from 170lbs to 135-140 as he aged.
I am looking for some guidance on my diet with the aim of gaining muscle and increasing body fat at the same time.