Hi guys. Let's say I'm a little terrified. I've been thinking about start a bulking process, but the amount of food I need overwhelms me.
I'm going to tell you a little about me. I started in the gym about a year and a half ago. Pretty chubby 74kg (162lb) / 1.68m (5ft6) height. 36 years old.
But about 6 months ago I began to train really hard, 6 times a week. As heavy as possible (thanks to Scott's advice)

As a typical woman,I'm trying to gain muscle being in a caloric restriction.
I have been carrying a meal plan of approximately 1800/2000 calories. 30% Carbs - 40% Protein -30% fats.
In this time I managed to lose 2 kilos (4.5lbs), but the magic amount of 14 cm (5.5in) waist.

Now, I reach the famous plateau. I don't lose weigth (fat),
my body measurements do not go down or go up.I have been stuck in the same weight for 2 months.

Taking advantage of the winter (I am from Argentina), I thought about starting a brief stage of bulking. But when calculating the necessary calories not only to gain clean muscle, but also those of maintenance, I find numbers that scare me.

BMR at motion = 2818 cal
Calorie goal to gain lean muscle = 3068 cal

That's almost 1000 calories over my current caloric intake...

What do you advise me to do?

My training plan is: 6 times per week / between 1 hour and a half to two hours approximately. Push / pull / leg - Push / pull / leg - Sundays break
I walk to work everyday - 8km(5 miles) round trip

(sorry for my english)
Thanks guys!!

When making adjustments to your diet, any major change whether increasing or reducing calorie intake can be challenging. The best approach is to make small changes over time. You can just start by adding a little bit to each meal, and work your way up. Then, diet calculators are a useful tool, but they're not always right. It's better to adjust your diet slowly, monitor your progress, and then maintain when you reach a point where you're making the progress that you want. You're very active, so your calorie demand is high. You might not being seeing results because you're effectively starving yourself. To hit the calories that are prescribed by your diet calculator, you should focus on healthy calorie dense foods. Peanut butter, nuts, eggs, beans, legumes, meat, oatmeal, quinoa, rice, and so on. Also, adding a quality protien supplment might be a good idea. Your English is pretty close to perfect BTW.

Thank you very much for answering. That I will do, I will gradually increase the calories, until I find the right point !! And yes, you are right about starving myself. Thanks again!!💪 ðŸ˜€ 

I agree with @voelkern! It sounds like you are maintaining your weight with 2000 calories at the moment, because you say you have been stuck on the same weight and bf % for the past 2 months.

That would suggest that if you add another 200-300 calories, you should start to see an increase again with some muscle mass. So yeah, just add more calories slowly. Start at about 2200 and use that for as long as you can to gain weight/muscle consistently, and then increase it by 100-200 calories extra as needed.

Thank you Scott for answering too! I'm doing what both of you recommended me. For the moment I have raised my daily calorie intake to 2300. I will try these for at least 2 weeks, and then re-evaluate if I need to raise the amount of calories or keep them for a while.

Thanks again 😁 

Sounds like a good plan @Kuenshytron! Keep us updated with your progress! 😊 

Let us know how it goes!