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Something a lot of people struggle with. But it's a lot simpler than you think
This is something I get asked about all the time. How many calories per day. I will be the first to admit, that I struggled for years with this when I was in my early days. Yes. Years!
I focused too much on Protein. I focused too much on Protein timing, my BCAA’s, My pre-bed cottage cheese and my Advanced Formula Timed-Release Protein which was about £47.99 a tub (about the price of a 3-month membership at Pure Gym). I wasted all my time on such minute details that the bigger picture was lost. I really didn’t gain much quality mass. I did gain some lean muscle, but not much. Over the last 3-4 years, I’ve focused more on food quality and food volume. That is, eating more. Did I get fat by eating more? Nope. I did gain some fat, but that is inevitable as you need to be eating in a surplus to gain muscle mass. The amount of fat you put on is dictated by the extra amount of food you eat. You can easily eat more food in a controlled manner and put on very little body fat and pack on some quality size – very easily! The key – PATIENCE.
Muscle takes time to build and you MUST enjoy the process.
I have taken out all the guesswork for you guys. Below is a calculator that you should click on. Copy and Paste the URL below into your address bar. Input your stats and it will give you a number of calories to be hitting per day! The BMR is basically the number of calories you should be aiming for per day to MAINTAIN your weight.
https://manytools.org/handy/bmr-calculator/
Ok, once you have your number given to you, I want you to follow this consistently for a few days. Make sure you have a weighing scale at home. Because I want you to weigh yourself in the morning, as soon as you rise and after using the bathroom. Empty stomach weight is a good way to keep consistency. Along with this, I want you to increase your calories. So I want you to take the number given to you by the calculator, and increase this by 200-300 calories or so. This can be as easy as a tall glass of full-fat milk or a tablespoon of Peanut Butter with a banana. Easy.
The reason I am getting you to weigh yourself is that you want to see consistency in weight increases. That is, every 2 weeks, there should be a small increase in your weight. If your weight is stalling and doesn’t increase every 2nd or 3rd week, I want you to increase your calories a tiny bit more. Get the idea? Small increases.
This is why the old dirty bulking approach is a dying art. You will get fat doing this and because you aren’t keeping an eye on your food intake, and you will gain a lot more fat.
HOWEVER……
You must be willing to work out your calories for a few days at least. What do I mean by this? I mean weighing your foods, getting a calorie-counting app and having a basic understanding of portion sizes. I do not normally advocate this, but if you are someone who’s never kept a food diary you will be shooting yourself in the foot by not calculating your “macros”. You must know what you are taking in.
You must be willing to take a little time each day, for around 7 or 8 days, and weighing your foods to understand calories. Once you have done this and you are hitting your target, then there is no need to continue calculating. Just eye-ball your food and keep an eye on portion sizes.
With respect to Protein, Carbs and Fats – this will differ from person to person. As a general rule, the first thing I would nail down would be my protein. Take your weight in KG and multiply it by 1.6-2. If you are training hard 4-5 times a week, I would lean more towards the higher end and multiply your weight in KG by 2. Get this protein target hit every day.
With Fats and Carbs, this is a whole other article on its own as there is a lot to cover. But I hope you understand now the importance of increasing your calories in order to gain muscle mass!
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