If you want to build muscle, you need to train right AND eat right. In this article, you’ll learn three key strategies for your weight gain diet that will help you build all the muscle you want.
First, let’s look at calorie intake. How Many Calories Should You Eat If You Want to Build Muscle?
Next we will take a look at protein. If muscle is mostly protein, shouldn’t eating more protein lead to more muscle gain? Well, there’s a systematic approach we can use to make sure we’re getting enough.
Finally, we will cover the most important component of muscle building nutrition, which may surprise you.
With these three elements, your diet will no longer sabotage your muscle building efforts, and you will be set to build more muscle than ever before!
So let’s start…
How many calories for a weight gain diet?
If you want to gain lean body mass, you need to eat MORE than you are used to.
A famous strength coach would require all of their trainees to drink at least a gallon of milk EVERY DAY to ensure they’re eating enough.
Calories provide much of the raw material needed to fuel energy and build muscle.
So how many calories should you be eating?
Here is a simple formula-
Depending on how easily you gain body fat, your calorie intake should be between 19 and 25 times your body weight.
For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be consuming between 2850 and 3750 calories per day.
The more easily you tend to gain body fat, the more likely you are to err on the smaller end of this scale.
(and if you’re actually trying to LOSE a larger amount of body fat, you’re shooting for even less, about 16 times your bodyweight in calories.
What about protein intake for muscle building?
If you ask 5 different gym junkies how much protein you need to eat to build muscle, you’ll probably get 5 different answers. A typical answer is about 2 grams per pound of body weight per day.
This is too much! Don’t waste your money on expensive protein powder. You really don’t need that much.
Many TOP muscle building experts recommend between 1 and 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day.
So if you weigh 150 pounds, that means you should be consuming between 150 and 180 grams of protein per day.
The most important part of your muscle building diet
After all, EVERYONE is DIFFERENT.
Your body will not respond the same way as someone else to the same diet. So you have to be careful about what you eat and how your body reacts to it.
And what is the best way to do this?
KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL
Are you gaining too much fat? You may want to reduce your calorie intake.
Are you getting that 1-1.2 grams of protein a day?
You don’t have to get neurotic and write down every last calorie you eat, but write down what you eat and become familiar with how many calories, grams of fat, and grams of protein are in the meals you eat. This data is all freely available on the internet.
If you’re a hardgainer and are struggling to gain weight, try charting your meals for a few weeks and compare your nutrient intake to the guidelines above. You will be surprised how little you ate!
pack things…
So now you have a good idea of how many calories it takes to gain weight, what is the best daily protein intake for muscle building, and why keeping a food journal is KEY to timing your diet for muscle growth.
Now all you have to do is train hard, eat well, rest well, and before long you’ll be gaining more muscle than you can handle!
Thanks to Ian Nagy
