How many calories a day do you eat when looking to put on size?

[jayl19]

Current offseason diet is. These are total macros for the day.. I'm 5'8 and I hover in the upper 220's, low teens BF I think

Training days
P- 390
C- 195
F- 15

Off days
P-300
C- 30
F- 60

so 2475kcals, are you sure?? how can you grow on this?

 

[ajdonutz]

4k is my base diet, 4-4.3k actually, and a couple times a week i have huge cheats.. so on some days it could end ul as high as 10k.. but i stick ti 4ish for the most part. 5'10" 225ish, 10-11% according to calipers but i dont trust calipers fully..

 

[fitzchivalry]

A lot of protein overdosing in here....

 

[jp2007]

so 2475kcals, are you sure?? how can you grow on this?

I'm positive.. I have a slow metabolism and this is what is working for me currently.. Shelby handles my diet.

I have some pictures in the member photos section, if you'd like to see what I look like.

This is the highest my macros have been all offseason.

 

[scottswald]

A lot of protein overdosing in here....

well i was previously on the same amount of cals with much less protein and much more carbs, since trying this style of eating advocated by big a i have found that my weight is going up as i slowly get leaner

Probably because you're eating waaaaaaaaaay too much.

Holy shit bro!

I used to try and eat a lot more, tried 6500 cals once to see what happened, kept it up for a decent while but i did put too much fat on then, most of these cals were from carbs.

i am actually getting leaner eating this way now

 

[anab0lic]

3500 a day seems to be about the sweet spot for me where I grow but dont lay down too much fat in the process....slightly more if I am a bit more active.

 

[anab0lic]

Cant believe some of you guys are necking 5000+ a day... do you really need that much?

I have a pretty fast metabolism naturally (ecto) and my waistline expands pretty quick when I experimented with consuming that much for a several weeks... then again... other than training, I'm not that physically active during the day.

 

[jayl19]

I'm positive.. I have a slow metabolism and this is what is working for me currently.. Shelby handles my diet.

I have some pictures in the member photos section, if you'd like to see what I look like.

This is the highest my macros have been all offseason.

man i wish i could cut my kcals down, maybe i just need to eat better quality foods,

yeah ill take a look at the photos, i never new there was a member section

 

[anab0lic]

man i wish i could cut my kcals down, maybe i just need to eat better quality foods,

yeah ill take a look at the photos, i never new there was a member section

I think a lot of Bodybuilders eat far too much to be honest... usually chasing scale weight numbers... if they dont see a weight change every week they assume they need more food....when the reality is you arnt going to be adding a lb of msucle tissue every week....would be nice to gain 50lbs in a year but who realistically does?

All eating crap loads did for me was make me bloated and expand my waistline by several inches and completely lose any visable muscle seperation which makes it harder to tell whats working and not in the mirror/photos.

 

[norm1220]

It takes 5000 + for me to gain. The real work in this game starts at the table....

 

[mymre21]

I think a lot of Bodybuilders eat far too much to be honest... usually chasing scale weight numbers... if they dont see a weight change every week they assume they need more food....when the reality is you arnt going to be adding a lb of msucle tissue every week....would be nice to gain 50lbs in a year but who realistically does?

All eating crap loads did for me was make me bloated and expand my waistline by several inches and completely lose any visable muscle seperation which makes it harder to tell whats working and not in the mirror/photos.

some people need more calories than others..depends on body weight/height age length of workout + cardio. If you are only going in for a 45 minutes session and no cardio..yeah 5000 is probably too much but If you are doing it the right way..5k plus is needed..if you are gaining fat up the cardio.

but for me I don't start gaining until I eat consistently around 4500 cals a day..other than that I usually maintain or drop weight pretty quick.

 

[midwest11]

3-6k 1.5-2 grams of protein per lb

 

[ryanbCXG]

High carbs 600-800gr, medium proteins 300-350gr, and the least fat possible.

This is exaclty how I do it. And I am tiny compored to most of you. But activity plays a large factor. This has me gaining very slowly most of the time and losing some time.

 

[ryanbCXG]

I think a lot of Bodybuilders eat far too much to be honest... usually chasing scale weight numbers... if they dont see a weight change every week they assume they need more food....when the reality is you arnt going to be adding a lb of msucle tissue every week....would be nice to gain 50lbs in a year but who realistically does?

All eating crap loads did for me was make me bloated and expand my waistline by several inches and completely lose any visable muscle seperation which makes it harder to tell whats working and not in the mirror/photos.

You really think someone who trains 5-6 times bust ass in the gym for 1-1.5 hours but works a sedentrary job is comparable to someone who is the same height weight ect but workouts 4-5 times a week 1-1.5hrs but works on their feet and moves a round? Is it really hard to think of scenarios where people may need a lot more calories than you or some other person?

 

[jgiglo]

size

2700 cal! Don't want to put on alot of fat.

 

[Creed428]

I'm positive.. I have a slow metabolism and this is what is working for me currently.. Shelby handles my diet.

I have some pictures in the member photos section, if you'd like to see what I look like.

This is the highest my macros have been all offseason.

I am the same exact way can gain eating 2000 calories a day if I don't do much cardio. makes cutting a pain in the ass tho

 

[kscowboy]

OP-Dont worry about numbers or what each person consumes. Eat a certain number of calories for a week. Then check your bf or assess what you are looking at in the mirror. If its the same or better then add in a couple hundred extra calories. Re assess. If its acceptable for you then add more. Re assess etc.....add until you are putting on more fat than you want to. If that MAGIC number is 1500 calories or 7000 calories, it doesn't matter and each person is different. I got to 4% bf by eating more carbs than i ever thought possible and a decent amount of calories for my size.

 

[Queefer]

Here' s my system guys. I eat as much as I can as ofter as I can to try to gain ten pounds or so over a month or two. Then I lean it back down to about where I was when I started. Sometimes I'm heavier, sometimes not. But at least I know I'm getting sufficient calories to grow during my weight gain.

 

[Adonis89]

I'm not discounting anyone's methods or thoughts here, just providing my own:

I personally think BBers have a tendency to overeat which reduces digestive efficiency and leads to, among other issues, a less than ideal look. I've never been a fan of overfeeding (and I've done lots of it). I never try to eat for size unless I'm sub 10% bf, which is most of the time - because I don't force feed. I believe that it's best to form nutrition needs around LBM and current condition, training frequency and hormonal environment. When lean, training frequently with adequate intensity, and creating an optimal hormonal environment for growth, the appetite should be there and the body should give some feedback through appetite that helps gauge what it's craving. Also knowing our bodies well is key. I can easily tell when my body needs increased protein, carbs, both, etc. For benchmarking, I tend to gain best with my current composition, training frequency and hormonal optimization at 300g protein, 300g carbs and ~50g fats (none added, except a bit of EVOO and fish oil). I'm 200lbs pure LBM at 5'10" and ~6% BF - that's 1.5g/lb LBM for carbs and protein. If I want to up my LBM I add protein and carbs in relatively equal ratio's to my meals and adjust my hormonal environment accordingly.

I've tried eating 1g/lb LBM in protein and eating more carbs ~400-500g. I didn't gain any more fat, and my metabolism was racing, stayed pretty full (glycogen) ,etc but I wasn't recovering well enough. I train 5 days in a row and found that I seem to do better with 1.5g protein/lb LBM under those conditions, unless I want to push carbs upwards of 600-800g per day which I personally believe isn't great over too long a time (may strain the pancreas and reduce slin sensitivity), especially since the only "activity" i really get is in the gym and I'm more or less sedentary at other times. I keep fats low so I can't get the cals from there - best bet was to just up the protein a bit and drop the carbs to more moderate levels. The leaner I get, the more protein and carbs I need, which makes sense because there is less and less stored energy to use on my body (fat).

With protein relatively fixed, I'll have days where I cut carbs down and then load them up. If I go over 2g/lb LBM in carbs, I tend to reduce protein a bit - when loading on Sunday after depleting on Saturday (my two off days. Keeps the metabolism fresh, helps with insulin sensitivity and keeps the body guessing.

I don't really count calories, I just use them as relative figures for benchmarking progress vs. my condition.

Personally, I think when BF rises over 10%, things become inefficient and it's time to diet down and then move cals up again. This "cycling" is much better for rebound growth spurts than trying to constantly push linear growth progress - unless you can stay lean enough and keep growing.

 

[bomb401]

as much as possible. that is the point...bulking