what caloric/protein intake to achieve a certain size?

[Bent_O_Bar]

Hi, I'm trying to understand how to setup my calories and protein for gaining more size and strength with minimal fat accumulation.

Over the past year or so I had to see how consistent I could be with my diet (cooking, eating, clean foods, etc.), cardio, training and recovery. Now that I have all those things nailed down I wanted to see how I would do amping up my intake and protein and training harder.

I'm 5'10" and weighed 185# about 6 weeks back and was eating around 3,000 calories per day with 300g/protein. I cycle carbs; on off days taking in around 130g and workout days around 4,000 calories and 340g protein and 350g carbs.

So I went cold turkey and amped up the off day diet to 3,900 and 420g/protein and 4,800 workout day and 510g protein. I also added Kre Alkylyn creatine, figuring it would help with all this extra food in volumizing my muscles.

The great news is my muscles became fuller and my strength did improve week by week (I cycle workouts 4-6 weeks, training 3x per week on only big basic movements). Clothes got tighter too and I figured I was really gaining some good weight with a bit more visible fat. I hit the cardio for 4 days per week (off days) .

So I step on the scale this week and I'm only 190#. WTF? With that big a jump in calories and protein, I expected to see at least 195 or even 200#. So I started wondering; how many calories and protein does it take to build 1# of muscle and over what period of time? If I want to ultimately be 220# with 15% BF, on average, what calorie and protein intake level do I need to be at to achieve this? The sad part is I've been force feeding myself most of that time and am, at this point, seriously maxed out on what I can ingest, unless it's in liquid form.

If from those 5# I gained, lets say I gained maybe 2# of muscle and 3# of fat and water, so I ate 1,000 calories per day over my previous weight for 6 weeks to gain only that? What am I doing wrong? Is there an easy to understand formula I can follow that will help me understand what I need to do (More calories? From where? Olive oil? etc.). Thanks.

 

[Moen]

You can not rush it, not on steroids and certainly not clean, it will take time.

 

[Bent_O_Bar]

You can not rush it, not on steroids and certainly not clean, it will take time.

I accept the fact that it takes time to build muscle. My cardio is low intensity so it's not burning that many calories, and I am training pretty hard (for me) each workout.

But isn't it strange that cranking the calories that high for 6 weeks only garnered 5#? Does that mean calories and protein are still too low? Do I need to go to 5,000 or 6,000 calories per day to see 200#?

 

[maldorf]

I accept the fact that it takes time to build muscle. My cardio is low intensity so it's not burning that many calories, and I am training pretty hard (for me) each workout.

But isn't it strange that cranking the calories that high for 6 weeks only garnered 5#? Does that mean calories and protein are still too low? Do I need to go to 5,000 or 6,000 calories per day to see 200#?

If you put on 5 pounds or so in 6 weeks, thats acutually darn good if your natural. Take in too many calories and youll just add bodyfat. Did you strength go up significantly, do you think you put on any fat? If its all lean muscle, then I dont think you can hope for much more that what you got. Keep at it and add more calories slowly as you go along.

 

[Bent_O_Bar]

If you put on 5 pounds or so in 6 weeks, thats acutually darn good if your natural. Take in too many calories and youll just add bodyfat. Did you strength go up significantly, do you think you put on any fat? If its all lean muscle, then I dont think you can hope for much more that what you got. Keep at it and add more calories slowly as you go along.

Very little fat accumulated which completely surprised me, but I owe that mostly to the clean food and consistent cardio. As for strength, I was maxed out on some exercises and part of the experiment, when I cranked up the intake, was to see if eating all that extra food would actually raise the ceiling on those maxed weights.

Well it worked because I was able to slowly increase the weight or reps on all those maxed out lifts.

I'm totally natural, I've never touched gear nor ever taken a lot of supplements, most of my money goes to food.

 

[M21SL]

putting on 5lbs of pretty lean bodyweight is very good for 6 weeks, especially natural. I would keep doing what you are doing, maybe bump the cals up a bit more but not too too much, as too much excess cals will result in excess bodyfat. If you dont care about putting on that extra bf than by all means up it to whatever youd like, and you will put on more than 5lbs in 6 weeks...but if pretty lean gains is waht you are after, then keep up what you are doing, because 5lbs lean in 6 weeks is very good. keep up the good work bro and keep us posted on your progressions.

 

[NPCS FINEST]

You have to test it out. If you upped the cals and protein this much and got 5 lean lbs..then just keep going up with them both intill you start to put some fat on. Its all trail and error and everyone is different. You just have to find what works for you bra.

 

[OuchThatHurts]

Seriously man... 5 lbs is huge for a 1.5 months period. That's 20lbs in six months with strength increase! I'm hoping for that this YEAR!!!

KEEP DOING WHAT YOU'RE DOING

 

[pimpman]

if you gain 1pound of muscle a week you doing ok.if you think not do the math
1 pound x 52 weeks = 52 pound of pure muscle in 1 year

 

[Big Danny]

Patience bro, you are surelly on the right track. enjoy the marathon , forget about the sprint.

 

[balla06]

Patience bro, you are surelly on the right track. enjoy the marathon , forget about the sprint.

fuckin NICELY VERY WELL SAID!! i like that alot good shit bro! props to u for that one!

 

[wakejump4me]

if you gain 1pound of muscle a week you doing ok.if you think not do the math
1 pound x 52 weeks = 52 pound of pure muscle in 1 year

that is a lot though , it is like looking at a 1 lb steak which you have to add to your overall muscles within 1 week .


wake

 

[Bent_O_Bar]

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I guess when you've been force feeding yourself for weeks and feel like a whale by the end of each day you expect to see far bigger numbers on the scale for your efforts, especially with such a big jump in calories.

When I would read about guys eating 4, 5 and 6,000 calories per day I thought it was only for people in the 250-300# category and on gear, not at my level.