Ep. #187: How Many Calories Should You Eat to Gain Muscle Without Getting Fat?

[00:00:00] Hey, this is Mike and welcome to another installment in my in five minutes or less series where I answer one common question quickly and simply, because while long form content is great, sometimes it is also nice when someone just gets right to the point and tells you what to do and how to do it in five minutes or less.

And that’s what I do in these episodes. All right. So this time around we are talking muscle gain, maximum muscle gain and minimal fat gain. How many calories do we need to eat to accomplish that? And before I just get to the point and give the numbers, let’s start with a quick primer on why calories matter in this context, because most people think that calories really only matter if you want to lose weight, then that’s when you should pay attention to your calories.

They’re wrong. Your total caloric [00:01:00] intake is very important when you are trying to gain as much muscle as possible and as little fat as possible. And especially if you’re in, if you’re an intermediate or advanced weightlifter, because in the beginning you can pretty much do anything in the gym and in the kitchen, and you’re going to see changes in your body.

If you just get in there. And you throw some weight around, you get a little bit of progression, a little bit of progressive overload or not, honestly, if you just get in some volume, just show up and do something. And then if you eat at least a little bit of protein and you don’t go completely haywire with your calories.

Yeah. You’re going to see some nice changes in the mirror. You’re going to have some fun, but once that honeymoon phase is over, it gets much trickier to continue gaining muscle and particularly to gain muscle and not just fat. And the reason for that is actually pretty simple. The physiology is complex, but it can be boiled down to a very simple explanation.

That is this when [00:02:00] you are in a caloric deficit. So when you’re in an energy deficit, when you’re eating fewer calories than you’re burning, your body prioritizes. What it does with its energy, it pays closer attention to what it spends energy on and it wants to spend energy on the most important vital processes to staying alive.

Because when we’re dieting, even when we’re doing it right, realize it’s mild starvation. That’s what our body sees it as. So it begins to play a little bit, a little game of triage, so to speak, with the energy and muscle building. That’s why many women lose their periods when restricting their calories.

And so what happens is, and this has been demonstrated in a number of studies, is that when calories are restricted, when you’re in a caloric deficit, protein synthesis rates are just lower. Lower, which means that your body is simply not able to build a muscle tissue as effectively. [00:03:00] You could think of it as that, your body’s muscle building machinery, so to speak, just doesn’t work very well when calories are restricted.

And so therefore, if you want your body’s muscle building machinery to work as well as possible, which is what you need, if you want to gain muscle and strength effectively as a natural, Intermediate or advanced weightlifter, then you have to make sure that you are not in a caloric deficit. And that of course means that you have to make sure that every day you are eating at least as many calories as you’re burning.

And while it would be ideal to eat exactly to the calorie, the amount of energy that we’re burning every day, because then we could mitigate The downsides of being in a deficit without having to deal with the downsides of being in a surplus, eating more calories than they’re burning, which is fat gain.

That’s just not feasible because our total daily energy expenditure is a moving target regardless of how fancy and how granular we want to be with trying to calculate it. Ultimately we can only estimate it. So [00:04:00] we have to respond to that with measured overeating basically. Now I should quickly mention that everything I just said remains true regardless of what you’re doing with your protein intake, because some people will say that if you just eat the right amount of protein every day, and this is usually a large amount, one and a half grams per pound of body weight per day and up, or if you eat the right types of protein or the right combinations of protein, or if you eat protein at the right times before and after your workouts or eating protein every few hours, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

You can positively influence something called nitrogen balance, which is essentially the difference between the amount of nitrogen that you are eating and the amount of nitrogen that you are expelling from the body. And of course, protein is our primary source of nitrogen in our diets. Some people will say, That if you do fancy things with your protein, you can then positively impact your body’s nitrogen balance in such a way that you [00:05:00] don’t now have to be in a caloric surplus to maximize muscle growth.

You can just eat at maintenance, which again is strange advice because none of us really know what our maintenance calories are to the calorie. Even those of us who have really dialed our diets in. We just know how many calories to eat on average every day to keep our body weight in the range that we need it to be in.

And that’s usually between one to one and a half pounds. So again, my point is don’t fall down that nitrogen balance rabbit hole and think that you can just get fancy with your protein intake or other aspects of your diet or training to influence nitrogen balance in a way that will allow you to not have to worry about how many calories you’re eating.

Instead, what you want to do is you want to take your total daily energy expenditure and which we’ll get to in a minute in terms of how to calculate that. And then you want to eat about 10 to 15 percent more calories than that every day. [00:06:00] So in my case, I know that my total daily energy expenditure, when you average it out, given my workout schedule and my basal metabolic rate.

And other little things that impact how many calories you burn every day, like the thermic effect of food and so forth. I know that my total daily energy expenditure is about 2, 700 calories. So if I wanted to go into a lean bulking phase, So if I wanted to bump up my muscle gain with minimal fat gain, then I would increase that number to about 3, 000 calories per day.

That’s where I would start. And what that would accomplish then is it would ensure that I’m never in a caloric deficit, which would then ensure that my body’s muscle building Can work as well as possible, which then allows me to gain muscle and strength effectively. Now, because I would be eating more calories than I’m burning, that of course would mean that I would gain some fat as well.

That’s just part of the game. You can’t get around it. Now you can minimize it [00:07:00] by not being in too large of a surplus. So 30 percent more calories on average than I’m burning every day, that would be a mistake. So if I were to take my 2700 number and I were to bump that up to, let’s say 36, 3, 500 calories per day, but what happened is I wouldn’t gain muscle any faster.

But I would gain fat faster. So when you get it right, you can expect, and I don’t know of any good definitive research on this, but I’ve worked with a lot of people and based on my experience, I would say that you can expect to gain muscle and fat at about the same rate. So if you get it right, You should be looking to gain anywhere from a half a pound to a pound a week.

And about half of whatever you gain should be muscle and half should be fat. Now, if you tend to gain more muscle than fat, then good for you. Fuck you. Good for you. It just means you have good genetics. Basically. There could be other factors, but that’s basically it. Probably the most likely factor, or if you’re new to weightlifting, you [00:08:00] also can gain muscle a lot faster than fat.

But if you’re an intermediate or advanced weightlifter, you probably just have good genetics. And on the flip side, if you tend to gain more muscle than fat, don’t be discouraged. It means that you might just be a bit of a low responder to weightlifting and that’s totally fine. You can still get to where you want to be.

It just might take a bit more time than you thought going into it. Now, as far as the quality of these calories and as far as where these calories come from, of course, the calories in Skittles and the calories in chicken breast are not the same, and especially not in the context of muscle building. The chicken breast is more conducive to muscle building than the Skittles are, but you should know that carbs are not your enemy, even when you want to lose fat, but they are really not your enemy.

When you want to gain muscle, the best muscle building diet for most people. So the place to start and see how you respond to it is a high protein and high fat diet. Carb diet. And that means that [00:09:00] your fats should be moderate. So for example, when I am lean bulking, my fats are usually around, I would say 0.

4 grams per pound of body weight per day. And I’m eating about one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. And the rest of my calories are coming from carbs and carbs are your friend, especially when you’re lean bulking, because one, they make for great training. You have high energy levels. You have a lot of glycogen in your muscles, which again translates into better performance in the gym, which then of course translates into better gains.

And research also shows that high carb diets are better for recovery purposes. They’re better for muscle recovery. They’re better for reducing muscle damage that occurs in workouts. And that’s important because too much muscle damage means a lot of muscle soreness. Which then means that we can’t train muscles as frequently as we would like to.

And when, again, when we’re looking to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible, we want to be putting in [00:10:00] work. If we can be in the gym four to six days per week for about 45 minutes to 60 minutes per session. That’s what we want to do. You want to train hard when you’re in a calorie surplus, because that’s when your body’s Adapt to that training.

Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, Please do tell them about it.

It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle4LifeFitness, Twitter at Muscle4Life, and Facebook at Muscle4LifeFitness. Okay. So now that [00:11:00] we have the groundwork behind us, let’s just get to the answer to the question.

How many calories should you be eating to gain muscle and not fat as quickly as possible? And what that comes down to is first estimating what your basal metabolic rate is, and then estimating from there. How much additional energy you’re burning through physical activity and the energy that it costs to digest and absorb the food that you eat, which is also called the thermic effective food.

You’ve probably heard of that. And there are many ways to do that, but I recommend a very simple and practical one. Now it starts with doing a little math to estimate your basal metabolic rate, which is the amount of energy that it costs to just stay alive. So if you were to just lay there and not move all day.

How much energy does that cost? And there are various ways to do that. But the equation that I like most is the catch McArdle equation, because it accounts for your body composition. And I could just give that to you here, but [00:12:00] easier is a calculator that I built. And you can find it at the link down below.

So if you click on it, On that link, you’ll be taken to an article that I wrote about this whole subject of how many calories to eat, not just to gain muscle and as little fat as possible, but also how to lose as much fat and as little muscle as possible. And on that article is a calculator. And if you were listening to this outside of YouTube, just head over to legionathletics.

com and search for calories. And you’ll find the article it’s called how many calories you should eat with a calculator or something like that. And then once you have your BMR, which for the sake of reference, in case you’re wondering, I am six two, I weigh 195 pounds and I’m about eight or 9 percent body fat.

And my BMR is about 2, 100 calories per day. So once you have your BMR, then the easiest way to turn that into a fairly accurate estimate Of how many calories you’re burning overall every day is to simply multiply it by a number according to how active you are. Now, the catch McCardle comes with [00:13:00] multipliers, but I’ve worked with a lot of people and I’ve found that they tend to be high.

They tend to over estimate how many calories people are burning, which then of course causes problems because people go by those multipliers and then don’t see results whether it’s don’t really see weight loss or they see too much fat gain when they’re trying to lean bulk and they think something is wrong then with the entire model of energy balance and everything I’ve just told you when that wasn’t the problem, it’s just the multipliers too high.

So I have taken those multipliers and turn the volume down a little bit based on my experience. Thanks. So here’s what I recommend for turning your BMR into a fairly accurate estimate of your TDE. If you are sedentary, so if you don’t really exercise, you don’t really have any vigorous physical activity in your life, then multiply your BMR by about 1.

1. If you are lightly active, so if you have engaged in light exercise, light sports, one to three days a week, then multiply it by 1. [00:14:00] 2. Two, if you are moderately active, so if you do moderately intense sports or exercise three to five days per week, then I recommend you multiply it by 1. 35. And if you are very active, so if you engage in hard exercise or intense sports or other Physical activity of some kind, six to seven days per week.

Then I recommend you multiply it by 1. 45. And lastly, if you are super active, so if you do, I would say, two plus hours of intense exercise or sports six to seven days per week, then you can go as high as, I’ve seen as high as 1. 8, even two but the low end of that’s probably 1. 6. So let’s just say 1.

6 to 1. 8. eight. If you are very active should give you a fairly accurate estimate of how many calories you’re burning. And then once you have your TDE, or at least a fairly accurate estimate of it, you need to [00:15:00] increase it by 10 to 15%. And that is the number of calories that you should be eating every day to gain muscle.

as quickly as possible and to minimize fat gain. Now, of course, that is a starting point. You may need to eat more, you may even need to eat less. You really have to see how your body responds and adjust accordingly. And a good rule of thumb here is to And when it’s all said and done, this comes out to about 16 to 18 calories per pound of body weight per day.

That’s where it is for most people. So when you do all the math, if you’re in that range, you’ve done it right. If you’re way above it or way below it, go back over your numbers cause there’s probably something wrong there. And also just for the sake of reference. When you start getting into the 14 to 15 calories per pound of body weight per day range, you’re looking now more at maintenance calories or, more or less the energy that you’re burning.

And then when you go down to the 10 to 12 calories per pound of body weight per day range, you’re looking more at [00:16:00] cutting calories. You’re looking at an energy deficit. So that’s it. That’s how to calculate how many calories you should be eating to lean bulk. And in terms of results, guys should be looking to gain about.

Half a pound, two pounds per week. And women should be looking to gain about half those numbers. So a quarter of a pound to one pound per week. And the reason why there’s a big range there is because people that are new to weightlifting can gain muscle a lot faster than people who are experienced. So if you’re a newbie, you should be looking to gain the higher.

At least somewhere in the higher end of that range. And if you have at least a year to a year and a half of proper weight lifting under your belt, then you should be looking to gain something closer to the smaller end of that range. And lastly, if you want to know how to turn those calories into macros, which is very important and you do want know it, just click the link in the description down below and you’ll be taken to an article that I.[00:17:00] 

Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick. review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

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