How many calories do u need for bulking without getting fat?

[metalheaddude]

Over the next few months ive decided to go on a bulking diet, as i want to build some more qualilty muscle mass. It will be my first official bulking diet in a long time. However in the past ive never worried about calories and ive just eaten like a pig in order to put on weight. Unfortunatelly in the process of putting on muscle ive got very fat and its been quite a difficult and grueling process to cut back down again. Now that im fairly lean again, i want to remain that way without putting on anymore fat (or at least very little) its just to tiring and time consuming to do cardio. Im just over it now. I want to lift weights only.

Ive heard many conflicting ideas about how many calories to eat one guy on a bodybuilding forum suggests

20cal per pound of body weight

im around 180 pounds

so thats 180 x 20 = 3600 cal!

with 1.5 g per pound of body weight

and like 600g of carbs per day

Now I dont know about you, but that seems like a staggering amount of food to me! Especially if you plan to eat clean (which I do) thats like 10kilo of brokely or peas a day or something ridiculous like that. I just cant eat that much no way, not without feeling bloating and sick.

Anyone know exactly how many calories one should take when bulking?

 

[CCS]

you can build muscle even on 2000 calories per day. Well, unless you have really high metabolism. Now whether that is the optimal amount, I don't know. Many guys on here say optimal is closer to 4000 or higher for advanced lifters.

For me 2200 to 2400 is probably optimal, since my muscles get stronger much faster with shorter workouts, which don't burn many calories.

 

[malibujoe]

Over the next few months ive decided to go on a bulking diet, as i want to build some more qualilty muscle mass. It will be my first official bulking diet in a long time. However in the past ive never worried about calories and ive just eaten like a pig in order to put on weight. Unfortunatelly in the process of putting on muscle ive got very fat and its been quite a difficult and grueling process to cut back down again. Now that im fairly lean again, i want to remain that way without putting on anymore fat (or at least very little) its just to tiring and time consuming to do cardio. Im just over it now. I want to lift weights only.

Ive heard many conflicting ideas about how many calories to eat one guy on a bodybuilding forum suggests

20cal per pound of body weight

im around 180 pounds

so thats 180 x 20 = 3600 cal!

with 1.5 g per pound of body weight

and like 600g of carbs per day

Now I dont know about you, but that seems like a staggering amount of food to me! Especially if you plan to eat clean (which I do) thats like 10kilo of brokely or peas a day or something ridiculous like that. I just cant eat that much no way, not without feeling bloating and sick.

Anyone know exactly how many calories one should take when bulking?

you should sign onto bodybuilding.com and check out the forums there. great information. u may miss out on some good stuff cuz others may knock it down with impression it may damage ur hair.

 

[Anus]

I think ccs is right here. You don't need ridiculous calories to build muscle. Just increase with a few hundred calories and use a protein shake. Why listen to a bunch of bb'ers whos aim is to look like a shaved gorilla unless that is your aim too. That's like a marathon runner doing the same training as a sprinter.

 

[metalheaddude]

you should sign onto bodybuilding.com and check out the forums there. great information. u may miss out on some good stuff cuz others may knock it down with impression it may damage ur hair.

Yeah thats where I got the initial information, I looked everywhere on bodybuilding.com but i cant find anything that specifically says how many calories you need, its always just some stupid title like "eat like a rhino and get massive"etc. But when you the view the article it shows this ridiculous diet like 12 egg whites and other staggering ridiculous amounts of food. On the forums I saw few guys qoute 20-25 cal per pounds of body weight, which just crazy. I think instead of 3600 cal im going for somewhere around where CCS said about 2300 cal per day seems reasonable to me.

 

[pleasehelpme]

There is no definite answer to your question because everyone has a different body composition. So what may work for Joe Schmo may not work for you and vice versa. The first thing you need to do is to find out your maintence caloric intake, pretty much how many calories per day you can eat without gaining or losing weight.

3.6 k calories is definitely do-able. When I was on a clean bulk a few years back, I was eating rougly 4.2-4.5 k calories per day. Also remember not to neglect healthy fats from your diet!

I'm not bulking or cutting right now, yet I still take in around 3-3.5 k calories per day.

Good luck and I hope everything works out well for you.

 

[rusty_y2k2]

to build muscle, unless you have incredible genes, you have to eat more calories than your base requirement. You will put on fat as well, it's just what happens. If you do it right, you'll put on much more muscle than fat, and then if you get your cutting right you should be able to strip off the fat without losing much of your hard earned muscle (although again, you will lose some).

Everyone's base requirement is slightly different, due to physiology, age, activity levels etc etc but you should be able to find a "calculator" on the internet that will give you a general idea. You can then find out how to tweak it by watching your results, not putting anything on? need more... getting really fat? need less. simple!

To bulk without getting really fat, people generally advise 500 calories over base, so if your daily requirement was 2500 (the typical figures given for an adult male) then you'd want 3,000 calories. Remember though that as you put on mass your calorie requirement increases, so you need to continually up the calories to maintain the 500 excess over base rate.

 

[Thinning Sucks]

How much should you take in when bulking on "off" or "rest" days?

 

[rusty_y2k2]

ideally the same - the rest days are when your muscles are doing the bulk of their redbuilding and need all the nutrients you can offer....

You could of course cut out the number of calories that you save by not working out that day, but i don't see the point in getting that pedantic over it.

 

[barcafan]

You'll always gain fat when you bulk, there's no other way about it unless you wanna gain weight REALLY slowly or you have ridiculous genetics which allow you to put on 10 pounds of muscle with 0 fat in a month.

Im 5'11 165ish (up from 150 6 months ago) and im stepping up the caloric intake to 4k (From 3500). Make sure you eat OFTEN, with a source of GOOD fat in each meal (As well as carbs and protein, obviously). If theres nothing around i just take a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and down that sh*t, thats how hardcore i am.

If you're up from 9 am to 11 pm then 4000 calories is a breeze, just dont skip meals and eventually your appetite will grow big and you'll be hungry if you DONT eat. Go with healthy cheap bulk foods, i recently purchased 50 f*****g cans of tuna for the low low price of 30 cents a can. That's 6KG of tuna baby.

Up your caloric intake by 500 every few weeks. So if you eat 2000 now, go 2500 each day then in a month step up to 3000. Dont go from 2000-4000 cold turkey, you'll likely put on a shitload of unwanted weight.



Its simple : Eat more to get bigger, no other way around it. If i had the choice between AMAZING diet and AMAZING workouts, i'd go with diet, it'll take you further in terms of physique IMO.

 

[CCS]

You'll always gain fat when you bulk, there's no other way about it unless you wanna gain weight REALLY slowly or you have ridiculous genetics which allow you to put on 10 pounds of muscle with 0 fat in a month.

In the past month I've put on pounds, and my waist got smaller and my abs more cut. My strength has gone up about 10%. I think the statement you heard is just from guys who want to eat whatever they want and have an excuse to get fat.

I work every muscle group every other day, doing 6 max sets of 65% my 1RM, and 1 heavier set. I had to build up to this over a few weeks, but my recovery is great now. Give me one minute of rest between sets, and my max reps stays the same set after set. I have to make sure I only rest 30 seconds, so I can challenge my recovery rate. And yes, my max strength is going up too. I might do some pushups on my off days too.

I recommend that newbies start out with just 2 max sets per muscle group and spend a month or so working up to 6+. This is with 65% the 1RM. Do not do this many sets with heavier weights unless you are advanced.

 

[CCS]

I estimate my daily calories are about 2300, and my protein intake (mostly animal) is about 100g per day. I weight 153.

My abs used to have a slight line under my belly button if I pulled on the skin. Now it is there just by flexing. My goal is to have the abs bellow that line bulge out even when I'm not flexing. And I want my arms to be about 15 or maybe 16 inches of cut muscle. And I'm getting all my body hair lasered off. Already getting my chest and abs lasered. Looks much better.

 

[CCS]

And I don't need much time to do my workout. I can do 6 sets each of two muscle groups in 10 minutes. I do that twice a day, plus an ab workout, but will be expanding that to 9 sets over the next few weeks.

I've learned that it is better to exercise even if you know you won't get sleep that night. I'm not sure how much lighter it should be though. Exercise also is great for getting you over colds faster. It probably is the closest thing we have to a fountain of youth.

 

[barcafan]

What i said is all from personal experience. I did NOT grow(acceptably ;D) until i improved my diet.