By: Nick Nilsson

The Calories of Gaining Muscle Keeping track of your caloric intake is essential for gaining muscle.

Gaining a pound of muscle requires 3500 calories (properly known as kilocalories or kcal) above your maintenance value (the number of calories it takes to maintain your bodyweight). This is ideally spread over a week, adding 500 cal to your maintenance value. Adding more calories will add more muscle, but only to a point.

• If you are not gaining with the added 500 cal, keep adding 100 more calories a day until you are gaining.

• The best rate to gain weight is about 1 to 2 pounds a week. This ensures that most of the weight is muscle.

• You will add some fat but don't get paranoid and cut your calories or you will risk not gaining at all.

• Concentrate on getting adequate protein in your diet. The minimum recommendation is around 0.8 grams per pound of bodyweight, though more may be better (1.0 grams/lb) and you probably still be able to gain with less, though not as quickly.

• If you don't stimulate your body with weight training, the extra calories that you are eating may be converted to fat.

Thanks,

BetterU@fitstep.com

Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!

Visitor Reviews Of This Article!
Read Visitor Reviews - Write Your Own Review

Back To Nick Nilsson's Main Page

Back To The Articles Main Page.

Related Articles
Power Nutrition Kitchen - Cooking With Phil Harrington!
Losing Weight For The Non-Bodybuilder!
Does Fruit Make You Fat?

IDS Multi-Pro Whey Isolate IDS Multi-Pro Whey Isolate predigested protein mixes easily, and tast great. 23 grams of protein per serving. Learn More!