As the title says, I weigh a measly 127 lbs. I’ve been training casually my whole life so I’m in okay shape but I have very little mass to me. I’m 5’6" and have a very fast metabolism. I’d like to get up to 145 (and 5’10" but that’s another forum).
All the research I did lead me to believe that 2,500-3,000 calories should be my target for muscle building. However, today I ate more than 3,000 and I was still hungry. I ate 20% protein, 30% fat, and 50% carbs. Should I keep eating or change my food choices?
How long have you been consistently eating 2,500-3,000 calories a day? This stuff takes time and it’s important you keep consistent in eating day in, day out.
Obviously if you have been eating 3,000 cals/day and have not made any weight gain, it’s time to make some changes. There are plenty of good nutrition articles on this site. Check out John Berardi’s Massive Eating and the like.
These results will help you to know how many calories you need to maintain your current weight, and the number of calories needed per day to achieve your goal weight in a healthy, steady manner.
You need 2320.7 calories per day to maintain your current weight without exercise.
You need 2667.8 calories per day to reach your goal weight slowly and maintain that weight without exercise.
If you increase your current caloric intake to 2820.7 calories per day, you will gain one pound per week.
Exercise and Calorie Needs
If you exercise for 30 minutes each day, you may increase your caloric intake to 2527.2 calories per day and still maintain your current weight.
If you exercise for 60 minutes each day, you may increase your caloric intake to 2790.1 calories per day to maintain your current weight.
If you exercise for 30 minutes each day, you will be able to reach your goal weight with 2912.5 calories per day.
If you exercise for 60 minutes each day, you will be able to reach your goal weight with 3224 calories per day.
seriously though, it’s pretty simple. When you wake up in the morning, eat. Two hours later, eat again. Two hours later… yup, you guessed it, more food. Continue this pattern for the rest of the day. Somewhere in there, find something really heavy and pick it up a bunch of times. Put it on your back and squat it, deadlift it off the floor, push it up over your head, etc… Then eat more. At the end of the day, sleep for 8 hours. Repeat. Grow.
Thats what I thought too when they told me to do a gal a day…but really its easy. I slowly started drinking more milk and I’m just about 1 gal a day
It seems to help a lot and I’m gaining weight pretty decent because of it[/quote]
I drink like half a gallon/ 3/4s of a gallon everyday now. WHen I gained 35 pounds last year I drank a whole gallon a day and ate like 8 meals on the side.