How Many Calories Do You Need To Build Muscle? Find Out Here!

Bulking seasons must require adequate caloric intake as well as a balanced workout session.

But do you have any idea about how many calories for bulking is enough?? If not, you don’t need to worry!

Here we have a clear and detailed analysis of bulking and factors needed to know while caloric intake. 

To give it a significant measure here is a rundown that encompasses the facts about how many calories to eat for bulking: To be brief about it, your diet must have:

• 10% caloric surplus
• 2 to 2.5 grams of protein per kg of your body weight
• 4 to 7 grams of carbohydrates per kg of your body weight
• 0.5 to 2 grams of fat per kg of your body weight

Well, it’s obviously a basic graph but to include in the diet having complete acknowledgment of the media as well for bulking and gaining muscles. 

Dive deeper to engage yourself in the detailed facts of caloric need while bulking your journey as an individual.

How Many Calories for Bulking?

The most important part of maintaining a regulated calorie diet is to have the right knowledge about how many calories your body needs and what ratio of macronutrients would suit your needs.

This will make sure that you don’t put on any extra calories in your platter and stick to your healthy side.

To do so, you will need to have a clear idea about how to calculate calories for bulking, thus our following section will focus on calculating your calorie intake for bulking.

GUIDE 1 – Determining Calorie Intake For Bulking

When you take in more calories than you burn in a day, it either results in gaining muscles or weight, this is called calorie surplus.

The basic idea behind eating bulk is to enhance your body mass and for this, you must have a calorie surplus in your diet. There are two types of bulks, dirty bulk, and clean bulk!

Here in our blog, we will be focusing on clean bulk that primarily focuses on enhancing lean muscle mass gain.

So how many calories do you need for clean bulk?

The answer varies from person to person, but an ideal start must be at least 10% of a calorie surplus. For this, you will have to first calculate your total daily energy expenditure and then increase it by 10%.

You can use a calorie calculator bodybuilding available online which you can try for calculating your TEE.

Once you are clear about how many calories your body needs for clean bulking, it is time that you also have an idea about what ratios of macronutrients would be good for your bulk.

Thus, let us have a look at how to find macronutrient ratios for your bulking.

GUIDE 2 – Determining Macro Ratios

Macronutrients are very important for maintaining healthy muscle gains.

Here are the macronutrients that you will need for bulking:

#1. Proteins

Proteins are referred to as the building blocks of our body and thus play a key role in building muscle mass and preserving it. Hence for starting your bulking phase, you must set your protein intake.

According to the experts, most healthy individuals must maintain 2 to 2.5 grams of protein per kg of their body weight. For example, people weighing 80 kg would need 160 to 200 grams of protein daily.

#2. Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates serve as the energy source of our body and thus help in fuelling your training sessions making you gain more muscles. However, when you eat excess carbohydrates, it turns into fat.

This will make you gain more fat than muscles and our whole purpose would be wasted. Thus, setting up the right carbs is important. This is done based on the activity of an individual:

• For people who are not very active, maintain a maximum of 2 grams of carbohydrates per kg of your body weight.
• In case you indulge in a lot of physical activities, your carbohydrate intake can go up to 7 grams of carbs per kg of your body weight.
• However, if your activities are of moderate levels, experts’ recommendations are in favor of taking 4 grams of carbs per kg of your body weight.

Apart from this, the ratios can also be set by calculating your calorie intake.

For bulking, ideal carbohydrate levels in your body should be 40% of your total calorie intake. For example, if your calories are 3000, 40% of it would be 300 grams of carbohydrates.

#3. Fats

Fats play an important role in your bulking as they fuel your body for daily activities.  However, overconsumption of fat usually contributes to more weight gain rather than muscle gain.

Your fat intake usually depends on the calories left after calculating your carbs and proteins, but also make sure that you at least take 20% fats of your overall calorie intake.

For example, if you weigh around 80 kilograms and your calories are 3000.

Your proteins must be between 160 to 200 grams and carbohydrates would range between 300 to 320 grams. That would be around 25% of proteins and 40% of carbs.

Thus you are left with 35% of fats which is well above 20% and good for your bulking.

Another way of calculating your fat level is the general bodyweight theory which is taking 0.5 to 2 grams of fats per kg of your body weight.

Next, we move onto step number three of maintaining easy high-calorie meals for bulking, which is tracking the progress.

GUIDE 3 – Tracking your progress

To make sure that your calorie intake and diet plans are working fine, it is important to track your progress.

For doing so, you can keep an eye on:

• Bodyweight – At the end of the first week of your plan, if you don’t see any changes or you lost weight, you need to know that you aren’t getting enough calories. 
• Body fat percentage – It is completely natural to gain body fat during bulking but if it’s more than 1% per month you need to have a better focus on your diet!
• Progress in the gym – It is important to keep a check on how far your strength has gone. If it’s better than before, you are doing great.

Next, we move on to the next section which focuses on gaining muscles and losing fat.

GUIDE 4 – Minimising fat levels and maximizing muscle gains

Now you have a clear idea about how many calories for bulk are a must and how to take the macronutrients.

But muscles also need vital nutrients for recovering from workouts and growing stronger without gaining any extra fat levels. To maintain a healthy ratio, one must reduce the intake of wrong foods and increase good food intake.

To make sure that you are getting more muscles and less fat, you need to have more whole foods and limit your intake of processed foods.

For this, you must stay away from:

• Packaged foods that have low or zero nutritional value and might cause overheating.
• Alcohol can come in between your building.
• Added sugars.

You can also increase the intake of the following foods to enhance your bulking:

• Veggies – Broccoli, spinach, kale, asparagus, green beans, tomatoes, and other such items
• Seeds and nuts – sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and almonds
• Meat, kinds of seafood, and poultry – beef, chicken, turkey, and a lot more
• Fruits – Bananas, apples, berries, and oranges
• Whole grains – rice, wheat, pasta, and granola
• Starches – potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams

Apart from this, you can also form your diet plans including all the calorie and macronutrient measurements. To help you get an idea of the meals here we have a short guide on high-calorie foods for bulking.

Best High Calories Foods For BodyBuilding

Best bulking foods are usually high in calories and include some of the vital nutrients that your body needs.

Here we have some of the best foods that you can introduce to your diet. Moreover, these foods include calculated levels of proteins, carbs, and healthy fat including some of the vital vitamins and nutrients.

The following options have been organized to help you gain muscles fast.

#1. French Toast

You can try this as your high-calorie breakfast as it offers one of the best choices when bulking. It combines high amounts of proteins and carbohydrates which serve in the favor of bodybuilders and athletes.

Moreover, they are fast to make and also tasty. Make sure you use whole grain bread to offer you healthier Nutrition and eggs add proteins to your breakfasts.

#2. Mass Gainer Shakes and Smoothies

Smoothies like whey protein powder, milk, banana, and kale smoothies serve as important sources of all the nutrients that your body needs during bulking.

Moreover, people with busy schedules would love this as it is the easiest way to get all the nutrients that you would have got from eating numerous vegetables. They will also not affect your hunger and help you eat more calories than you could after eating a heavy meal.

However, while making smoothies remember to add at least one source of protein with some carbs and high-calorie components.

#3. English fry breakfast

English fry breakfast includes the following components:

• Bacon (4)
• Eggs (2)
• Sausages (2)
• Puddings (2)

This is the ultimate high-calorie diet that you can choose for bulking as it offers high protein levels and calories for bulking up. However, don’t overconsume it as it has high carbs which might turn into fats and give you more fats than you require.

#4. Subway sandwiches or wraps

Going for a big beef melt subway is the tastiest option one could ever go for in his bulking days. This option provides athletes and even busy people with a fast bulking option along with high nutrient content.

When choosing the sub, make sure to add enough proteins with some vegetables to give you all of the nutrients in one go. Apart from this, you can go for sauces as they would be good for tickling your taste buds.

#5. Beefsteak

Beefsteak serves as an important source of proteins and also some of the other nutrients that serve as a good meal for you. Apart from this it also has high amounts of creatine that boosts strength and muscles.

However, don’t overconsume it as its contents of unhealthy fats might result in more fat gain than muscle gain.

With the meals laid down, one would also need some light snacks to lighten the mood and also get some huge muscle gains.

High-calorie snacks for bulking

Here are a few snacks that you can carry with you or grab up in the evening for a refreshing calorie munch.

These snacks are easy to make and offer you enough nutrients that your body needs.

1. Avocado Toast-  Less in proteins but offers healthy fats and calories. Apart from this it also has nutrients like vitamins and minerals which serve as a complete snack for a healthy evening.

2. Peanut butter sandwiches– Help to give your body high levels of proteins along with tickling your taste buds. There are various nutrients that the snack can provide you with:

• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Magnesium
• Copper 
• Potassium

3. Peanuts – Rich source of healthy nutrients like Vitamin E and several other minerals. You can either take peanuts as a whole or blend them with other favorite snacks. This will help you keep your body’s protein levels high while also serving you with high calories.

Which supplement is good for bulking?

There are plenty of supplements that support bulking naturally, in potent one with which you can continue is creatine.

Creatine is a naturally occurring supplement that boosts brain function, improves exercise performance, and accelerates muscle growth.

Usually, our body is capable of making creatine but to support bulking goals it needs additional support as well. 

To combine one of the best creatine supplements in the market you can go with Crazy Nutrition Ultimate CRN 5. 

The supplement combines 5 different types of creatine to support your bodybuilding efforts and also allows your body to boost muscle growth. Considering the positive Ultimate CRN-5 review, it indeed is worth trying. 

Apart from this, other supplements help in bulking too. Amino acids are essential for building muscle as well.

BCAA and other essential amino acids stimulate protein synthesis to a high degree.

One such needed amino acid to your body is L-leucine, one of the three BCAAs. It necessarily enhances the body’s natural ability to boost muscle growth as well as the process of the breakdown of protein in the body. 

Studies have shown that consuming optimum leucine helps in recovery after strenuous use and relaxes the muscle tincture.

Considering leucine for muscle growth is indeed a good idea as it supports overall well-being as well. According to a study, a leucine-protein, high-carbohydrate diet post-workout reduces overall tiredness and enhances subsequent cycling performance.

Is A Mass gainer good for bulking?

Yes, you definitely can!

Mass Gainers are one such supplement filled with enough calories and nutrients to support your bulking zone.

One can take while being on bulking which also helps in balancing your calorie surplus.

It combines the optimum amount of essential nutrients, minerals, and essential fats as well.

If you wanna consider one of the top-notch Mass gainers go with Crazy Nutrition Mass Gainer.

It is well-tested and considerably safe to build muscle and gain muscle mass. Overall, users have given a positive Crazy Nutrition Mass Gainer review that assures the efficacy of the supplement. 

Conclusion

There might be many such questions arising in your mind concerning bulking!

Considering this we present you with a blog that focuses on major bulking guides including how many calories you should have on your platter.

The blogs answer all your questions about bulking including the proper diet plan that one could follow if you want to get lean muscles.

With this being said, we come to the end of our blog hoping the information turns out to be useful for you.