How much to eat if I want to gain weight?

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How much do I have to eat per day to gain weight? Perfect scenario would be .5 lbs of muscle per week once I finish my physio exercises and get back into weight lifting.

Here are my stats:

Gender: male
Age: 22
Height: 5 ft 9
Weight: 134 lbs

Right now, I am trying to hit 2860 calories daily, and get at least:

328 carbohydrates
53 fat
149 protein

Which is, 45%, 15%, and 20% respectively.
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Replies

  • musclesandmusic866
    musclesandmusic866 Posts: 1,396 Member
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    I would try to get 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight.
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
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    No one can answer that.

    Take a best guess. Track intake accurately and monitor weight and body composition, adjust until you are happy at the rate you are gaining.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    cityruss wrote: »
    No one can answer that.

    Take a best guess. Track intake accurately and monitor weight and body composition, adjust until you are happy at the rate you are gaining.

    Pretty much this.

    I would try to get 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight.

    Why? There hasn't shown to be any benefits (outside of satiety) of eating more than 1g per lb (and even then, that can be a bit much).
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    I would try to get 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight.

    won't matter if OP is not in a caloric surplus...
  • gym4life64
    gym4life64 Posts: 824 Member
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    Just eat MORE. Make sure you get at LEAST 1.5g of protein, but don't worry too much about counting...just eat
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    gym4life64 wrote: »
    Just eat MORE. Make sure you get at LEAST 1.5g of protein, but don't worry too much about counting...just eat

    Eating more is the only good advice from this.

    No one natural needs that much protein and not tracking is a sure fire way to end up gaining fat and not learning about what your body requires to change.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Why so little fat?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    Dern420 wrote: »
    How much do I have to eat per day to gain weight? Perfect scenario would be .5 lbs of muscle per week once I finish my physio exercises and get back into weight lifting.

    Here are my stats:

    Gender: male
    Age: 22
    Height: 5 ft 9
    Weight: 134 lbs

    Right now, I am trying to hit 2860 calories daily, and get at least:

    328 carbohydrates
    53 fat
    149 protein

    Which is, 45%, 15%, and 20% respectively.

    Btw, this only equals 80%
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    OP, I looked at your diary and you aren't logging consistently. Try to commit to logging accurately every day for at least a couple of weeks. This will tell you for sure how many calories you are really eating and will make it easier for people to give you targeted advice if you are still struggling at that point. Most of the time when people aren't losing or gaining like they think they should, it turns out they weren't eating what they thought they were. It's really common to estimate incorrectly!
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
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    You've got some good advice up there about guessing and adjusting. You can add this guess to things as well. 2500 calories per lb muscle + 3500 calories per lb of fat (that's very general and only partially correct, but it'll put you in the same ballpark as your goal). If you're going to gain 0.5 lb muscle per week it will be about 50/50 muscle/fat so you'll need about 6000 extra calories per week, or about 860 extra per day.

    Oh yeah, no lifting = no muscle. Just an extra suggestion, you might want to increase your fat calories a smidge ;)
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    Rusty740 wrote: »
    You've got some good advice up there about guessing and adjusting. You can add this guess to things as well. 2500 calories per lb muscle + 3500 calories per lb of fat (that's very general and only partially correct, but it'll put you in the same ballpark as your goal). If you're going to gain 0.5 lb muscle per week it will be about 50/50 muscle/fat so you'll need about 6000 extra calories per week, or about 860 extra per day.

    Oh yeah, no lifting = no muscle. Just an extra suggestion, you might want to increase your fat calories a smidge ;)

    To gain one pound per week at .5 muscle gain would be 3500 cals per week...
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
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    ndj1979 wrote: »
    Rusty740 wrote: »
    You've got some good advice up there about guessing and adjusting. You can add this guess to things as well. 2500 calories per lb muscle + 3500 calories per lb of fat (that's very general and only partially correct, but it'll put you in the same ballpark as your goal). If you're going to gain 0.5 lb muscle per week it will be about 50/50 muscle/fat so you'll need about 6000 extra calories per week, or about 860 extra per day.

    Oh yeah, no lifting = no muscle. Just an extra suggestion, you might want to increase your fat calories a smidge ;)

    To gain one pound per week at .5 muscle gain would be 3500 cals per week...

    Oh yeah I messed that math up didn't I, lol. What I meant was 0.5 lb muscle at 2500 cals/lb would be an extra 1250 plus the 0.5 lb of fat that's gonna come with that 0.5 lb of muscle would be an extra 0.5 lbs at 3500 cals/lb for 1750 more and a total of 3000 per week extra.

    I read the 2500 cals/lb for muscle on some hokey website but I'm stickin' with it :smiley: )
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited May 2017
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    My BMR is approximately 1600 calories a day (averaged from several calculator sites)... so how much surplus to add to that?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Dern420 wrote: »
    My BMR is approximately 1600 calories a day (averaged from several calculator sites)... so how much surplus to add to that?

    you need a surplus above your TDEE, not BMR.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    Dern420 wrote: »
    My BMR is approximately 1600 calories a day (averaged from several calculator sites)... so how much surplus to add to that?

    Just start with 2900 which is what you where eating. Monitor that for 3-4 weeks. If you do not gain, add another 10% on top of that.
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
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    psuLemon wrote: »
    Dern420 wrote: »
    My BMR is approximately 1600 calories a day (averaged from several calculator sites)... so how much surplus to add to that?

    Just start with 2900 which is what you where eating. Monitor that for 3-4 weeks. If you do not gain, add another 10% on top of that.

    This is good advice. If you like to calculate things (that's me). This is what I snagged from one of them.

    If you are "lightly active"
    You need 2,361 Calories/day to maintain your weight. <--- This is your TDEE at "lightly active"
    You need 1,861 Calories/day to lose 1 lb per week.
    You need 1,361 Calories/day to lose 2 lb per week.
    You need 2,861 Calories/day to gain 1 lb per week. <--- This is you at plus 0.5 lbs muscle and 0.5 lbs fat.
    You need 3,361 Calories/day to gain 2 lb per week.

  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
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    Ok sounds good. So if I set my daily caloric intake goal to 2800, then how should my macronutrient percentages be allocated?
  • comptonelizabeth
    comptonelizabeth Posts: 1,701 Member
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    Mfp calculates it for you.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    Dern420 wrote: »
    Ok sounds good. So if I set my daily caloric intake goal to 2800, then how should my macronutrient percentages be allocated?

    You will be fine with the default MFP macros.
  • Muscle_for_Fitness
    Muscle_for_Fitness Posts: 2,198 Member
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    Sounds like you have your TDEE figured out. Monitor how your body reacts to the 2800 calories, if you are not gaining in a few weeks, you may slowly add calories until you start getting the results you want. I wouldn't aim to gain more than 1 lb/wk or you will be adding a lot of unnecessary fat and same muscle as you would at a slower gain rate. For me personally I figure out my macros by doing 1.0-1.25 grams protein/lb bw, 0.3 grams fat/lb bw, and fill in the rest with carbs. I don't worry about percentages, they will fill out where they need to.