calorie intake for a 13 year old boy trying to gain?

Nikiki

My nephew is trying to build muscle, he's naturally pretty slim and lanky and my husband and I are taking him to the gym with us to work out but I want to make sure he's eating enough. All of my experience is with gaining muscle while losing fat, he has no fat to lose!

Anyone have a good ballpark calorie intake for a 13 year old boy, 5'2" and about 105 lbs? He's not particularly active aside from what he does at the gym with us, he lives in an apartment with his mom and spends his free time like most kids his age: watching tv & playing video games or computer games, he has gym at school but only a few days a week and doesn't play sports right now (we're hoping to help him get in good enough shape to join the track team in the spring) he takes the bus to school and the stop is very close to home so there's not much walking going on. We've educated him on what foods he should focus on eating to help his workouts but the quantity is what I'm not sure on.

Thanks for your help!

melsinct

An "average" 13 year old boy shouldn't be worried about calories. He sounds like a healthy kid so he should just eat when hungry (and boys that age can EAT!). Many kids at that age are lanky and will fill out in the next couple of years.

csuhar

This may be a case where you really want a professional to weigh in on the matter. Most resources available online tend to be oriented towards grown adults, not still-growing adolescents.

I'd imagine most of the basics are going to be the same, but he will have additional weight gain associated simply with the normal growing process.

n0ob

3000-3500 at least. 4000+ if he wants to carry a lot of muscle for the rest of his life.