Gaining vs Exercise

Okay, 2000 cals used to seem a lot to me, but at the moment I am reaching 3000 on work days easily. A good day for me involves getting a decent amount of 'healthier' food , then eating as much as I want/need of other food. I am starting to like salads, the weather is warming up here, but that means I need some dense food as well. My go toos are chocolate , up and go's (a breakfast drink) sunflower and pumpkin seeds, cheese, dips, etc. A the moment if I wake up hungry, I eat breakfast, but some days I am not. It's amazing how many calories an extra piece of bacon adds to a meals. Also pizza. Seriously I like frozen pizza, and always pick up some when it's on special . Just a ham a cheese, simple high calories. Have a piece of cake . Or a donut. Also for me , I am finding my maintence may be just under 3000 cals. So I eat higher on days I work and tend to eat less on weekends. That seems to take the stress out of trying to eat so much and I am roughly sitting even on the scales. Big thing, is enjoy your food.

Ain't gonna lie but in my big bulking days, I found pizza (lots of meat) to be the best option for me. Of course back then, dessicated liver tablets and milk were also our main sources of protein supplementation.

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Less "working out". More training for hypertrophy.
As for the food, yeah I guess you need to suck it up. Take a couple scoops of protein with every meal if you have to.

In my experience, they guys struggling to hit their calories are already filling up on protein, and it's become part of the problem.

3000 calorie maintenance

45-60 minutes HEAVY lifting = ~200 calories

3000+200+100 (for surplus) =3300. Not 4000

3100 cals on non workout days
3300 cals on workout days.

Nah, doesn't quite work that way for me. I can do even 3500 consistently (I did for about 6 months) and still only have a 6-8lb increase in that time.

honestly I can't decide for myself whether that's a good amount or not... lol but what I do know is it means that MFP has no clue how calories affect my body, since it usually says I'll gain 2.8 pounds a week eating the way I do.

Obviously you need to eat based on results regardless of what the numbers end up, so if math says you need to eat 3300 and eating 3300 doesn't cause weight gain or doesn't cause enough of it, then screw math.

IMO you should base your rate of gain on training experience and your tolerance for getting fat. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-4lbs/month should land you in a reasonable range with 2lbs being on the "stay leaner and slow fat gains down" category and 4lbs being on the "I'm relatively new to gaining muscle so I'm going to maximize this" end.

As a generalization I'd say the closer you are to your potential (more experienced, already gained much muscle mass, etc) you would target a slower rate of gain since you're not likely capable of putting on muscle very fast. Whereas for example, a 17 year old kid who is just getting into the gym would go aggressive and make the most out of it.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html

3000 calorie maintenance

45-60 minutes HEAVY lifting = ~200 calories

3000+200+100 (for surplus) =3300. Not 4000

3100 cals on non workout days
3300 cals on workout days.

Nah, doesn't quite work that way for me. I can do even 3500 consistently (I did for about 6 months) and still only have a 6-8lb increase in that time.

honestly I can't decide for myself whether that's a good amount or not... lol but what I do know is it means that MFP has no clue how calories affect my body, since it usually says I'll gain 2.8 pounds a week eating the way I do.

Definitely base your calories on results but I was trying to illustrate what other were saying about cutting out other exercise.

Since you are having trouble eating so many calories then only do the exercise that will result in muscle gain and eat enough calories to cover that exercise. That would keep additional calorie need to a minimum.

+1 pound per month is not a failure. A lot of guys trying to "lean" gain would be thrilled with that. IF you can do 3500 consistently AND you were gaining on that then I dont really see what problem you are having.

Aight so this is my new favorite section of these forums, as I'm 5'7 and probably just shy of 130 right now. I've been trying to build muscle for the last year+, but have been off the wagon for a while. That said, when I was really going hard, I put on about 8 pounds in 6 months, which was great, but my question is, with someone like me whose metabolism burns so hot, doesn't working out 5 or 6 times a week slow me down in terms of muscle growth? I like doing that much exercise, but I already have to eat about 3000 just for maintenance, and when I work out hard I have to go up to 4000 a day some times, and it's just insane. Haha

Is this a "suck it up and eat that much food" kind of thing, or should I scale back on workouts to like... 3 times a week and just do resistance/core work as opposed to any cardio?

Yeah you're just going to have to eat more.. Tough but life.. At least you don't suffer with excessive fat gain

You can't gain much muscle mass on Paleo, the "math" just doesn't support this claim...