Your body doesn’t want you to have muscle, and will minimize muscle growth if there is not a surplus of nutrients. In other words you have to eat alot. 80% of your gains of muscle will be from nutrition.

Heres a formula to find your calorie maintenence level:

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How Many Calorie Do You Need?

Everyone burns calories at their own pace. This is because every one has his or her own unique metabolism rate. Hence it is quite difficult to find one size fit all kind of estimation for Calories requirement.

We need calories for all our basic purposes. We need calories to even breath and live. We burn calories both at rest and play. The only thing that differ between various activities is the rate at which we burn calories. So we burn much fewer calories when we are sitting and working on our computer as compared to when we are running or going upstairs. While sleeping, our bodies burn between 70-100 calories per hour. This is called our Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR.

Your calorie requirement is dependent on your objective. Are you looking forward to weight gain or weight loss. For people looking for weight gain the idea is to increase your calorie intake. When you increase your calorie intake, the excess calories get stored in your body. Depending on your nutrition type as well as your workouts, these excess calorie may get stored as fat or muscle. What we discuss out here is how to estimate the number of calories you need for maintenance level – your maintenance level is the amount of calories you need to stay at your current body weight. Simply, if you want to gain weight you will have to cross your maintenance level.

All the tools out there for finding your maintenance level just give you an approximate value. There is no formula to find your exact maintenance level. This can be attributed to the fact that your calorie consumption depends a lot on your day to day activity level. One of the most commonly used and preferred method of finding your maintenance level is called the Harris-Benedict Equation.

Harris-Benedict Equation is so popular because of the number of variables that it analyzes. It takes your sex, age, height, and weight into consideration. Other important factors like your heart breathing, activity level etc are also given their due importance. The additional energy requirement of these processes is also taken into account by the Harris-Benedict Equation.

The equation is identical for both men and women except that the numbers in equation change.

Here is a sample calculation for a guy named Jack:

Parameters

Age: 26

Weight: 175 Pounds

Height: 70 Inches
First multiple the weight in pounds with the number 13.8, we will call this value as X

175 pounds x 13.8 = 2,415.0;

Next multiply height by number 5, we will call this value as Y

70 inches x 5 = 350.0

Next multiply age by number 6.8, we will call this value as Z

26 x 6.8 = 176.8

Total Calories Needed = A + Y – Z + 67

Total Calories Needed = 2655.2

Also make sure to eat one gram of protein per bodyweight daily, as this is the prime muscle building nutrient.

Secondly make sure that you push hard when you weight lift. Go for between 8-10 reps if your a begginer and 5-7 if your intermediate or advanced. Make sure to it muscular failure on these- the point where you cannot lift the weight for another rep.

Also make sure not to neglect your legs and back when you train, becuase when you train them you create more testosterone throughout your body, which is a muscle building and fat burning hormone.

Lastly make sure you are making consistent gain in your work- make sure you are increasing the weight or reps each week, to be consistent in your gains.

While others may look at you with envy, you might feel frustrated that you can’t ever seem to gain weight. So what’s going on? The main culprit is your metabolism, which is higher than the average person’s and which is a product of your genetic makeup. We’re all limited, to some degree, by our genes but that doesn’t mean you can’t change your body.

Gaining weight takes the same amount of focus and preparation as losing weight. Some important facts about gaining weight:

You can’t necessarily gain muscle without gaining some fat as well.
There are no magic foods, powders or pills that will allow you to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Some people can do this naturally (again, the genes), but most will gain some fat along with the muscle
Your body is very different from a bodybuilder–trying to gain mass to look like them is not the best idea. They have different muscle fibers than you and some may even be getting a little help from illegal substances.
If you’re a teenager, you’ll have a hard time changing your body dramatically. It’s changing constantly and it will change even more as the years pass.
Gaining weight requires eating more and lifting more. Sounds simple, right?
Calories, Calories, Calories

Gaining muscle requires that you eat more calories than you burn. For those with high metabolisms, that may seem impossible, but if you try a few of these tricks, you’ll find that adding calories to your day is easier than you think:

Choose calorie-rich foods like granola, bagels, biscuits, avocados, olives, corn, meat, nuts, peanut butter, milk, yogurt and cheese.
Add extra calories to your meals by using milk instead of water for soups, sauces and hot cereals.
Sprinkle powdered milk into casseroles.
Add calorie-rich foods (like avocado, cheese and dressing) to sandwiches and salads
Mix beans, meat or cheese into pasta or side dishes
Snack on yogurt, shakes, crackers and dip
Keep a food diary for a week or so to get an idea of what you’re eating and where you can add more calories
The trick is to add calories without adding too much saturated fat. You can also consider downing smoothies or meal replacement shakes in between meals.

Lift, Lift, Lift

Once you get your calories under control, you need to start lifting weights. This will help you gain more muscle and help minimize the amount of fat you gain (although you should expect to gain some fat as well). Folks trying to gain muscle should:

Lift heavy. This means lifting enough weight that you can only complete about 6-8 repetitions of each exercise. The last few reps should be difficult–the last one should be really hard, but not impossible.
Have longer recovery periods between sets
Have more recovery days between workouts
Use spotters to avoid injury
Continue with cardio, but keep it at maintenance level–around 2-3 days of cardio a week to keep your heart in shape
Start with a full body program 2-3 nonconsecutive days a week, if you’re a beginner. Allow your body a few weeks to get used to lifting weights before you tackle more intense routines.

Hope i help… good luck