Jeffrey Salazar
If you want to gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you burn. Calculating how many calories you need to eat to gain weight depends on your wellness goals. A hyper-energetic diet to achieve healthy weight gain should be a calorie surplus of 10% to 20%. You can calculate your weekly calorie surplus by multiplying your daily calorie surplus by seven. Then, divide your weekly surplus by 3,500 kcal/pound to estimate the number of pounds you'll gain per week. There are also online calculators that can help you work out your calorie needs, such as the Leangains calculator.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Calorie surplus | 10% – 20% |
| Protein | 1.6–2.2 g/kg/day |
| One pound of fat mass | 3,500 extra calories per week |
| One pound of lean muscle | 2,000 – 2,500 extra calories per week |
| Weight gain per week | 500 extra calories per day |
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What You'll Learn
- Calorie surplus: eat 10-20% more calories than your maintenance level to gain weight
- Resistance training: crucial for building muscle mass, alongside eating more calories
- Weight gain calculator: use an online tool to calculate how many extra calories you need to eat to reach your goal weight
- Leangains calculator: a specific calculator for lean bulking, based on the book *The Leangains Method*
- Macronutrients: the Leangains calculator also helps you work out your daily macronutrient needs
Calorie surplus: eat 10-20% more calories than your maintenance level to gain weight
To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than your maintenance level. This is known as a calorie surplus.
A calorie surplus of 10-20% is recommended for healthy weight gain. This means that if your maintenance level is 2,000 calories, you should eat between 2,200 and 2,400 calories to gain weight.
You can calculate your maintenance level using a calorie calculator, such as the Leangains' calculator, which estimates your daily calorie needs. Eating more than this will result in weight gain, and eating less will result in weight loss.
Once you know your maintenance level, you can calculate your calorie surplus by multiplying your daily surplus by 7 to find your weekly surplus. For example, if your daily surplus is 200 calories, your weekly surplus would be 1,400 calories.
You can then divide your weekly surplus by 3,500 kcal/pound to estimate how many pounds you will gain per week. For example, if your weekly surplus is 1,400 calories, you can expect to gain about 0.4 pounds per week.
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Resistance training: crucial for building muscle mass, alongside eating more calories
To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you burn. A hyper-energetic diet to achieve healthy weight gain should be a calorie surplus of 10% to 20% and should contain substantial amounts of protein (1.6 to 2.2 g/kg/day).
Resistance training is crucial for building muscle mass, alongside eating more calories. Eating extra calories without supplemental gym time will not contribute to increased muscle mass. Sanford Health notes that a goal of one pound of lean muscle requires between 2,000 and 2,500 extra calories a week.
You can calculate how many additional calories you should eat to achieve your weight gain goal. Use 10% for a moderate pace to gain weight and 20% for a more aggressive pace. Multiply your surplus by the number of days in the week (7) to find your surplus per week. Then, divide your weekly surplus by 3,500 kcal/pound to estimate the number of pounds you’ll gain per week at this pace.
There are also calorie and macronutrient calculators available online, such as the 'Leangains' calculator, which uses the equation recommended in the book *The Leangains Method* to estimate your daily calorie and macronutrient needs. This calculator is ideal for those who are trying to lean bulk or cut. The protein recommendation is quite high, which will help increase satiety and keep you feeling full.
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Weight gain calculator: use an online tool to calculate how many extra calories you need to eat to reach your goal weight
To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you burn. You can use an online weight gain calculator to work out how many extra calories you need to eat to reach your goal weight.
Firstly, you need to calculate your maintenance calories. This is the number of calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight. You can use an online calculator to do this, such as the Leangains calculator, which estimates your daily calorie and macronutrient needs.
Once you know your maintenance calories, you can work out your calorie surplus. A hyper-energetic diet to achieve healthy weight gain should be a calorie surplus of 10% to 20%. You can calculate your weekly calorie surplus by multiplying your daily calorie surplus by seven. Then, divide your weekly surplus by 3,500 kcal/pound to estimate the number of pounds you'll gain per week.
For example, if you want to gain one pound of fat mass, you need to eat about 3,500 extra calories in a week. If you want to gain one pound of lean muscle, you need to eat between 2,000 and 2,500 extra calories a week. Increasing your caloric intake by 500 calories each day could result in a weight gain of about one pound a week, depending on your goals.
Remember that if your goal is to build muscle mass, resistance training is crucial. Eating extra calories without supplemental gym time will not contribute to increased muscle mass.
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Leangains calculator: a specific calculator for lean bulking, based on the book *The Leangains Method*
To figure out how many calories you should be eating to gain mass, you need to calculate a calorie surplus. A hyper-energetic diet to achieve healthy weight gain should be a calorie surplus of 10% to 20%. This means that increasing your caloric intake by 500 calories each day could result in a weight gain of about one pound a week.
The Leangains calculator (also known as the lean bulk calculator) is based on the book *The Leangains Method* by Martin Berkhan. It uses an equation to estimate your daily calorie and macronutrient needs. This calculator is ideal for those who are trying to lean bulk or cut. The protein recommendation is quite high, which will help increase satiety and keep you feeling full.
Leangains is a diet and exercise system that combines intermittent fasting with short, infrequent powerlifting-style workouts. It is designed to increase muscle mass without unwanted fat gain. Unlike traditional cutting and bulking diets, Leangains does not involve eating lots of small meals each day. It is the ideal approach for busy people who don't have time to spend hours in the gym or kitchen.
You can use the Leangains calculator to determine your ideal calorie and macro intake per day based on your goal.
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Macronutrients: the Leangains calculator also helps you work out your daily macronutrient needs
To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you burn. A hyper-energetic diet to achieve healthy weight gain should be a calorie surplus of 10% to 20%. This equates to around 3,500 extra calories a week to gain fat mass, and between 2,000 and 2,500 extra calories a week to gain lean muscle.
The Leangains calculator (also known as the lean bulk calculator) can help you work out your daily calorie and macronutrient needs. It uses the equation recommended in the book *The Leangains Method* by Martin Berkhan. The protein recommendation is quite high, which will help increase satiety and keep you feeling full.
To calculate your weekly calorie surplus, multiply your daily calorie surplus by seven. Then, divide your weekly surplus by 3,500 kcal/pound to estimate the number of pounds you'll gain per week.
For example, if you want to gain one pound a week, you would need to increase your caloric intake by 500 calories each day. However, it's important to note that if your goal is to add muscle mass, resistance training is crucial. Eating extra calories without supplemental gym time will not contribute to increased muscle mass.
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Frequently asked questions
You can calculate how many calories you need to eat to gain weight by working out your daily calorie surplus. You can then multiply this by the number of days in the week (7) to find your weekly surplus.
Sanford Health notes that a goal of one pound of lean muscle requires between 2,000 and 2,500 extra calories a week.
You should eat a calorie surplus of 10% to gain weight at a moderate pace.
The Leangains method is a way of estimating your daily calorie and macronutrient needs. It has also been referred to as the 'lean bulk calculator'.
