Now how do you accurately calculate your calories to ensure you are in a surplus? We've made it easy for you with the Macroschart in the last module. What you want to do first is eat enough protein. Protein builds muscle and helps the extra calories go in all the right places. So let's figure out how much protein we need.
As a general rule of thumb, you should eat 1 gram of protein per 1 pound of body weight. So if I weighed 120lbs, I should be eating about 120 grams of protein a day. (120 pounds x 1 = 120 grams per day.)
I know that got very technical so here's a case study to help deepen your understanding.
At the start of my journey, I weighed 100 pounds and wanted to gain weight extremely fast so using the chart 100 x 21 = 2100 calories
First, because I weighed 100lbs, I figured I required 100 grams of protein to build up muscle using the 1 gram of protein to 1 pound of weight ratio.
I then figured out how much and what meats to eat to make atleast 100 grams of protein and how many calories that amount of protein will add to. Here was my plan:
Therefore I ate about 99 grams of protein daily which equated to 875 calorie. My daily total was to be 2100 calories (21 from chart x 100 pounds) so to figure out my meals for the remainder of the day;
21000cal - 875cal = 1225 calories. Therefore to complete my daily calorie goal, I must add 1225 more calories of food to my daily protein. Best part is this food can be almost anything.
This amounts to 950 calories. Therefore my protein and foods total was 875 + 950 = 1825.
Still more calories to go! 2100 - 1825 = 275 calories remaining.
I know it's not as simple as "Just eat more" like everyone tells you to. That's where supplements come in. To make up the remaining calories, I used supplements! Check out the supplement guide module to learn how I added an extra 400 calories to make up a total of 2225 calories! (1825 + 400 = 2225)
What do you think of this module? Comment Below!