How Much Should I Eat?

If you are more than 40 lbs. underweight, please go see a doctor.

You might have bigger issues going on, unfortunately.

In order to figure how much you need to eat, we need some more information on YOU.

Make a Plan (Figure out BMR)

In order to gain mass, you need a plan.

A good, specific, quantitative plan.

While it might be surprising that I don’t encourage guys count calories that are trying to LOSE WEIGHT (until they are close to 12-15% body fat) - you are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to count calories if your goal is to gain weight.

A good, specific, quantitative plan outlines exactly how many calories per day you need to eat and what foods you are going to eat, in order to hit the calorie targets (which MAKES your body gain).

This specific number be easily achieved with a TWO simple calculations.

Don't worry, it's not a lot.

This is the most important number of your life and your ticket to no longer looking and being unhealthy and wimpy.

Start by calculating your basal metabolic rate (or BMR)-

If, for some reason, you want to do it by hand (weirdo), here is the formula-

Male: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X weight in kg) + (5 X height in cm) - (6.8 X age)

Once you’ve calculated your BMR, you need to account for how much exercise you are going to be doing and your general activity levels.

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)

Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)

Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)

Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)

Extra active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training)

Write down that number.

It’s important.

Did you write it down?

The number you wrote down is your daily energy requirement to maintain your current body mass (also known as - the number of calories you need to eat to NOT LOSE WEIGHT).

Add 500-1000 to that number.

That is how many calories you NEED to eat everyday.

(If you are more than 25lbs. underweight, I suggest you eat 1000-1500 calories over your daily energy requirement. We’ve got to put some meat on you and we’ve got to show you it’s possible so you don’t revert to your previous eating/barely eating habits.)

Example of Basal Metabolic Rate (Metabolism)