Template for muscle gain

So after talking about proper dieting techniques I figured I should show you what a good template might look like. I will be using myself for this template and the goal of this will not be fat loss, but rather, muscle gain.

First step is to calculate my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), and for this I will be using the Harris-Benedict Procedure for men (Venuto).

BMR for men = 66 + (13.7 x body weight in kilograms) + (5 x height in centimeters) – (6.8 x age in years) (Venuto)
BMR for women = 655 + (9.6 x body weight in kilograms) + (1.8 x height in centimeters) – (4.7 x age in years) (Venuto)


BMR for men = 66 + (13.7 x 86kg) + (5 x 186cm) – (6.8 x 21)
BMR for men = 2031.4 calories/day


So what I have just calculated is my BMR which is approximately 2030 calories a day. If you have forgotten what the BMR (often called your maintenance calories) is, it is the amount of calories needed to maintain your body in a healthy state with no weight gain or weight loss, with just your basic energy expenditure (not including exercise) (Discovery Health).

So now I have calculated for maintenance calories and since I want to gain weight in muscle I’m going to have to take into account the calories that will be needed to build up my muscle and the calories that I will burn during the process of working out. Using this website I have found that in my one hour gym sessions I will burn approximately 200 calories. To gain a pound of muscle you also need about 1,800 calories of protein*. So let’s say I wanted to gain 2 pounds of dense muscle a month. That means that I want 3,600 calories of protein split up into 30 days, which equals about 120 extra calories of protein daily. Okay since I’m not a nutritionist this is all very rough estimating, but I will have to consume about (2030 + 200 + 120) 2,350 calories on work out days and (2030 + 120) 2,150 calories on non-work out days to reach my goal of 2 pounds of muscle gain by the end of the month.

I now have a basic template for the month and the hard part is figured out. I know what I want and how to get it, the rest is just mapping out a suitable diet using high-quality, nutritious foods and breaking them up into the 5-6 meals a day discussed in a previous post.

Some extra bits of info:

- Look for a good diet ratio online (it will have the ratio or percentages you will need to eat of carbs/proteins/fats; e.g. 40-40-20 diet is good for building muscle or losing weight which is why many people use it)
- Make your breakfast the largest meal by adding carbs and protein and adjust your daily diet accordingly
- Eat a good mixture of simple/complex carbs (think simple = immediate energy, complex = prolonged energy)
- Take your vitamins and essential fatty acids
- Drink plenty of water

There you have it, this is the final post of my blogs and I hope you all learned something from it.

* There are 28 grams in one ounce, and 16 ounces in one pound, therefore, there are 448 grams in one pound and multiplied by 4 calories per gram of protein yields approximately 1,800 calories.

References

Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com. 2008. 7 December 2008 http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calories.htm.

Discovery Health. 30 October 2007. 7 December 2008 http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html.

Venuto, Tom. AJ Design Software. 2007. 7 December 2008 http://www.ajdesigner.com/phpweightloss/weight_loss_equations_male_metabolic_rate_bmr_calorie_day.php.