How fast to gain muscle

A realistic goal is to gain 1-2 pounds per month when focusing on mass-building.
the average male body can manufacture between 0.25 and 0.5 pounds of dry muscle
tissue per week
a natural trainee is usually doing damn well to gain 0.5 pounds of muscle per w
eek
you can expect to gain a maximum of about one-half to one pound of muscle per we
ek.
Glycogen
a trained individual can store up to 40g of glycogen per 100g of muscle tissue
So if you're gaining ten pounds of new muscle (4545g) you'll also increase glyco
gen storage by around four pounds (1.8kg). So if you gain ten pounds of muscle,
your scale gain will actually be closer to fourteen pounds
(if you didn't gain any fat).
1 pound dry muscle + 0.4 pounds of glycogen: 1.4 pounds/month
2 pounds dry mucscle + 0.8 pounds of glycogen: 2.8 pounds/month
Chances are if you're gaining more than three pounds per month, you're gaining s
ome fat.
Caloric need to grow
To enhance lean muscle gains, aim to consume between 18 and 20 calories per poun
d of bodyweight.. If you aren t gaining enough mass,
increase intake by an additional 100 calories a day; if, on the other hand, you
are gaining too much fat, cut back intake by 100 calories a day
18 to 20 calories per pound of body weight
Total Calories: 15 Calories / Pound of Body Weight
16 calories per pound of body weight
you re not looking at much more than 500 calories over maintenance to support abou
t the maximum rate of muscle gain for a natural lifter.
multiplying your lean body mass by 16-17 and then adding or subtracting 500 calo
ries, depending upon whether you want to bulk or cut
Protein intake
>1.6 grams/ kilograms
it is the position of the International Society of Sport Nutrition that exercisi
ng individuals ingest protein ranging from 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg/day.
Individuals engaging in endurance exercise should ingest levels at the lower end
of this range, individuals engaging in intermittent activities should ingest le
vels in the middle of this range,
and those engaging in strength/power exercise should ingest levels at the upper
end of this range.
You need 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day (2.2 g/kg of BW)
Higher levels of protein intake, usually in the range of 1.2 1.5 grams per pound
of body weight (2.6 3.3 g/kg BW) per day, are commonly recommended when cutting t
o lose fat.
2.3 - 3.1 g/kg Lean Body Mass in Caloric Deficit

about 1 gram per pound of body weight. For higher metabolisms, they bump it up
accordingly to around 1.5g/lbs. For slower metabolisms we would reduce it to 0.7
-0.9g/lbs.
The RDA for protein is set at 0.8 g protein/kg body weight (0.36 g/lb) while die
ters may need as much as 1.5 g/kg (0.68 g/lb) to avoid excessive protein loss.
Endurance athletes need protein at roughly 1.2-1.4 g protein/kg (0.54-0.63 g/lb)
and weight trainers may need 1.6-1.8 g protein/kg (0.72-0.81 g/lb).
Most bodybuilders use 1 g/lb as a rough estimate and this isn t too far off from t
he value of 0.8 g/lb.
So someone who weighs 200 lbs and is sedentary needs about 72 grams of protein p
er day; if they were dieting, they d need at least 136 g/day; if they are an endur
ance athlete,
they need between 108-126 grams of protein per day; if they are weight training,
they may need 144-164 grams of protein per day. Note, at this point, that I ve sa
id nothing about percentages.
one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight

Fat Intake
You should take in .5 gram of healthy fats per pound of bodyweight.
fat intake to about 0.45 grams per pound of bodyweight
~0.45 g/lbs is the recommended minimum
1g/kg
at least 20 percent of your calories should come from dietary fat, preferably fr
om monounsaturated fats (found in olive oil and various nuts) and omega-3 polyun
saturated fats derived from fatty fish.

Carb Intake
Getting to the point, although the physiological requirement for dietary carbohy
drates is zero, we might set a practical minimum (in terms of preventing excessi
ve body protein loss) at 50 grams per day.
I d note again that, within the context of The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook approach, c
arbs are limited to essentially trace amounts; however protein (which makes up t
he majority of the diet) is set high enough to limit muscle loss.
for every 2 work sets (assuming a set length of 30-45 seconds) or so, you ll need
5 grams of carbohydrates to replenish the glycogen used.
So if you did a workout containing 24 work sets, you d only need about 60 extra gr
ams (24 sets * 5 grams/2 sets = 60 grams) of carbohydrate to replace the glycoge
n used.
So if you were starting at the bare minimum of 50 grams per day and were doing r
oughly 24 sets/workout, you d need to consume an additional 60 grams (total 110 gr
ams/day) to cover it.
If you didn t function well in ketosis and were starting at the 100-120 g/day, you d
increase to 160-180 g/day. I d note that, for the average male lifter,
this works out to about 1 g/lb or ~2 g/kg lean body mass carbohydrate per day
In this context, bodybuilding nutrition (much of which has been determined empir
ically over the years) has long recommended carbohydrate intakes ranging from 1
g/lb on fat loss diets to
3 g/lb for mass gains so we re definitely in that range at this point. General rec
ommendations for strength athletes by the nutrition mainstream are in the range
of 5-7 g/kg or 2.2-3 g/lb
so these values are all pretty consistent.
In this context, bodybuilding nutrition (much of which has been determined empir
ically over the years) has long recommended carbohydrate intakes ranging from 1
g/lb on fat loss diets to 3 g/lb for mass gains so
we re definitely in that range at this point. General recommendations for strength
athletes by the nutrition mainstream are in the range of 5-7 g/kg or 2.2-3 g/lb
so these values are all pretty consistent.
around two grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight. At suggested caloric intakes,
this equates to a diet consisting of roughly 40 percent carbs.Those who are ins
ulin insensitive (characterized by a impaired ability to store carbs in the musc
les) may require a somewhat lower intake to avoid excess fat storage, perhaps as
low as one gram per pound,
while hard-gainers might need as much as three grams per pound. Experiment with
different amounts and see what works best for you.