Philip Pape 0:00

Are you trying to pack on muscle mass , but you're confused about how many extra calories you need in that surplus . Join me on today's Quick Wits as I break down the science behind the 2,500 calorie rule for gaining weight and building muscle effectively . Welcome to the Wits and Weights podcast . I'm your host , Philip Pape , and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self-mastery by getting stronger , optimizing your host , Philip Pape , and this twice-a-week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self-mastery by getting stronger , optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition . We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement , metabolism , muscle and mindset , with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry , so you can look and feel your absolute best . Let's dive right in , your absolute best . Let's dive right in . Welcome to another Quick Wits , your no BS guide to evidence-based strategies for your health , physique and performance .

Philip Pape 0:53

And today we're diving into a really important concept . If you are looking to gain weight to build muscle , it's the 2,500 calorie rule . Now , if you're familiar with nutrition at all , you've probably heard of the 3,500 calorie rule for fat loss , which states that a deficit of 3,500 calories is needed to lose one pound of body fat . But when it comes to gaining weight to build muscle , the equation looks a little bit different , because muscle tissue is much denser than fat tissue and that means gaining one pound of muscle , or , more accurately , a pound that's composed of part muscle and part fat , because we can never really just gain muscle . Sadly . There's always going to be some fat along for the ride . This requires a different surplus due to the different densities , and so research tells us that when you're in a calorie surplus and you're gaining weight , you can expect to gain muscle and fat in roughly equal amounts . I know you might have heard like newbies can gain almost all muscle and an advanced trainee who works really , really hard can gain mostly muscle . But the 50-50 ratio is actually a pretty ideal rate to gain for most people and it's what you should expect . And if you go more than that , if you gain more muscle to fat than that , then that's awesome . Just consider that a bonus . But plan for the 50-50 . And even at that rate , you are still going to maximize muscle growth while minimizing excessive fat accumulation .

Philip Pape 2:24

And today I'm not talking about rates of gain . We've done that in other episodes . I will just say that the optimal range tends to be 0.2 to 0.3% of your body weight per week . But we're talking about how many calories do you need to eat to gain at the rate you want to gain ? So , to gain a pound of body weight at a ratio of 50 to 50 muscle to fat , you actually want to consume around 2,500 calories , and that's again because of the different densities . A pound of muscle has about 600 calories , where a pound of fat has like 3,500 calories . And again , there's a lot of complex , complicated subtraction and stuff going on there that I'm not going to get into today . Um , and if you're , if you take half of those each and add them together , that's where you get the 2,500 calories . It's really a little bit less than that , but we're accounting for the thermic effect of food and other variances and rounding and all that . 2,500 calories is a good , simple rule of thumb .

Philip Pape 3:23

Now , it's important to note this is a guideline . This is more of a thumb suck estimate , so it's easy to do on a cocktail napkin and again , your individual results are going to vary on a lot of factors . So I like this as a starting point and for many people it will work pretty well and in fact , so I like this as a starting point and for many people it will work pretty well and in fact , if you use macro factor it's going to use the similar type of assumption . But then if you start gaining faster or slower , it will know that you personally are gaining more or less muscle to fat and then it will adjust so you don't gain too much or too less , too little on the scale given that ratio . So I hope I didn't confuse you too much . It's pretty simple .

Philip Pape 4:00

If you want to gain weight , to gain muscle , assume a 50 to 50 muscle to fat ratio . Give your body what it needs plenty of protein , plenty of carbs . You are including nutrient-dense whole foods . You're basically hitting those targets and going for a 2,500 calorie surplus for every pound you're trying to gain . So if you're trying to gain a pound a week , that's going to be 2,500 divided by seven and that'll be your surplus per day . So it'll be less than 500 calories per day .

Philip Pape 4:28

Now most people aren't actually trying to gain a pound a week . They're trying to get something like maybe a half a pound a week or even a little bit less , and so a lot of my clients . We end up being somewhere around 100 to 200 calories a day , male and female . Female tends to be on the lower end , of course , because they are going often at a slower rate and or because they're smaller . So you want to make sure that you've got a good training program . You're using progressive overload , doing all the things , and then the calorie surplus is going to give you the best bang for the buck .

Philip Pape 4:58

And , by the way , I did do a really solid . You know what ? I'm going to give it away for free in this quick wits , I'm going to hopefully remember to include the link to my muscle building nutrition blueprint . You can download that and it has all of the details you need to know , including this 2,500 calorie rule , so you can set up for success your muscle building phase , and then it's just a matter of doing the work right Nourishing your body , fueling that body , being patient , persistent , being strategic , getting there all the way .

Philip Pape 5:26

If you need a little help , you know how to reach me . Until next time , keep pushing yourself in the gym , Keep fueling the gains in the kitchen , because you need that surplus to build that muscle and stay focused on your goals . One rep , one meal at a time . Thanks again for tuning in . Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits and Weights , If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights , please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode . Until then , stay strong .