Yes, following flexible dieting or IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) allows you to eat pizza, ice cream, chocolate and whatever else. If you’re a beginner wanting to gain muscle, click here to see a beginner full body workout program. About half a pound per week is what you want to see. You need to track your weight on the scales and ensure you’re gaining. The following calculations will estimate what that is for you.

You MUST be in a calorie surplus to gain muscle.

You won’t gain muscle, regardless of what you eat. If you always lift the same weights for the same reps, you’re not demanding your body to adapt to a new stimulus. Your training NEEDS to be progressive.I’d say you should be lifting weights a minimum of 3 x weekly with mostly compound exercises. People say you can make progress with just a 2x weekly routine.

You must be strength training, lifting weights (or bodyweight training) with progressive overload on a consistent basis.You just need to nail all of the basic principles. This post will help you.Īlternatively, if you want to lose fat click here to find out what your macro split for fat loss should be. If you need to break through a weight gain plateau, it’s very likely you’re not eating properly for your goal. This post will teach you how to calculate a good macronutrient split for yourself that, if followed, will lead to muscle gain with minimal fat gain. Make sure you are drinking enough water, getting 7-9 hours of sleep a night, and staying away from highly processed foods.You can put on muscle eating any foods you like, provided they fit into a good macronutrient split. You need to be lifting heavy weights to signal to your body to keep building muscle. In the end, tracking your macros for muscle growth is only a piece of the puzzle. If you want to follow a higher fat / lower carb diet while counting macros, a general macro breakdown can be: Here at Mind Pump, we don’t recommend dropping your fat intake below 25% in order to keep your hormones balanced. If you want to follow a higher carb / lower fat diet while counting macros, a general macro breakdown can be: Your carbs and fats will fluctuate based on your specific goals or intentions. Generally, your protein intake will always stay the same. Like I mentioned earlier, everyone is different and reacts differently to specific eating lifestyles. That’s your starting maintenance calorie intake. and multiply that by 13, which comes out to 1,885 calories. You most likely won’t be tracking your calories anyway, only your macros.įast Tip: Multiplying your body weight by 12-15 can be a decent measure to use.Įxample: If you weigh 145 lbs. You can use a fancy calculator to find your maintenance, but we just need a simple measure to start with. This gives you an idea of your maintenance calorie intake. Don’t try to change anything, just simply eat how you normally would. The best way to do this is to track your calories for a week. You should still make sure you are eating enough protein to build adequate muscle.īefore figuring out your specific macro goals, you must be aware of your calorie intake. This does not mean you shouldn’t keep track of your protein intake. Usually a high protein diet isn’t as important during muscle building as if you were cutting body fat. Protein is needed for muscle growth and weight loss.

I’m sure you’re asking, “What about protein?”. What works for one person may not work well for you. The great thing about figuring out macros is that you get to explore what works best for your body. If a high carb diet is making you feel bloated and sluggish throughout the day, try eating more fats. If you don't feel good eating a high-fat diet, lower your fat intake and up your carb intake. The most important thing is figuring out what works best for you. Now, I’m not saying this is something you must do when you’re tracking macros for muscle building, but if you want to you can. When people track macros, they usually try to do two things: reduce their carbs or reduce their fats. Once you have learned the basic guidelines, you are free to explore and see what works best for you. I will give you a good understanding of general guidelines to follow when tracking your macros for muscle gains. When it comes to health and fitness, there is always going to be variance per the individual, especially when it’s counting macros for a specific goal. With so many macronutrient calculators on the web, how are you supposed to know which to use? Each calculator seems to give different guidelines, so it can be difficult to know what’s accurate. It is hard to know what macro guidelines are “good,” when every fitness influencer recommends something different. You are probably here because you would like to learn how to count your macronutrients to build muscle, but maybe you don’t know where to start.

Macro percentages for muscle gain