I think the most common goal we all have in the gym is to get bigger and bigger. But actually getting there is easier said than done. Another goal most all of us seem to have is to keep the body fat to a minimum so the muscle that we have worked so hard to gain can be easily seen. Both of these can be accomplished, but the order it is done is pretty important. You have got to decide which is most important to get first. Size or definition?

Every time I go to the gym, I see lots of guys with pretty good muscle definition and no body fat, but put some clothes on these guys and you would never know they set foot in a gym. They just plain look skinny. These guys just can't figure out why they can't ever put on some size. So what's the problem? CALORIES!

In order to gain muscle, you have to take in just slightly more calories that what you burn every day. Of course this also means that you might have to gain some fat in the process. If there were any other way the pros would never need to diet down before a contest. They would stay at competitive body fat percentages year round. So if you really want more size you will have to be willing to gain a little bit of extra fat. Note that I only said a little bit! So how do we gain this mass and not come out looking fat?

Simple, it's like walking up stairs. You have to gain mass in steps. Put on some mass and gain a little fat in the process, then diet down and lose the fat that was collected in the process. Then repeat!

Here is how it done

First we need to find a starting point. So you need to know how many calories it takes you individually to maintain your body weight. While it is a very complicated process to accurately determine this amount, you can easily estimate it. I have found that most of use that seriously lift weights can maintain our body weight by consuming about 18 calories per pound of body weight, per day. So, let's say you're a 200 lb. man and want to maintain your weight (200 x 18 = 3600 cal/d). Now is 3600 cal/d going to be written in stone for everyone? Of course not! We all have different needs, so this amount may vary. But we ARE going to use this figure as a starting point, so remember 3600 cal/d.

Next we need to add some calories so we can start gaining weight and gaining muscle. But how much? Well, we know it takes about 3500 calories to gain one pound, so we can assume now that we need to add at least 500 calories per day to our diet. So our 200 lb. man now theoretically needs 4100 calories per day to gain at least 1 pound per week.

Look out for Part 2, where we look at the other important aspects of gaining size and muscle.

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