By: Chris Gates

If you want to build muscle, you need to do a few things correctly.

1. You need to train smart, and train hard.
2. You need to recover from that training so that you can continue to train hard.
3. You need a nutrition plan that supports both what you’re doing in the gym, and your recovery outside of the gym.

Part of your training program should probably be to get in a calorie surplus and give your body all of the energy and materials it needs to actually build muscle.

But how big should your calorie surplus be to build muscle?

How many calories is too many? How little is potentially too little?

And what should the makeup of those calories be in order to see the best results?

You’re in luck. I’m going to answer all of those questions for you, and more, in this article!

Let’s start by outlining the key principles you need to be focused on in order to build muscle, and then we can move on to outlining a nutrition plan that works!

The 3 Key Principles to Build Muscle

While a lot of factors will come into play for you to build muscle, there are three key principles that you should focus on. If you can master these three, you’ll be able to make a ton of progress.

1. Train legitimately hard.
2. Prioritize your sleep.
3. Manage your nutrition appropriately.

While this article isn’t specifically about training, it’s important to cover this concept because without an adequate training stimulus you’ll struggle to build muscle.

A good rule of thumb is to train 10-20 hard sets for each muscle group that you want to grow, each week. “Hard sets” means you’re getting relatively close to failure (within 1-4 reps of true muscular failure).

I have a separate article on how to structure your training for muscle growth that you can read to learn more about the training stimulus principle.

Prioritizing recovery also plays a big role, because if you’re training hard enough to grow you also need to make sure you’re giving your body what it needs to actually repair itself and grow. Nutrition is part of that, and we’ll get to that in just a second.

But you should also be prioritizing your sleep, and making sure you’re in a routine that promotes adequate recovery on a daily and weekly basis.

With training and sleep dialed in, you can use nutrition to provide your body with the raw materials (protein, carbohydrates, and fat) it needs to repair and grow.

Calories and Building Muscle: What Matters Most?

To figure out how big your calorie surplus should be to build muscle, we should first address the fact that a calorie surplus simply makes the process easier.

But it isn’t always required.

There are numerous studies that have found people are able to gain muscle at maintenance and even in a calorie deficit. This is really important to understand.

Building muscle is, first and foremost, about signaling. Strength training is the stimulus that signals to your brain that muscle needs to be built. It basically goes like this…

1. You complete a challenging strength training session. Let’s say you trained your back…
2. Your brain recognizes how challenging the session was and tells the rest of your body, “we gotta build muscle back there so that it’s not so difficult next time!”
3. Your body gets to work and starts building muscle.

Repeating that process over, and over, and over again, for each muscle group, for months and years is what leads to considerable muscle gains.

By getting into a calorie surplus, you’re creating an environment that’s most conducive to building muscle. You’re basically making the process as efficient as possible, because your body has no shortage of nutrients to pull from to repair itself and grow.

But your calorie surplus doesn’t have to be absurd.

“Eat big to get big” is a commonly uttered phrase in gyms across the world, and it’s true.

To an extent.

You’ll get bigger if you eat more, but “bigger” could potentially include a whole hell of a lot of body fat if you’re too loose with your nutrition—too aggressive with your calorie surplus.

I’m guessing that’s not what you’re looking for, since this article is about building muscle mass, not fat mass.

So let’s answer: how big should my calorie surplus be to build muscle?

How Big Should My Calorie Surplus Be to Build Muscle?

I’d recommend you start somewhere in the range of 300-500 calories of a surplus, and here’s why.

If you start with a surplus of less than 300, it will just be too difficult to monitor your progress and make sure you’re in an effective surplus.

It all comes down to making noticeable change. Here’s what I mean…

• Are you able to add sets, reps, or weight to your exercises?
• Is your bodyweight on the scale going up?
• Are you getting a pump when you lift weights?
• Are you able to effectively stimulate the target muscle groups in each workout?
• How long does your soreness last from your workouts, and does it impair your ability to train?
• Are you feeling energized throughout the week, or have you started to feel fatigued?
• Are you noticing visible changes in the mirror?
• Are you adding inches to your waistline?

The answers to those questions can help you determine whether or not your surplus is appropriate, too small, or too big.

For example, as you train hard you increase the recovery demands for your body. Your body needs protein and calories to help it to recover, adapt, and grow between training sessions.

If you’re not eating enough, you may start to feel fatigued as you continue to train. You may have increased muscle soreness and see your performance decline, simply because you’re not eating enough.

But if you are eating enough, you’ll probably see your energy levels remain stable and your performance will gradually improve over time. You’ll also probably see some visible changes over time, and you’ll leave the gym with that full, pumped feeling in your muscles.

And if your surplus is too big, you’ll still see high levels of energy and training performance, but you’ll start to gain weight too quickly. You may even see that you start to add some inches to your waistline.

The best calorie surplus for building muscle is a moderate calorie surplus so that you can effectively train hard, build muscle, and minimize the amount of excess body fat you gain.

Some Final Things to Be Aware Of

The 300-500 calorie surplus is going to be effective for most people, but not everyone.

For example, if you’re a 5-foot tall, 100-pound woman, adding 500 calories to your diet may be a monumental task. So if that description sounds like you, try adding 10 percent more calories into your diet instead, and monitor your progress for a few weeks.

Additionally, you can use some general principles to set up your protein, carbohydrates, and fats to make the most out of your nutrition:

• Eat your height in protein. By that, I mean take your height in centimeters, and eat that many grams of protein a day, every day. (Ex: If you’re 170cm tall, eat 170g of protein.)
• Roughly 15-25% of your daily calories should come from fat if you’re male, and 20-30% if you’re female.
• The rest of your available calories after you set up your protein and fats can be allocated to carbohydrates.

And finally, here’s a quick checklist of things you can, and should, monitor on a daily and weekly basis to determine if your calorie surplus is big enough:

Question	Answer
Did you maintain, or increase, your training performance?	You want this answer to be “yes,” the majority of the time.
Did you stimulate the target muscle groups?	You want this answer to be “yes,” the majority of the time.
Did you get a pump from your workouts?	You want this answer to be “yes,” the majority of the time.
Were you still sore in any muscle groups from the previous time you trained them?	You want this answer to be “no,” the majority of the time.
Did you feel overly fatigued or lethargic outside of your training sessions?	You want this answer to be “no,” the majority of the time.
Did you experience rapid weight gain?	Ideally, this answer is “no.” Gaining more than 0.5-1 pounds a week, on average, is a sign your surplus may be too big.

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I hope you found this article helpful! If you’re interested in customized coaching to help you build muscle and get that physique you’ve always been looking for, I can help! I work with clients all over the world chase their fitness goals, and I’d love to help you chase yours.

Check out my coaching page to learn about how online coaching works, and if you’re interested you can submit a coaching application form and I’ll reach out to you!

Thanks for reading.

~ Chris