First time counting calories

[soccer10stud]

Greetings all,

I finally have a bit of a lull between graduate school and working full time (with a prego wife, life is busy!) so I’m trying to get back into really good shape the next few months. I’m 27, around 16% BF, 5’11, 166 lbs. Calculators online say I should consume around 2300 cals on rest days and 2800 cals on workout days. My question is 1. Does this sound accurate for muscle gain? 2. Im having trouble getting up to 2800 on w/o days, I’m currently only taking 100% gold standard whey twice a day to supplement.. I just ordered ON serious MASS.. would taking this once a day be a clean way to help boost cals?


I do orange theory twice a week, it’s more or less HITT and I usually burn around 750 cals and I alternate push/pull weight lifting 3 times a week.. I guesstimate I probably burn around 200 cals each time. I’m a total noob when it comes to counting cals and such.. on the orange theory days I need to be getting around 3600 cals to keep the surplus? TIA for any answers, can post some pics later for any advice. I’ve always been a hard gainer and have never really watched my diet; though I’ve always maintained an active body through being in the military and working out.

[faithbrah]

i'm kinda confused... just eat 300-500 calories over your maintenance if you want to build muscle, doesn't matter if your maintenance is 2000 or 4000 calories

[soccer10stud]

I simply want to know if the numbers look right for my body type/size. I’ve never dieted or counted calories before, it just seems wrong to me as a noob.

[faithbrah]

well yeah they do, but you'll still have to experiment. eat what you believe is 300-500 calories over your maintenance for a week or two, see if your weight goes up. if it doesn't, up your calories a bit more etc