Should You Intake More Calories When Weight Training?

Your intake of calories depends largely on your fitness goals. If you're using weight training as a way to maintain muscle, you may not need any extra calories. The same can often be said for weight loss. On the other hand, weight training to build muscle mass can require the addition of calories to your standard diet.

Calories

If you're looking to build muscle mass, you may need to increase your caloric intake by anywhere between 250 to 500 calories a day, notes physician nutrition specialist Melina Jampolis. It takes energy to build muscle, and your diet is one of the easiest ways to modify the amount of available energy. This means eating a little more each day can help you add about 1/2 lb. of muscle each week, which is the most you can expect to gain.

Caloric Need

While it may take an increase in calories to help build muscle, you still need to understand exactly how many calories your body needs each day to supplement the diet. This number is based on your gender, age, height, weight and level of physical activity. For women, your basal metabolic rate is equal to (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years) + 655. Men take (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years) + 66 to arrive at this number.

Activity Level

Once you have your basal metabolic rate, you figure in your activity level. Without exercise, multiply your BMR by 1.2 to determine your caloric need. If your workout includes one to three cardio activities a week, multiply BMR by 1.375. Multiply BMR by 1.55 for four to five cardio activities a week and 1.725 for six to seven. Anything above this amount, multiply by 1.9.

Caloric Surplus

Though you may need to increase your caloric intake to help your body build muscle, a fine line still exists between caloric balance and caloric surplus. When you take in more calories than your body uses each day, you're going to gain weight in the form of fat. If you find that your caloric intake is also causing you to gain fat, cut back on the calories in your diet. You may find that you only need to take in 250 more calories than normal to build muscle mass --- any more could result in fat.

Recommendation

Besides increasing your caloric intake slightly, make sure to select foods that provide you with both carbohydrates and protein. You should eat about 1/2 g of carbohydrate per pound of body weight. From there, balance this with a protein intake at a ratio of four to one, meaning for every 4 g of carbs, take in 1 g of protein.