by vgpedlr » Tue Jul 04, 2017 9:57 am
How does one figure it out?
Trial and error, leading to experience.
Because it all depends, on many factors.
Your size, fitness, the activity, duration, intensity, timing in relation to meals, goals, all play a role. You have to figure it for yourself based on your own individual needs. You can use the CRON-O-Meter to help estimate, or just use hunger as a guide and wing it.
To gain mass, you need a calorie excess to give the body energy to build new tissue. You also need the right training program to give the stimulus the body needs to build new muscle. The body can adapt to exercise in many ways, and building muscle is only one of them. You need a program with the right exercises, the right set/rep range, and an approbate load that provides enough stress, but also allows for recovery. This also takes some experience and trial and error to individualize a program, but there are general guidelines out there.