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In the world of fitness and gym, every youth dreams of having a strong, muscular and attractive muscular body, for which one has to sweat for hours. But do you know that just lifting heavy weights and sweating for hours in the gym is not enough to build muscles, rather your real success depends on your kitchen and your diet? Fitness experts and nutritionists believe that if you want to increase body mass and develop strong muscles i.e. achieve muscle hypertrophy, then you have to understand the balance between your body’s energy consumption and the energy it gets from food. The concept of ‘Calorie Surplus’ plays the most important role in this process, without which increasing body size and building new muscles is considered almost impossible. Many people try to gain muscle by eating less or dieting without proper calculation and fail, so it is very important to know how many calories you should actually consume daily.
Calorie surplus simply means consuming more calories through food than you consume through physical activity and metabolism throughout the day. When you work out in the gym by lifting heavy weights, small strains and micro-tears occur in your muscle fibers, which require extra fuel for the body to heal, strengthen and increase in size. If you give your body less calories than it needs, then the body will generate energy by breaking down fat or muscles which will lead to weight loss, and on the contrary when you take surplus diet i.e. more calories than required, then the body will get enough raw material to recover those broken muscles and create new tissues. This is the reason why calorie surplus is considered the biggest and infallible rule in the ‘bulking phase’ of bodybuilding.
The first step before starting your muscle building journey is to calculate how much energy your body normally requires on a daily basis, which is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Scientific formulas are used to calculate BMR based on your age, gender, weight and height, which tells you how many calories your body needs to stay alive even if you lie in bed all day. After this, Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is calculated taking into account your daily physical activities (like walking, office work, household chores etc.) and level of gym workout. Suppose the total TTE (TDEE) of your body i.e. the total energy spent is 2500 calories, then it means that to increase weight and muscles you will have to start eating above this figure.
Now the biggest question that arises is how many calories should be kept in surplus as compared to your TDEE so that only lean muscle mass increases in the body and unnecessary body fat does not accumulate. Fitness science recommends that you should eat about 300 to 500 calories more than your maintenance calories per day, which is a safe and effective approach. For example, if your maintenance calorie is 2500, then you should consume around 2800 to 3000 calories daily, which will gradually and qualitatively increase your body weight and muscle size. Eating too many calories at once (which is called ‘dirty bulking’) causes fat to increase only on the stomach and face instead of muscles, which can spoil your fitness efforts, hence the rule of ‘Lean Bulking’ should always be followed.
Just eating more calories is not a guarantee of building muscles, but it is also important to pay close attention to what type of macronutrients those calories are coming from. Protein is the most important and essential component in the muscle building process, so you should consume adequate amount of lean proteins (like chicken, eggs, cheese, soybean, pulses and whey protein) according to your body weight so that new muscles can be formed rapidly. Apart from this, complex carbs provide ample energy to lift heavy weight during workout, which should be included in your diet in the form of rice, oats, sweet potatoes and roti. Also, for hormonal balance and smooth functioning of the body, good fats (like almonds, walnuts, desi ghee and olive oil) should also be made a part of your diet. With the right calorie surplus and disciplined workout routine, you can see a wonderful and muscular change in your body in just a few months.