Disclaimer: First off, let me start by saying be careful what you wish for!
Yes, being “big” has it’s benefits, namely in terms of being able to scare small children fairly easily and getting complimentary looks of disgust by lots of females, but truth be told, it’s not the most fun in the world on a daily basis.
In fact, it can be downright uncomfortable carrying around significantly more body weight than your frame was designed to hold. Ask me how I know this!
Being hot and sweaty, out of breath all the time, having your lower back cramp up while walking, and struggling as you bend over to tie your shoes are all common occurrences as you push the limits of your body mass. But hey – you gotta take the good with the bad I guess!
Now that I’ve painted such a positive picture for you LOL, let me say a couple things:
1. Once your body gets used to the new weight, a lot of those side-effects will subside.
2. The threshold at which those conditions occur is different for everyone – for me it’s when I start getting into the high 230s. For my friend Jonathan, it’s around 270 lbs. Lucky bastard.
So how do we get big?
The quick, dirty, and incredibly profound answer that was shared with me by 12th generation Siberian monks, is………….by eating a crapload of good food and training your ass off.
Do you feel enlightened now? 
***We’re not even going to talk about the training part of things because you guys already know I think the DC Training System is one of the best ways to put on muscle as fast as possible. Click HERE to learn more if you’ve been living under a rock.***
So let’s talk about food. Truth be told, ideally the foods are pretty much the same as you’d eat when you’re dieting, except in larger amounts, at least in terms of carbs and proteins. Read this post if you haven’t yet on food selection.
One area I feel that is particularly important is adequate intake of “good” fats (yes, this is also important for fat loss, but it’s especially important for gaining muscle).
For gaining size, my favorite sources of these are oils (specifically flaxseed, Udo’s Choice, and extra-virgin olive oil), and nuts (cashews and almonds).
Why are fats so beneficial? Well in addition to their varied biological roles, how about just the amount of calories!? Remember from those high school science classes we learned that gram of fat has 9 kcal, while protein and carbs are about 4 kcal/g? That means fats are a great source of calories (which is especially important for “hard gainers”..i.e. people that don’t eat enough.)
Now the question everyone wants to know the answer to…
“How many calories should you be eating to gain muscle?” It’s tough (and inaccurate) to generalize, but I’d say a good rule of thumb to start off your efforts is 18-20x your bodyweight.
For a 200 lb individual, that equals 3600-4000 calories per day. Yeah I know…a 200-lb person might be 5% or 20% bodyfat and they’d likely have vastly different caloric requirements, but I really don’t want to get into that level of detail for this discussion.
Here’s a simple rule – try X number of calories and monitor your weight and bodyfat gain every couple weeks. Here’s a few potential scenarios:
1. If you’re moving at a pace you’re happy with and not gaining a significant amount of fat, stay there until things slow down, then increase your calories by 200-300/day. This plateau will happen eventually as you gain muscle because now your caloric requirements will be higher.
2. If you’re not gaining size, up the calories (see above)
3. If you find yourself gaining too much fat (assuming you’re eating the right foods) you’re eating too much and cut back by 200-300 per day.
It’s pretty simple actually. Use a combination of the scale, bodypart measurements, bodyfat percentage, and the mirror as feedback tools. You want to be right on the edge of gaining fat because that means you’re right at the limit of what your body can process for muscle growth. Once you start putting on a lot of adipose tissue, you’re eating too much and the excess is being stored as fat.
Oh and one last thing…when you actually DO get big, expect to be approached fairly frequently by guys that used to be as big and muscular as you “back in the day” without even going to the gym while eating pizza and drinking beer all the time. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!!!
Hope this was beneficial – as always, feel free to leave comments or questions below.
Tags: Bodybuilding / DC Training / Diet / Gaining muscle / Gaining size / Getting big / Mass diet / Muscle growth / Nutrition