 Alright guys what is up? Today I'm going to talk to you about how I would structure my diet and how I would structure a client's diet to build muscle. Talking about total calories, talking about the breakdown of those calories into protein, carbs and fats, what the function of those three macronutrients are in the body, how much I believe each person needs as to what their body weight is and what their body fat percentage is and you combine that with progressive overload in the gym which is a topic I've covered in a previous video called how to build muscle, a complete beginners guide. I go over progressive overload really in depth and what that means. Basically it means using more weight in the gym over time to build the muscle. You do that combined with what I'm about to tell you around structuring your diet and you're going to be in a really great position to build muscle. So let's get into it. Alright so first of all we're going to talk about total calories. Now just like in losing weight you're going to want to be taking in less calories than you burn so your body uses body fat for fuel. When you're trying to gain weight or gain muscle you're going to want to be taking in more calories than you burn. So as far as how many more calories that you burn let's say you decide that you're or you find out that your base metabolic rate which is how many calories you burn on a particular day without any exercise is 2,500 calories a day right? If we're talking numbers take in an extra 500 calories per day every day of the week. At the end of the week you're going to have taken in an extra 3,500 calories right? They say that 3,500 calories if you're going to talk about that as like a fat mass that is worth half a kg of fat so basically a pound of fat. So let's say you were in a 500 calorie surplus every single day for that week at the end of the week effectively you should have put on half kg. Now if we're talking about how fast you can gain muscle in the early years yes you can gain muscle extremely fast with steroids yes you can gain muscle extremely fast but after you've been training a couple of years and you're not taking any steroids or anything you're completely natural like I am. The gains will slow down and what you've got to realize is that if you start going into a surplus too too much or too far into a surplus you know five maybe a thousand calories a day the weight that you put on it's absolutely impossible that it's all going to be muscle and you know the art of bodybuilding and the art of building muscle is to put on quality lean muscle without the added body fat that happens when you have too much of a caloric surplus. So as far as numbers go I would say stick from around three to five hundred calories in a surplus every day as well as training in the gym and you're going to be putting on you know around you probably want to be sticking to around about half maybe a pound a week tops of that I can't tell you how much is going to be muscle and how much is going to be fat who knows everyone's different but obviously at the end of a bulk you know 12 16 20 weeks whatever you can see how much weight you've put on you can also see how much fat you've got and from that you can determine how much muscle you've put on so you know that's total calories from there we break total calories up into macro nutrients so we're going you know either protein carbs or fats I'm sure you've heard at least one of those if not all three so they all have a legitimate function in the body you need some protein some carbs and some fats in the body to build muscle you need it for bodily function like I said but as far as how much of each and the ratio that you use I'm about to tell you what I use and you know what I'd get my clients to use these are numbers that I've had experience with over the last five six years I've seen people get results with these numbers and you know I've read forum after forum after forum after study after study and these are the numbers that I've come to a conclusion with and the numbers I'm going to tell you so the first macro we're going to be talking about is protein now protein proteins the building blocks of muscle man you know you combine taking an inadequate protein amount with training a muscle group and it's going to grow as far as how much protein you need now many numbers have been thrown out there but what I like to stick to okay especially if I'm trying to build muscle I'm going to want to stick to one gram to one point two grams per pound of body weight now the weight that I'm going to use for this particular equation is going to be the weight that I want to get to so let's say I'm 200 pounds now I want to get to 220 pounds number that I'm going to use is 220 so I'm going to go 220 times 1 to 1.2 that's 220 to you know like 260 grams of protein so between 220 to 260 grams of protein is what I would be taking in now each gram of protein has four calories in it so let's say 250 for the video sake 250 by 4 is a thousand so you got 250 grams of protein which is worth a thousand calories okay that's the protein done now you've got fats okay fat is an essential nutrient to have in the body not only is it important for your hormonal function it's important for brain function it's also important to you know lubricate your body think of it as oil it really is it acts like it in the body and the joints and things as well as you know taking in your fish oil which is also just another form of fat it's going to put you in good stead to you know have a nice healthy body now as far as numbers go with fats once again lots of studies lots of forums experience etc so you know if I'm going to want to put on lean muscle with the least amount of body fat as possible the fat I'm going to want to keep to a minimum or keep to what I need for my body plus a little bit more so as far as what I believe people need once again we're going to be talking about you know if you're 200 pounds you want to be bulking up to 220 I believe you know to facilitate all of those functions that I just said you're going to want to be having from 0.3 to 0.5 grams of fat per pound of body weight so once again I'd be using that number you want to get to as the number to calculate your macros so we we're talking I want to get to 220 pounds 220 by 0.3 to 0.5 is going to be 66 grams to 110 right so 110 grams of fat is probably going to be on the high side I'd probably stick around the 0.4 mark I think that's pretty perfect to be honest so for me personally I'm 200 pounds I want to be bulking to 220 I'd be on 80 to 90 grams of fat a day and you know that would keep me satiated as well as not being too high that I'm putting in extra calories think about fat protein equals you know four calories per gram fat is a lot more condensed obviously a lot more atoms in there as you can see you know with these really really dense fucking fatty you know treat foods the calories are through the roof because of the such high fat contents each gram of fat actually has nine calories so you do need to be careful you know like I said don't put it too high around about that zero point four is perfect if you really want to push it I'd say zero point five will be max and if you really want to try and reduce the amount of extra body fat you're going to put on whilst bulking I'd say bring it back down to zero point three so that's protein in fact both of those nutrients have very very important functions in the body now we get to the fun part which is carbs everyone loves carbs don't they so it's all numbers from here guys so you've calculated how many calories you need to take in to make sure you're in a caloric surplus to put yourself in a good position to build muscle from there you calculate your protein amount calculate your fat amount so let's say you've got 2,000 more calories that you need to take in you've got your protein you've got your fats where else is it going to come from it's going to come from carbs so like protein and unlike fat carbs each gram of carbs is four calories total so if we're talking about you know let's say you do have 2,000 calories more to take in what's that that's 500 grams of carbs so for me on this particular bulk I would be having 250 grams of protein a day I'd be having 80 grams of fat a day and I'd be having 500 grams of carbs a day and that would put me in a fantastic position to build muscle I'm telling you so as far as function in the body carbohydrates are hugely important just like the other two nutrients everyone loves carbs right everyone loves carbs they taste fucking good obviously you've got your high sugar carbs your your more simple carbohydrates which gets absorbed by the bloodstream just like that from there you've also got your complex carbs so your things like wheatbeaks or rice or oats which get absorbed into the bloodstream a lot slower the blood sugar spike is a lot lower you're fuller for longer and you know there's no crash from that that sugar rush or that you know that spike in the blood sugar so as far as the type of carbs you're going to want to be taking in I would say go for your complex carbs maybe a little bit of sugar in there is fine all right I would probably put a limit on myself you know if I had the 500 grams of carbs I was going to have that day I'd say probably 20% of it could be sugar the rest needs to be from good fibrous wholesome whole grain sources so the function of carbs in the body it gives you the energy you need to build muscle you're gonna have to push yourself in the gym you're gonna have to really really fucking go for it you know once you step outside of the gym that's when the repair process starts all right so building muscle is you're literally tearing down the muscle fibers you're tearing those little muscle fibers that's the burn to build muscle you got to love the burn man there's no there's no way around it no pain no gain all right that once you get out of the gym the repair process starts the protein you take in is is going to be facilitating the repair process on those torn down muscles but what actually you know it's funny that the carbs you take in the carbs act like a shuttle service all right so what happens is you take the carbs in the pancreas releases insulin which then goes out grabs the carbohydrates and brings them into the muscle cells now it not only brings the carbohydrates into the muscle cells it brings all the other nutrients into so it helps bring the protein into the muscle cells and you know that's how the pancreas works it sends out little messages to go and grab the energy that you've brought into the body and break it down and use it for fuel so that's how I like to see it anyway if you've got any other way of explaining it please let me know but basically so the carbohydrates you take in not only is it going to push you into a caloric surplus it's going to help shuttle all the nutrients into the muscles that you need throughout the day it's going to give you the energy that you need throughout the day that's what carbs do man that's what carbs do so you've got your protein you've got your fats you've got your carbs you've got to be in a caloric surplus the final thing I'll touch on is timing so if we're going to be talking about meal timing I honestly don't think it matters main thing you're going to be worried about is pushing yourself hard as fuck when you need to in the gym so if that means you take in you know 200 of your 500 grams of carbs before you train and then the rest after well that's up to you you do need a good amount of carbs post-training like I said to be those messages to then shuttle the nutrients into the body so if I had 500 in a day I would most probably have around about 200 to 250 before I trained and then the rest of it after I trained as far as protein goes I would say split it up into you know four or five different meals throughout the day protein comes in all different sources you're going to be making another video on that it doesn't have to all be chicken and protein shakes but I would say split your protein up into four or five meals throughout the day so if I'm having 200 grams of protein or 250 grams in this case I'd be splitting it up into five 50 grand meals as well as the carbs so I hope I've covered everything my battery is just about to run out I feel like I've been talking for ages I hope you've got something from this subscribe for more there's a lot more videos coming I'm I'm really rolling with this so good luck guys have fun building some muscle and I'll see you in the next one peace