This will vary on a lot of factors such as activity levels, body type (ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph), genetics, age, sex etc.

The simplest method is to figure out your maintenance weight (the amount of food you can eat without gaining or losing weight), then add 250-500 calories to your daily intake for a week. For example – maintenance weight = 2500 calories. To gain weight I would recommend a caloric intake between2750 calories and 3000 calories. Measure your weight at the start and then after one week on this increased caloric update, as a rough guide it is realistic to gain about 1lb a week without much fat gain. If however, at the end of this week you still havent gained any weight then add another 250-500 calories a day the following week until you end up gaining weight.

My maintenance weight is roughly 3000 calories – the RDA for the “average population” is 2500 for men and 2000 for women. In my opinion the average man is lazy, doesn’t exercise and is overweight – disagree? Look around next time you go food shopping and you’ll see what I mean. Because I train frequently and I am an ectomorph with a high metabolism,  I have to eat a lot of food to bulk up – just see my last article.

EXAMPLE

So if I maintain at 3000 I will eat 3250-3500 calories for one week and measure my weight.

If I haven’t gained any weight, then I have to add another 250-500 calories to my diet – which now means i have to eat between 3750-4000 calories a day, that’s double of what the RDA for women is. So it’s seriously a lot of food! And if you STILL don’t gain, then keep on and on adding the calories in small steps week after week until you do gain. Most people who don’t build muscle or say the can never gain weight aren’t eating enough. I myself was one of those people – a “hardgainer”. I definitely didnt realise how much I had to eat in order to gain weight, i wen’t on a “see-food” diet and got a bit tubby, but didnt gain much muscle, now I know better and have gotten significant results despite my genetics and metabolism.

Next week I’ll be showing you a formula on how to calculate your metabolic needs and how many calories you are likely to need to gain weight. Until then why don’t you pop down and drop a comment on how much wieght you can gain in a week, how much is muscle and how much is fat. It’ll be interesting to see how much others can gain, see you in the comments section!

I’ve just come back from the 2010 NPA Bodybuilding Yorkshire show in Holmfirth. This is the first show I’ve seen and it blew my mind! From a 60 year old in the Masters class to an 18 year old in the Juniors these were amongst the best physiques I’ve ever seen, AND they are all natural and drug tested.

One of the reasons I went to the event is that I intend on competing in natural bodybuilding, and I’ve not kept this a secret. Some people that I know laugh openly and think I can’t do it. Others don’t understand my reasons, but my closest friends know how I can be, if I want something bad enough I’ll get it. Simple as.

The reason behind this post is that I will be competing naturally next year, no doubt about it. I want to record my progress as I work towards acheiving a competitive physique. I have several reasons for wanting to compete:

1) For myself – I’m naturally extremely skinny, when i first got my first set of dumbells I can remember one of my friends laughing and saying “Kirt lifting weights…narr I don’t see it happening!” there are also other examples but that’ll do for now!

2) I’m a qualified personal trainer – You wouldn’t take financial advise from a beggar, and you wouldn’t take fat loss advice of someone who is obese, so why would someone take muscle building advice off someone who’s skinny?! I have to lead by example so I need to build myself up and have a physical presence to get taken seriously.

3) The challenge – I’m lazy by nature and have been a slacker most my life, I need a challenge otherwise I get restless.

4) Women – yeah I know most people will reel off some reason like “I do it for my health” or “to keep fit”. But no, most guys like me wanna get hench for the ladies

I’m sure there are other reasons but I can’t think of them right now.

So the story so far: I’ve been training since I was 16 and gotten pretty much nowhere, my “normal weight” is 64-65kg at 5ft 11ins and 11-13% bodyfat. After passing my personal trainer course at 22 and doing a lot of research I began to bulk up. I went from 68kg to 82kg in 3 months, gaining 6.3kg muscle. Not a clean bulk by a long shot but it got the job done. Now I can no longer be called skinny. I’ve cut down to 74kg in about 10 weeks. I’ve got another months worth of fat loss, then I’m going on a 6 month clean bulk. I was amazed at my gains in my 3 month bulk, now that I have more experience in what works and doesnt work for me I know my next bulk will be greater and cleaner than my last. I’ll have double the time and twice the experience, I know that I will pack on enough muscle to compete in 2011. This post is the start of me recording my journey. When I finish my fat loss phase I’ll put some pictures up. And some more along the way until I finish my bulk. That’s it for now but I’ll be back!