How many calories should you eat to build muscle?

"Eat 500 calories over maintenance" is the most repeated bulking advice on the internet, and for most experienced lifters it is too much.

Step 1: find maintenance

Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is the intake at which your weight holds steady. The TDEE calculator estimates it from the Mifflin–St Jeor equation and an activity factor — typically within ±10%.

Then make it yours: eat at the estimate for two to three weeks, weigh yourself every morning, and compare weekly averages. If the average does not move, that intake is your maintenance.

Step 2: pick a rate of gain

You can only build muscle so fast, and that speed falls with experience. Following Alan Aragon's guideline:

• Beginner: 1–1.5% of bodyweight per month
• Intermediate: 0.5–1% per month
• Advanced: 0.25–0.5% per month

For an 80 kg intermediate, that is 0.4–0.8 kg a month. Anything faster than that is mostly fat.

Step 3: convert to calories

Gained tissue in a bulk is a mix of muscle and fat. Using ~5,500 kcal per kg as a middle estimate, 0.6 kg a month is a surplus of roughly 110 kcal a day — far below the "+500" default. Beginners justify a little more; advanced lifters a little less. The bulking calculator does this arithmetic for you.

Step 4: adjust

• Gaining faster than target for two weeks → remove 100–150 kcal.
• Not gaining for two weeks → add 100–150 kcal.
• Waist growing quickly while lifts stall → the surplus is too big.

Can you build muscle at maintenance?

Yes — especially beginners, people returning after a break, and anyone with higher body fat. This "recomposition" is slower than a well-run bulk for lean, experienced lifters, but it is real. If you are unsure, track weight and waist: a stable weight with a shrinking waist and rising lifts is muscle being built.