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- Bulking Season!
In today’s edition of the podcast/newsletter, we decided to shine some light on another frequent topic we will get in the office. It is a topic that usually comes up more and more as we near summer. It is the classic “My kid wants to put on weight, how should they do it?” question. We decided to share how the math works out so can make educated decisions on how to start the process and numbers to shoot for.
We begin by discussing the issue of building speed vs building mass. It is tricky to do both simultaneously. Obviously the more mass you have, the harder it is to move it quickly. However, we discuss how using speed or jumping metrics can be a good tool to monitor that the mass you are putting on is being put on safely and not potentially increasing injury risk. If your speed and/or jumping metrics begin declining significantly, this could be a sign you are putting on too much mass.
We then get in to how to calculate how many calories to consume in a day if your goal is to put on mass. To begin, you will calculate your RMR (resting metabolic rate). To do this, simply pull up a RMR calculator (link below) and plug in your height, weight, age, and sex and it will give you this number. You will then take this number and multiply it by an activity factor. Multiply your RMR by 1.55 if you are moderately active (exercise regularly such as 1 practice a day most days with lifting) or multiply it by 1.725 if you are highly active (multiple practices/trainings per day). This will give you what is referred to as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is the number of calories that if you consumed every day, we would not expect you to gain weight or lose weight. Just hold steady at your current weight.
Once you know your Total Daily Energy Expenditure number, add 10% to it and this will be a good number of calories to begin consuming if you are looking to add mass. The next number you will want to know is how much protein you should be eating. To get this number, simply take your body weight in pounds and convert it to kilograms (divide by 2.205). Then multiply this number by 1.6 or 1.7 and this will give you the total number of grams of protein to consume each day. You will then have a total number of calories for the day and total grams of protein for the day.
So if we take a hypothetical 15 year old boy that is 5’9” and 150 lbs and plays football, his RMR is 1,954 calories. He is moderately active meaning he has practice 4 days a week or so and lifts weights also about 4 days a week. His Total Daily Energy Expenditure is about 3,030 calories per day. If we add 10% to this, we come out to 3,333 calories per day to eat (I would round up to 3335 just for ease). I would then convert his weight to kilograms and multiply it by 1.7 to come out to 115 grams of protein per day. He would be shooting to eat 3,335 calories per day and 115 grams of protein each day in order to put on mass. I would try doing this for a few weeks, and if you are not seeing any mass gain (and you have been hitting your marks) then I would add 5% to the total calories. Ideally, the protein would be dosed throughout the day in 20-40 gram servings.
Simplified Takeaways…
We don’t believe in sacrificing speed/jumping ability in order to put on more mass. Monitor these metrics to be sure they are not significantly decreasing as you put on mass.
To add mass, first determine your Resting metabolic rate by using a calculator (link below).
Then multiply that number by an activity factor (1.55 if you are moderately active, or 1.725 if you are highly active).
Then add 10% to this number and that will give you the total calories to eat for the day.
Then figure out the total daily protein requirement by converting your weight to kilograms and multiplying by 1.6 or 1.7 and this will give you total grams of protein for the day.
Dose the protein throughout the day in 20-40 gram servings.
Further Reading…
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