It's great to see you understand that eating is as important as working out when building muscle. Also resting and sleeping is important for that: Not getting enough calories or sleep will completely cancel your muscle gains.

In fact, if you do just the following things correctly on a workout day, you should successfully see muscle gains sooner:

• Eat enough calories to give your body the resources to build muscle.

• Get enough sleep for your muscles to recover from workouts (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51106123_Sleep_and_muscle_recov...). To be safe, aim for the AASM and SRS recommendation for adults, which is 7 hours (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434546/).

• Complete all reps using proper form with heavier weights than your last workout.

Now, about the diet that you asked for, you may know the calories you should eat everyday as it will allow you to know the macronutrients you may take and the food that contain them.

On workout days, you have to eat enough calories to build new muscle. On non-workout days, you have to eat enough calories to avoid losing existing muscle. 

If you don’t reach your bodybuilding diet's daily calorie target, your body converts existing muscle and fat into energy. That means you lose the muscle (or at least part of it) you gained.

Your own daily calorie target is calculated from what's called your your basal metabolic rate (BMR). BMR is the amount of calories you burn just by being awake for a day; your body uses a lot of energy to perform its basic functions like pumping blood and powering the brain.

This means if you eat precisely your BMR’s worth of calories in a day, and you perform no physical activity (e.g. walking, running, weightlifting) to burn calories, you will get enough calories to prevent your body from breaking down your existing muscle.

A simple method to determine how many calories you consume is to weigh yourself at least three times a week and record what you eat using a calorie tracking app.

If your weight stays the same, the daily number of calories you eat is your maintenance calories — in other words, you’re not losing or gaining weight, but maintaining it.

During your bulking phase, it’s recommended to increase your calorie intake by 15%. For example, if your maintenance calories are 3,000 per day, you should eat 3,450 calories per day (3,000 x 0.15 = 450) during your bulking phase. As you gain weight in the bulking phase, you will need to adjust your calorie intake at least monthly to account for changes in your weight.

There is no special "bodybuilding diet." There's just common sense nutrition and daily calorie targets. As long as you hit your protein and calorie targets, you're fine.

Once you establish the number of calories you need, you can determine your macronutrient ratio, which is the ratio between your protein, carbohydrate and fat intake.

Unlike the difference in your calorie needs between the bulking and cutting phase, your macronutrient ratio does not change.

Protein and carbs contain four calories per gram, and fat contains nine.

It’s recommended to taket:

• 30–35% of your calories from protein
• 55–60% of your calories from carbs
• 15–20% of your calories from fat

For a 3,450 calories diet you may need 259-302 grams of Protein, 474-518 grams of Carbs and 58-77 grams of Fat. These are general guidelines, so its best to consult with a good dietitian, “not the one you had”, to determine your individual needs based on your goals to make sure your diet is nutritionally adequate.

Eating the right foods in the appropriate amounts provides your muscles with the nutrients they need to recover from workouts and grow bigger and stronger.

Conversely, consuming the wrong foods or not consuming enough of the right ones will leave you with subpar results.

Here are foods you should focus on and foods to limit or avoid.

Foods to focus on:

The foods you eat don’t need to differ between the bulking and cutting phase — usually, it’s the amounts that do.

Foods to eat include:

• Meats, poultry and fish: Sirloin steak, ground beef, pork tenderloin, venison, chicken breast, salmon, tilapia and cod.

• Dairy: Yogurt, cottage cheese, low-fat milk and cheese.

• Grains: Bread, cereal, crackers, oatmeal, quinoa, popcorn and rice.

• Fruits: Oranges, apples, bananas, grapes, pears, peaches, watermelon and berries.

• Starchy vegetables: Potatoes, corn, green peas, green lima beans and cassava.

• Vegetables: Broccoli, spinach, leafy salad greens, tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, asparagus, peppers and mushrooms.

• Seeds and nuts: Almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds and flax seeds.

• Beans and legumes: Chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans.

• Oils: Olive oil, flaxseed oil and avocado oil.

Foods to limit:

While you should include a variety of foods in your diet, there are some you should limit.

These include:

• Alcohol: Alcohol can negatively affect your ability to build muscle and lose fat, especially if you consume it in excess.

• Added sugars: These offer plenty of calories but few nutrients. Foods high in added sugars include candy, cookies, doughnuts, ice cream, cake and sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soda and sports drinks.

• Deep-fried foods: These may promote inflammation and — when consumed in excess — disease. Examples include fried fish, french fries, onion rings, chicken strips and cheese curds.

In addition to limiting these, you may also want to avoid certain foods before going to the gym that can slow digestion and cause stomach upset during your workout.

These include:

• High-fat foods: High-fat meats, buttery foods and heavy sauces or creams.

• High-fiber foods: Beans and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower.

• Carbonated beverages: Sparkling water or diet soda.

If, on a given day, you nail a workout but don’t eat enough calories, you risk gaining ZERO muscle mass by the next morning. (You may still gain strength.) 

As a personal tip, and in order to avoid that, you can try to plan the working out sessions in around two or three hours after one of the main meals so you won’t have that lack of energy you talked about in your post.

I would also be aware of the sleeping time and if you suspect you’ll be unable to eat or sleep enough on a workout day, reschedule the workout to a day where think you will. And, on the days before workout days, get a good night's sleep so you have enough energy to lift heavy weights by the next morning. Given the same duration of sleep, your performance in the gym is more affected by waking abnormally early than going to bed abnormally late (https://www.academia.edu/12714325/Effect_of_time_of_day_and_partial_slee...).

I think you should eat protein-heavy but you should not forget to eat regularly and pay attention to your sleep

+2 for asking the right questions. Your base starts with food and training, not drugs.

When I was trying to gain weight! I would cook a box of egg pasta every single morning and take it with me for the day and finish it along w/ my protrin sources! I packed on a lot of size like that! Box a day is cheap! When I was young with a faster metabolism it really worked well, but I could never do it now as I’m older and my metabolism is much slower.

You're young af. You should be able to grow fast. I'll help broski, but 1st, how long have you been lifting? If its only been 6 months, you still have at least 18 more to go. How many meals are you eating per day? With good eating you can see up to like 1-2 pounds per month. Just be sure to rest up during recovery periods and get enough sleep.

My question though, are you natural or enhanced? Because I ain't your daddy, but Imo juice works best on those over 25 who have built their foundation. You're 23 and talking about 6 months.

I am by no means an authority here but if I am trying to build I always go with 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight per day at a minimum.
Min reps 8 and when I reach 15 I add plates
Slow controlled reps with good form beats fast explosive ones and motivation..... if you want it bad enough you will work for it.

When I was your age my metabolism slowed down and this is how I went from scrawny to respectable.