Something that has worked well for me the past is multiplying your current lean body mass by certain percentages for carbs, proteins, and fat. For example, on the highest my bulking dies have gone in the past, I’ve taken my weight at the time and multiplied it by 2.0 for carbs, 1.2-1.4 for protein, and 0.3-0.5 for fat. This will give you a starting point to work with as far as where your diet should reach towards the end. The values you obtain will be total grams of macronutrients you should work towards eating each day (at the peak of your diet). Again, this method has worked for me in the past, but no one’s individual formula is perfect, and I can attest that even mine still needs some adjusting. But, that’s just all part of the learning process and the ability to truly understand why works best for YOUR body. So please take my suggestion as a grain of salt.

However, as addressed by GrowMore, this isn’t something I’d start out at. Say you acquire your baseline through the method Sam I Am explained, and then you do the math that I described to you. If there’s a large difference in values, I would add in the macronutrients progressively every few weeks. For example, you acquire your baseline then do the math with the numbers I gave you, and come to find out, the values are 1,000 calories more than what you currently eat. Well, add 500 calories of that at a time, preferably (in my opinion) in the form of carbs. I would begin this diet by changing your baseline calorie intake to what the protein and fat daily macronutrient values are from the calculations I gave you, and then slowly add in the extra carbohydrates. Each time your body reaches a plateau where you are no longer gaining quality mass after two weeks, implement the additional calories by adding more carbs and run that for another couple of weeks until you plateau again. Then, repeat this addition of carbs until you meet your max macronutrient values.

Referring back to my original statement, there are many bulking diets around for you to reference. I don’t want to say that some are better than others because this is entirely subjective to an individual’s body, goals, training methods, etc. This is just a formula that has worked for me in the past, but even today, I am running a different diet because I’m continuously learning what my body responds best to. Another great resource of information is a member here titled Makwa. Use the search bar and just search for “makwa diet,” and I’m sure you’ll find all sorts of forum topics. Best of luck to you and I hope this has helped in some way.
- CM