Jay Cutler enjoying ice cream after winning the 2006 Mr. Olympia / Greg Merritt © The Barbell

Calories are crucial components of bodybuilding and fitness. They drive energy, power, and endurance as well as muscle additions and fat subtractions. You might think you can see them or taste them. There they are, congregating in great numbers, in that cheesecake or lasagna or ice cream sundae. But they’re not physical things. Calories remain mysterious to most of us. Let’s solve the mysteries of bodybuilding and calories, and explain how to calculate calories for bodybuilding success, whether adding muscle or losing fat or both.

WHAT IS A CALORIE?

A CALORIE is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius. It originated in an 1819 Paris lecture by chemical engineer Nicolas Clément. It’s a measurement of the energy needed to metabolize different foods.

WHERE ARE FOOD CALORIES?

They’re there—but in the way electricity, measured in watts, is powering the screen on which you’re reading this sentence. Food energy is measured in calories. So, a protein bar might contain 240 calories (units of energy), but within that bar they’ll be distributed differently: more than twice as much in the fat than in the protein and carbs.

Calories break down like this:

1 g. of fat — 9 calories

1 g. of alcohol — 7 calories

1 g. of carbohydrates — 4 calories

1 g. of protein — 4 calories

1 g. of fermentable fiber — 2 calories

ARE ALL CALORIES EQUAL?

calorie calculator for bodybuilding

Two clichés are in conflict here. In the one corner: “A calorie is a calorie.” In the other: “Not all calories are equal.” Leaving aside the health effects of white flour, processed sugar, saturated fat, and preservatives, there is no difference between calories in a Krispy Kreme jelly donut and the calories in romaine lettuce. They’re all units of food energy, to be burned or stored.

calorie calculator bodybuilding

That said, some foods, usually those that require more chewing—like whole grains, meats, and fibrous fruits and vegetables—use slightly more calories than others during digestion. Other foods, like coffee, chilis, and ginger, include ingredients that can boost the rate of caloric-burning slightly. So, the calories are always equal, but the foods may not be.

Which brings us to an important concept: calorie density. That one donut contains the same number of calories (340) as 42.5 cups of shredded lettuce! Or to, put a finer point on it, 7 oz. of roasted chicken breast and a cup of lettuce equals one delicious jelly donut. We love donuts, but it does illustrate that if you want to lose fat but not go hungry, low-caloric-density, fibrous foods are essential. Conversely, to gain weight, skip pre-meal salads and eat (and drink) more high-caloric-density foods. 

maintenance calorie calculator

BODYBUILDING CALORIE CALCULATOR

How many calories do you need to maintain your weight. This number depends on your age, size, and activity levels. Here’s a calculator. If you know your bodyfat percentage, switch to Katch-McArdle under settings.

We’ve decided against including such a calculator in this space, because we’re not the biggest fans of these one-number-fits-all calorie estimators. Here’s why. The more average you are—neither particularly muscular nor particularly lean—the better they work. The more diesel you are, the less accurate the calculator’s formula will be. It estimates your basal metabolic rate (BMR) from your height and weight without concern for muscle or fat, and, when at rest, muscle burns calories three times faster than fat does.

We believe you’ll get a more accurate daily calorie maintenance number by carefully tracking your calorie consumption, bodyweight, and body fat percentage for at least one week and ideally two.

There are several ways to track your body fat percentage. In a lab, these will include hydrostatic weighing, biomedical impedance, air displacement plethysmography, and 3-D body scans. But let’s focus on for ways to measure body fat at home. None of these will be as accurate as the aforementioned lab techniques, but we’re more focused on any significant changes in body fat over the two week period, not the most precise measurement. If these measurements stay the same or nearly the same over one week, you’ll known that your body fat is also the same and you can therefore state that your current calorie level is your maintenance level. If they don’t, then adjust your daily calorie intake until they do.

Skinfold Calipers

Skinfold calipers offer an inexpensive way to measure body fat. They’re relatively easy to use. These handheld tools pinch and measure the thickness of subcutaneous (under the skin) fat in multiple areas of the body, including the abdomen, thigh, and triceps.

Circumference Measurements

This is another inexpensive way to monitor body fat at home. Women should measure the neck (just below the voicebox), waist (at smallest area), hips/glutes (at greatest area). Men should measure the neck and waist. There are different equations for men and women to determine body fat. However, we’re interested in changes.

Body Fat Scales

Home body fat and weight scales send electrical currents to the body and measure the response. Because muscle and fat respond different to electrical currents, they use this difference to determine body fat. This is rarely accurate. But, for our purposes, that’s okay, because, again, we’re trying to determine your calorie maintenance level by looking for a one week period in which the numbers stay the same or nearly the same.

helmet strebl diet
Helmut Strebl: The Living Anatomy Chart

HOW MANY CALORIES TO GAIN OR LOSE A POUND?

Now that you have your calorie maintenance level, the big question is how additional or fewer calories do you need to gain or lose a pound. This depends on whether we’re talking about adding muscle or subtracting flab—and either way it’s more complicated than it’s usually stated. A pound of bodyfat contains roughly 3500 calories. So, most sources say, if you daily eat 500 fewer calories than your maintenance level, you’ll shed a pound per week (minus 3500 calories). But everyone’s BMR is different.

What’s more, a pound of muscle contains only approximately 700 calories. So, if you lose 3500 calories from fat and, simultaneously, lose just 10% that amount (350) from muscle, you’ll shed a pound of bad flesh but also a half-pound of great flesh. (This also explains why weight and strength can vanish rapidly during serious illnesses. If your body uses only muscle for energy, a mere 3500 calorie deficit will vaporize a whopping five pounds of muscle!)

bodybuilding calorie calculator

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work in reverse. An extra 100 calories per day won’t add a pound of muscle weekly (plus 700 calories). Instead, it takes approximately 2500-2800 calories to construct a pound of muscle, even though muscle only keeps around a quarter of those calories. This is because: Your body wants to store any excess calories in a fat reserve. That’s why you lift weights (to stimulate muscle growth) and suffer through cardio (to burn calories headed for fat reserves or already deposited there).

And that’s why these pound-per-week equations are ultimately much more complicated for those of us who want to add muscle and/or lose fat. You can’t just focus on calories, but you have to focus even more on macros: fat, carbs, and protein.

Here are macro the basics:

✷ dietary fat will not be converted to glucose (muscle fuel) or amino acids (muscle construction material);

carbohydrates will be converted to glucose but excesses will be stored as fat;

protein’s amino acids are muscle-makers, and, though excess amino acids can be converted to fatty acids and stored as fat, this is unlikely.

So, if you don’t care what kind of pound you lose, a deficit of 3500 on average (dependent on your BMR) will shed one pound and a surplus of 3500 will add a flabby pound. But if, like most of us, you care deeply what kind of pound is lost or gained, your diet’s macro nutrient balance will be more important to your success than a calorie count.

This depends on many factors, including whether you are trying to gain muscle or lose body fat, your current calorie consumption, your bodyweight, your body fat level, and your macros.          

They weigh their food and use a calorie guide to get the most accurate calculation for everything they eat. They record this and compute daily and weekly calorie consumption. But they also focus on macros.      

Determine your calorie maintenance level as explained above. Then increase that level by increasing your daily protein consumption.

Any such number depends on your goal as well as your calorie maintenance level and macros.

This depends on their goal, their bodyweight, their body fat level, and their macros.

40% protein, 40% carbohydrates, 20% fat.           

Again, this depends on that bodybuilder’s goal (gain muscle, lose fat, maintain shape), bodyweight, body fat percentage, and macros.

Some do. Some eat more. Most eat less. Ideal daily calorie totals are different for each individual.    

Yes. You don’t need to count calories. You can focus instead on consuming at least 1 gram of protein per gram of bodyweight.          

Perhaps, if you consumed almost nothing but protein, but we don’t recommend that. Generally, you need a calorie surplus to gain muscle.           

Yes. As with gaining muscle without counting calories, track your macros. Reduce your carbohydrates and saturated fat. Increase your cardio.