Blog · 2 min · figures checked on 9 November 2026
Bulking: how many extra calories a day?
By Nicolas Papon, founder of Live For Fit ·
A surplus of 10 to 20% above your maintenance, about 200 to 300 kcal a day, to gain 0.25 to 0.5% of your body weight per week. More than that is mostly fat.
What the research says
Iraki, Fitschen, Espinar and Helms (2019) recommend a surplus of 10 to 20% and a gain of 0.25 to 0.5% of body weight per week, more cautious for advanced lifters.
A trial by Helms et al. (2023) compares a 5% and a 15% surplus: the bigger surplus mostly adds fat.
What Live For Fit does
At Live For Fit: The app works out your maintenance, adds this surplus and aims for a gain of 0.25 to 0.5% per week, lower if you are advanced.
At Live For Fit: Each week, it compares your real weight curve with the target and adjusts your calories, in steps of 125 kcal, never beyond 500.
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We publish Live For Fit. This information does not replace medical advice.