Everybody knows that people get fat by eating too much. So telling you to eat more calories probably makes you worry that you are going to get fat. This will be the case if you were overeating and not doing anything, but by training you use a portion of the calories you overeat to fuel the workouts, and your muscles burn lots of calories in order to build themselves up.
Calories are nothing but a measurement for the amount of energy contained in each food. Using calories (commonly referred to as counting calories) is a good way for us to accurately keep check of what we are eating and what we need to eat
For instance if you’re BMR (standing for Basal Metabolic Rate: the amount of calories you burn each day normally) is 2000, then eating 2500 should be enough to fuel a 1 hour workout and support muscle growth.
Checking the scales and using a tape measure are the only ways to see how much you are growing and if you are eating enough. Don’t be fooled into thinking that every time the tape or scales move up that it is muscle, though. It can often be a mixture of muscle and fat. The idea is to keep the fat gains as low as possible by checking your body fat with callipers whilst keeping the muscle gains going good.
If you gain too much fat too quickly you need to eat less calories.
What you must not do is try to lose fat while you are trying to build muscle. It is easier to accept that you are going to put on some amount of fat whilst building muscle and remember that you can lose it later. Your main task is to just keep the muscles gains coming and keep the fat gains as low as possible. It’s a balancing act, but you can do it!