Muscle gain is built from three things: a small calorie surplus, enough protein, and a training load that rises week by week. Here's how much to eat, how fast to gain, and a 4-day training plan built for progress.
Step 1: what your body burns. Start from your TDEE — the calories that keep your weight steady — in the TDEE calculator. That's zero: eat exactly that, and your weight doesn't move.
Step 2: a small surplus. Add roughly 10%–15% above your TDEE. The calorie calculator and the Fitshare app add 12%, and at least 250 calories a day. A bigger surplus doesn't build muscle faster — your body builds muscle at a limited pace, and anything beyond that is stored mostly as fat.
A TDEE of 2,500 calories + 12% → 2,800 calories a day
Target pace: beginners 1%–1.5% of bodyweight a month, experienced 0.5%–1%
Step 3: protein. 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of bodyweight, the range where studies of strength training find most of the muscle-building benefit. The protein calculator suggests 1.8 — about 126 g a day at 70 kg. In a surplus there's no need to go to the top end.
The rest of your calories come from carbs and fats, however suits you. Carbs fuel your training, and when it's hard to eat enough, drinks and calorie-dense foods (nuts, tahini, oats, rice) help more than another meal.
A calorie surplus without the right training is just weight gain. What tells your body to build muscle is a load that keeps rising — more weight or more reps over time. Four principles:
An upper/lower split with more sets than a beginner plan: every muscle works twice a week, around 10–14 weekly sets per muscle. For example Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Suits people who've trained for at least a few months.
| Exercise | Sets × reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell bench press | 4 × 6–8 | 2–3 min |
| Chest-supported row | 4 × 8–10 | 2 min |
| Incline dumbbell press | 3 × 8–12 | 2 min |
| Lat pulldown | 3 × 10–12 | 1.5 min |
| Dumbbell lateral raise | 3 × 12–15 | 1 min |
| Triceps pushdown | 2 × 10–15 | 1 min |
| Exercise | Sets × reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell squat | 4 × 6–8 | 3 min |
| Romanian deadlift | 3 × 8–10 | 2 min |
| Leg press | 3 × 10–15 | 2 min |
| Machine leg curl | 3 × 10–15 | 1.5 min |
| Standing calf raise | 3 × 10–15 | 1 min |
| Exercise | Sets × reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Standing overhead press | 3 × 6–8 | 2–3 min |
| Pull-up (or assisted) | 4 × 6–10 | 2 min |
| Dumbbell bench press | 3 × 8–12 | 2 min |
| Seated cable row | 3 × 10–12 | 1.5 min |
| Dumbbell lateral raise | 3 × 12–15 | 1 min |
| Dumbbell curl | 3 × 10–15 | 1 min |
| Exercise | Sets × reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Deadlift | 3 × 4–6 | 3 min |
| Bulgarian split squat (per leg) | 3 × 8–10 | 2 min |
| Hip thrust | 3 × 8–12 | 2 min |
| Machine leg extension | 3 × 12–15 | 1 min |
| Seated leg curl | 3 × 10–15 | 1.5 min |
In Fitshare you log a workout in a sentence — “squat 4x8 at 80” — and get a chart for every exercise and a personal record flagged the moment you break it, alongside your calorie and protein target and weight trend. Just starting to train? The beginner gym workout plan is a better starting point.
Log your next workoutNot medical advice. These guidelines are for healthy adults. Under 18, with a medical condition, kidney disease or a history of disordered eating, plan your eating and training with a doctor or dietitian.
About 10%–15% above your TDEE, the calories that keep your weight steady. The Fitshare calorie calculator adds 12% and at least 250 calories a day: with a TDEE of 2,500, that's 2,800 calories. After two or three weeks, check your weight trend and adjust.
Beginners can gain roughly 1%–1.5% of bodyweight a month, and people who've trained for several years 0.5%–1% or less. Gaining faster almost always adds mostly fat. Meaningful muscle building is measured in months and years, not weeks.
A little fat almost always comes with a calorie surplus, and that's fine. What decides how much is the size of the surplus: a small surplus and a moderate rate of gain keep most of it as muscle. Beginners and people with extra fat can sometimes build muscle even at maintenance or in a small deficit.
No. What builds muscle is training with a rising load, enough calories and enough protein — and all of that can come from food. Protein powder is simply convenient food for people who struggle to reach their protein target. Before starting any supplement, check with a doctor or dietitian.
Both build muscle, as long as the set ends close to failure — about 1–3 reps in reserve. In practice 6 to 15 reps is the most comfortable range: below it the load is hard on your joints, above it sets get long and tiring. That's why the plan combines 6–8 on the heavy lifts with 10–15 on accessories.
Download Fitshare, log every workout in a sentence, and see in the chart whether your weights are rising. That's how progressive overload becomes a habit.
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