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Bulking Calorie Target Calculator

Enter your TDEE and target weekly weight gain to get your bulking calorie target.

How it is calculated

The target is your maintenance energy plus a surplus derived from the weekly gain you want. daily surplus = weekly gain × 3,500 ÷ 7 and target = TDEE + daily surplus. TDEE is in kcal per day and weekly gain is in pounds per week, with 3,500 kcal standing in for one pound of gained body mass. The weekly surplus shown is simply the daily surplus × 7. Because the unit is the pound, 0.5 means half a pound, about 0.23 kg. Inputs that make no sense show no result: a TDEE below 500 kcal, or a weekly gain of zero or less. The tool only adds energy: it does not split the gain into muscle and fat, set protein or macros, or judge whether the rate you chose is sensible. The 3,500 rule is an approximation and real weight change varies.

Worked example

A lifter with a TDEE of 2,800 kcal wants to gain 0.5 lb per week. Weekly surplus: 0.5 × 3,500 = 1,750 kcal. Daily surplus: 1,750 ÷ 7 = 250 kcal. Bulking target: 2,800 + 250 = 3,050 kcal/day. Over a week that is 1,750 kcal above maintenance. Aiming for 1 lb per week instead would double the surplus to 500 kcal and the target to 3,300 kcal/day.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering the weekly gain in kilograms; the field is in pounds, so 0.25 kg should be typed as about 0.55.
  • Typing the gain as a percentage of body weight; the tool needs an absolute number of pounds per week.
  • Entering your goal calories or your BMR instead of TDEE, which makes the target too low because activity is missing. A figure under 500 is rejected outright.
  • Entering 0 for the gain to see a maintenance number; a gain of zero shows no result, so just read your TDEE.
  • Expecting every surplus calorie to become muscle; a larger weekly gain mostly adds fat once the surplus is far above maintenance.

Sources

About this calculator

A bulking calorie target is your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) plus a deliberate calorie surplus, calculated to support a specific rate of weekly weight gain aimed at building muscle rather than just adding fat indiscriminately. The math relies on the commonly cited (if imprecise) approximation that roughly 3,500 kcal equals one pound of body mass gained or lost, so a target of, say, 0.5 lb per week translates to a daily surplus of about 250 kcal above TDEE (3,500 ÷ 7).

Strength athletes, bodybuilders, and physique-focused lifters use a calculated surplus rather than ‘eating big’ without a target because a surplus that's too aggressive tends to add a disproportionate amount of fat alongside muscle, while a surplus that's too small can leave insufficient energy available for muscle protein synthesis and recovery — most evidence-based coaching recommends a modest surplus (roughly 0.25-0.5% of bodyweight gained per week) precisely to keep the fat-to-muscle ratio of the gain favorable.

This calculator takes your TDEE and your target weekly weight-gain rate, and returns your daily bulking calorie target using the 3,500-kcal-per-pound approximation. Hall et al. (Lancet, 2011) showed that this static rule overstates long-run change, because energy expenditure adapts as weight changes, so over months real change is slower than this projection.

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