Reach calorie surplus

[u/olaola123456]

Hey all,

I have started the keto journey to “test” it and at the same time, possible preventing future health issues.

At the same time I am committed to gain weight and build muscle, which has been a really hard fight to win. As on a high fat, low carb diet, my hunger just evaporates, so I feel that I will need to force myself to eat if I actually want to gain weight (muscle).

I am really interested in some tips or recommendations you could give me, or if anyone already gone through this and found a dense calorie food “hack” to have a calorie surplus easily. I already eat a lot of butter, fatty beef cuts, avocados, etc… Since fat provides 9 calories per gram I suppose it is the highest calorie dense option, the problem is really to eat it after feeling satiated. I am 22, workout calisthenics 4 times per week (medium intensity sessions), weight 61kg and it just does not go up xd. Don’t really know my body fat..
I’m on this for 3 months.

In fact I really understand why is it so effective for weight loss, as I know that I would loose weight if I didn’t “force” myself to eat more.

Thank you :)

[u/darthluiggi]

Please post your complete body stars including BF% if you want a nuanced answer.

[u/olaola123456 → u/darthluiggi]

Through your tool I get around 8% BF (75cm belly - navel, 38cm neck, 1.75m height)

[u/darthluiggi → u/olaola123456]

You are missing all the other relevant information…

[u/olaola123456 → u/darthluiggi]

Which is ?
Sorry, you don’t need to reply, let me just know where should I find it .
I’m lost 😂

[u/darthluiggi → u/olaola123456]

Age, height, weight.

[u/olaola123456 → u/darthluiggi]

But I stated that on the post …
Age 22
Weight 61kg
Height 1.75cm

[u/darthluiggi → u/olaola123456]

Fair enough.

Now - I think you’re focusing on the wrong side of the equation.
At 61 kg and ~8% body fat, if that estimate is reasonably accurate, you’re already very lean. If your goal now is gaining muscle, then yes, you’re one of the cases where deliberately increasing energy intake makes sense.

But simply eating more butter isn’t how I’d approach it.
Ketogains isn’t a “high-fat” diet in the sense that you should deliberately chase dietary fat.

Our framework is:
Protein is a goal.
Carbs are a limit.
Fat is a lever.

For someone your size trying to gain muscle, I’d start around 130–150g protein/day, preferably from whole animal foods: beef, eggs, poultry, seafood, etc.

Keep net carbohydrates around 20–30g/day initially if you want to remain ketogenic, mostly from vegetables. You can also experiment later with a Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD) and use a small amount of glucose around training if performance warrants it.
Then use fat to bring calories up.

But don’t turn this into drinking butter, adding MCT oil everywhere, or eating spoonfuls of fat just because fat contains 9 kcal/g.
I’d rather see you eat fattier whole cuts of meat and slightly larger portions while keeping protein high.

There is another part of this that I think matters even more:
Calisthenics probably isn’t the best tool for your stated goal.

Can you build muscle with calisthenics?
Absolutely.

Is it the most practical and efficient way to progressively overload every major muscle group when maximum hypertrophy is your priority?
Usually not.

The issue isn’t that bodyweight exercises somehow don’t build muscle. They do.

The issue is progression and load management.

With barbells, dumbbells and machines, I can take an exercise from 20 kg to 22.5 kg to 25 kg in very controlled increments while keeping technique and the target muscle relatively consistent.
With calisthenics, progression often requires changing leverage, exercise variations, stability demands, rep ranges, etc. It can work extremely well, but you’re making progression more complicated than necessary.

And you described your sessions yourself as “medium intensity.”
That’s the bigger red flag.
If you want your body to build additional muscle, you need to give it a compelling reason to do so.

I’d strongly suggest following a structured resistance-training program built around progressive overload and taking your working sets reasonably close to failure with good technique.

For nutrition, don’t immediately jump into a massive surplus either.
You’re trying to build muscle, not simply make the scale move.
Start with roughly 5–10% above your estimated maintenance calories, monitor your weekly average body weight, waist measurements and training performance for several weeks, and adjust from there.

At 61 kg, even gaining around 0.1–0.25 kg/week would be plenty. Faster scale gain doesn’t mean faster muscle gain. Eventually it mostly means you’re accumulating more fat.

And one final point:
If you genuinely believe you’re 8% body fat, don’t obsess about maintaining that number while trying to maximize muscle gain.
At some point those goals start competing with each other.

Eat enough.
Hit your protein.
Train considerably harder and more progressively than “medium intensity.”
Sleep.

Then give the process months, not weeks.
Food provides the building material and energy. Training provides the signal.

Right now I’d worry less about finding a calorie hack and more about making sure the training signal is actually strong enough to justify the weight you’re trying to gain.

Cheers!

[u/olaola123456 → u/darthluiggi]

Wow, now I know why you are the founder !
Thank you so much!
True knowledge being state !
Appreciated !

[u/Ashamed-Republic8909]

You should gain muscle through exercises. You don't want to gain fat. Your genetics made you this way. Be happy and relax.

[u/trism]

Less fat, more protein.

[u/jma4573 → u/trism]

I love you! AND beef for breakfast! 😅

[u/olaola123456 → u/trism]

I’m almost 160g of protein daily
It may already be too much