4000 Calories A Day
Denisha Cerniglia
For most people, eating 4000 calories a day is well above what their body may need, but for bodybuilders or those trying to bulk and build muscle, or highly active endurance athletes, eating 4000 calories a day may be necessary to support activity and muscle growth.
In this guide to eating 4000 calories a day for gaining muscle, we will discuss who should eat 4000 calories a day, tips for how to eat 4000 calories a day, and a sample healthy 4000 calories a day meal plan for bulking, building muscle, or supporting endurance exercise.
To gain weight, the number of calories you consume needs to be higher than the calories you burn. When your calorie consumption is greater than the calories you burn, this is known as a calorie surplus.
However, whilst it may be too much for the average person, a 4000-calorie diet is fairly common for bodybuilders in the bulking phase who are trying to put on muscle mass while supporting training.
Determining whether you should follow a diet plan with such a high-calorie intake is considering your caloric expenditure and weight goals (gaining muscle or bulking, maintaining your weight, or losing weight).
TDEE refers to your total daily energy expenditure and is the total of four main sources of burning calories in a day: BMR, exercise, physical activity outside of planned workouts, and calories burned digesting food (called the thermic effect of food).
Of these factors, BMR generally constitutes the largest portion of your TDEE; however, if you are a bodybuilder spending numerous hours in the gym lifting heavy weights, your energy expenditure from exercise is also likely very high.
If you are trying to gain weight, the notion of following a 4000 calories-a-day meal plan may be enticing, but it can actually be hard to maintain such a high caloric intake for some people and keep up with training and feeling well.
Although most bodybuilding meal plans or bodybuilding diets for muscle gains focus on protein, if you are trying to eat 4000 calories a day, increasing the relative percentage of carbs can be helpful.
If you are seemingly eating 4000 calories a day but not gaining any weight, it is likely because you are still burning more calories than you are consuming, resulting in a calorie deficit. This could be possible if you are exercising at a very high intensity every day and have a high BMR.
Ari Howard is a staff writer at Psych Central. She began her journalism career by writing for local newspapers, nonprofit organizations, and online publications. Through these experiences, she discovered her main passion is writing on health and wellness topics. Ari is particularly interested in educating the public on anxiety, depression, grief, and PTSD.
Cathy Cassata is a freelance writer who specializes in stories about health, mental health, medical news, and inspirational people. She writes with empathy and accuracy and has a knack for connecting with readers in an insightful and engaging way. Cathy contributes regularly to Healthline and Verywell, and she has also been published in HuffPost. Read more of her work here, and connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Mark Zuckerberg has gone viral for his unusual eating habits. The internet entrepreneur and CEO of Meta has been busy with intense physical training and eating a whole lot of food in the process it seems.
To effectively build muscle, you need to be in a calorie surplus, meaning you eat more calories than you burn. You also need to up your protein intake. This supports protein synthesis or the building of new muscle.
How many calories you need to eat is highly individual and will depend on many factors, from your age and gender, to how intensely you train. That said, 4,000 calories a day could be considered extreme.
When you rely on nutrient-lacking calories, Ludlam-Raine says it can contribute to nutrient deficiencies, poor recovery, and inflammation, as well as long-term health problems, increasing your risk of conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
According to The Telegraph, while there are no specific guidelines for how many calories you can eat on a cheat day, it is advisable not to eat more than 150 percent of your regular calorie intake/limit (19).
Have you ever wondered what 4,000 calories a day would look like? Or better yet, have you ever considered what eating 4,000 calories a day would do to your body? For many people, this may seem like an impossible task. However, you would be surprised to learn that some people live most of their lives on a 4,000-calorie-a-day meal plan.
Your average daily calorie needs are determined by a variety of factors, including your age, gender, height, and level of daily physical activity. However, it is estimated that the average woman requires 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day to maintain their weight while the average man requires 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day as a norm (1).
Anyone who is looking to lose weight would need to reduce their energy intake by 500 to 1,000 calories a day, with the minimum number of calories to stay healthy being 1,200 calories for women and 1,500 for men (2).
It can be quite easy to reach 4,000 calories a day if you fill up on unhealthy fast foods as they are loaded with calories and fats. However, getting 4,000 calories a day for bulking through a healthy meal plan can be quite daunting.
While you will reach your required calorie intake for the day much quicker (and with less food), what you are eating is just empty calories with little or no nutrition. This will not help you achieve your body goals (if you are a bodybuilder) or it will make you lethargic on the field (if you are a sportsman/woman), affecting your performance.
You should always choose nutrient-rich foods as they are low in added sugar, sodium, simple carbohydrates, and unhealthy fats while being full of vitamins and minerals to help nourish and keep you healthy (3).
Add some nuts and seeds to your salads, top your rice with an egg, add an extra drizzle of oil to your salad, use some cheese in your meals, or make some soups with milk rather than water or broth (12).
As we have stated above, eating 4,000 calories a day from whole, unprocessed, or minimally processed foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins, can be challenging. While junk food would make the process much easier, this could lead to side effects, including (15):
They can lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, help prevent some types of cancer, lower the risk of eye and digestive problems, and positively affect your blood sugar (17).
Great examples include spinach, Swiss chard, kale, romaine lettuce, and collard green. Leafy greens are low in carbohydrates, sodium, and cholesterol but high in fiber, iron, magnesium, potassium, vitamins, and calcium (5).
Such as salmon, skinless chicken, turkey, bison, whole eggs, and lean cuts of beef, such as flank or sirloin steak. Protein is essential for a 4,000-calorie-a-day meal plan as it contributes to greater strength and muscle mass gains when combined with resistance exercise (6).
They are packed with nutrients such as protein, fiber, B vitamins, antioxidants, and trace minerals (iron, zinc, copper, and magnesium). Whole grains help reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer (18). Some examples include oats, brown rice, whole grain breads, whole wheat pastas, and quinoa.
Milk and other dairy products are fantastic sources of protein. They are also higher in calories than most plant-based options, which means they will help you reach your 4,000-calorie-a-day goal faster.
The only difference between a vegan meal plan and a normal meal plan is the source of protein. Vegans do not eat animal protein or products. This means that all meat, fish, milk, and dairy products are prohibited on the 4,000-calorie-a-day vegan meal plan.
As a vegan, your diet will consist of all the aforementioned factors of a balanced diet, with the exception of animal protein. You can also substitute dairy with plant-based milks such as oat milk, cashew milk, almond milk, and coconut milk. Look for plant-based milks that have added plant protein.
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If you are looking to add a couple of pounds, healthy and gradual weight gain allows you to add 1 to 2 pounds per week. As previously stated, this can easily be achieved through an increase of 300 to 500 calories to your everyday caloric intake (13).
Eating too much can lead to excess weight gain, which can further lead to obesity. Obesity has been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and breathing problems (16).
If you insist on a 4,000-calorie-a-day weight gain plan, then we must advise you to combine these meal plans for weight gain with a workout plan that supports muscle growth. This combination will allow you to eat as much as you want and keep your body from storing all these extra calories as fat in the body. Yes, you will gain weight, but it will be from muscle rather than fat.
Depending on your gender, hormonal makeup, genetics, and the intensity of your strength training/weightlifting workout (and some cardio), the 4,000-calorie-a-day bulking meal plan in combination with working out could lead to you gaining approximately 2.5 pounds of muscle per month (10).
Most women burn 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day and most men burn 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day, depending on factors such as age and activity level. To burn 1 pound of fat, you need to burn approximately 3,500 calories extra over the course of several days to one week (4).
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