After a summer spent in tank tops and shorts, there comes a day when you put on the sweat pants and start bulking up. It's grow-time!

So, all you need to do is cram all the protein, carbs, and fats you can into your face, and work your ass off in the gym, right? If only that were the case! The challenge isn't putting on weight. It's putting on quality weight. And that takes thoughtful planning, focus, and daily execution.

Here's how to do it.

Getting adequate calories and protein to grow is the ultimate challenge! A quality gainer can be the game-changer that finally makes the scale go up.

Bulking Benefits Everyone
First, you don't have to be a bodybuilder preparing for a contest to want to add muscle. Whether you are young or old, man or woman, you can benefit at times from bulking.

Some women hesitate to add muscle because they think it will make them look "bulky" or they'll lose their figure. Done correctly, however, bulking can make you stronger, and leaner.

Adding more muscle becomes even more important as you age. Once you turn 30, you gradually start losing muscle mass, a process known as sarcopenia. With this muscle loss can come a decrease in strength, reduced ability to perform everyday functions, and a reduction in metabolic rate.[1]

Having more muscle will enhance your strength and performance, allow you to eat more calories just to maintain your weight, and enhance your physique after you diet by helping you to appear even leaner. If you use your muscles—and all of us do—then it's in your best interest to continue to add more muscle mass.

Performing a heavy deadlift
In a perfect world, 100 percent of the weight you gain during a bulking phase would be muscle. But we don't live in a perfect world. You'll gain fat mass, too, and the more years you've been training, the more fat you'll gain compared to muscle mass.

Some seasoned lifters may think this means it isn't worth it to bulk up. It is true that, in the short term, these lifters will gain both muscle and fat mass. But in the long term, and after multiple successful bulking, maintaining, and dieting phases, their net weight gain will be nearly 100-percent muscle.

When Is The Right Time To Bulk?
There are limits to how effective bulking can be. Your body builds muscle most efficiently when it's at its leanest. That's because you're far more insulin sensitive when you're carrying less body fat.[2]

Being insulin sensitive means that your body can more efficiently use glucose as an energy source instead of storing it in fat cells.

Men should strive to have less than 12 percent body fat before bulking. If you don't have access to reliable body composition testing, use the four-pack guideline as your deciding factor: If you can see at least four abs, you're lean enough to bulk.

If not, your best bet is to begin with a dieting phase, then transition into a bulking phase once you lean out. This will enhance insulin sensitivity and muscle-building efficiency when you transition to a bulking phase.

Barbell curl
Women, on the other hand, should consider bulking when they have less than 24-percent body fat. A good rule of thumb is that if you can see your top two abs, you're lean enough to start bulking.

Both "ab rules" are just guidelines. In general, you shouldn't even consider bulking if you feel like you're too heavy. If you can't see those abs, shed some pounds before you start trying to add muscle. For more information on how to prepare yourself for bulking, read "The Smart Way to Build a Fat-Loss Diet."

How Much Should I Eat When I'm Bulking
If you want to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume, and if you want to gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. It's that simple. But finding that perfect number of calories can take effort.

Step 1: Find out your daily calories needs. Begin by using this calculator to estimate your baseline calorie needs, also known as your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

After inputting some basic information about yourself, select "maintenance" under the "goal" section. Also, make sure you choose an appropriate "activity level." Be honest. You don't get bonus points for inflating your activity level.

If you do say you're more active than you are, you'll end up with a higher estimated daily calorie number and be more likely to add additional fat. So be honest with yourself about how active you are. If you want to consume more calories, slowly increase your activity level to one you can maintain.

The next step is to find your macros for maintenance. You can adjust these macros later to meet your specific goals, but first you need a solid foundation.

Step 2: Find out how much daily protein you need. Once you have your TDEE number from the calculator, decide how you're going to distribute those calories every day between the three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

A mixture of protein and vegetables
Let's say you're a 185-pound person who exercises for 90 minutes a day. Per the calculator, you'll need about 2,852 calories a day to maintain your weight. Set your daily protein goal at 1.0 gram of protein per pound of your body weight (not lean body weight). So, you'll need 185 grams of protein per day.

You then need to multiply this number by four to determine the number of calories you'll get by eating this much protein. If you weigh 185 pounds, you'll need to get 740 calories (185 times 4) every day from protein.

Calories Per Gram:

Protein: 4
Carbohydrates: 4
Fat: 9
Step 3: Find out how much daily carbohydrate you need. To determine how many grams of daily carbs you'll need, start by referring to the following list and selecting how long you train every day. If you train for 90 minutes a day, multiply your body weight times 1.5. At 185 pounds, you'll need 278 grams of carbs. If you train longer or shorter, adjust your carb intake accordingly.

Non-training day: 0.5 grams
Less than 45 minutes: 0.75 grams
45-75 minutes: 1.0-1.25 grams
90-120 minutes: 1.5-2.0 grams
120 or more minutes: 2.0 grams
Looking at the macronutrient chart, notice that you get 4 calories for every gram of carbohydrate too, so multiply the 278 grams times four, which equals 1,112 calories from carbs.

Step 4: Find out how much daily fat you need. To figure out your fat macro, first add together the calories you'll get from protein and carbs. So far our example has 740 calories from protein, and 1,112 from carbs for a total of 1,852 calories.

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