The calories that your body is using for energy should basically be exceeded by your intake of calories if you want to add muscle mass. To repair and build muscles, your body uses the caloric surplus. That surplus should come from proteins so that it will not be converted into stored fat. If you are serious about bulking up those muscles you need to take in 1.8 grams of protein for each kilo of body weight daily. By dividing your weight in pounds by 2.2 you can determine your weight in kilos. If you weigh 150 pounds, for instance, you would be weighing 68.18 kilos. The daily requirement for protein would then be 123 grams.
If your protein intake for each day is comprised of complete protein, you will be able to get all the nine essential amino acids needed by the body for muscle building. Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, cheese, yoghurt and milk are some of the animal sourced protein food that contain complete protein. Plant proteins are considered incomplete proteins. You can still come up with complete protein, though, if you combine legumes with whole grains in one meal. You need to supply your body with the nine essential amino acids which are tryptophan, threonine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine+cystine, phelylalanine+tyrosine, valine and histidine.
Complete protein is not necessarily just lean protein, though. Many complete proteins contain saturated fats. You should carefully recognize lean protein which contains just one to three grams of fat, or even less, per ounce. Among the complete proteins, your best choices would be coldwater fishes such as tuna, salmon and mackerel. Such fishes also have Omega-3 fatty acids which are healthy fats. Also considered lean protein are egg whites. Next to these are poultry like chicken and turkey, provided the skin is removed before cooking. For beef and pork, choose cuts with no visible fat or marbling.
It is easy to compute the amount of protein you need daily based on your body weight. It takes more effort to ensure that you get not only complete protein but, more importantly, healthy lean complete protein.
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