Q: Hi can you please help im 17, 5'9 and 189 lbs. Im looking to gain muscle with minimal fat but Im not sure how many calories to take in, every calorie calculator says different things so could you please tell me the amount of calories and how much of each macronutrient i need and also a meal plan would be very helpful thanks.

A: First off, give me a paragraph before I get to answering your question... You are in a little bit of a tough spot right now because at 5'9" and 189 lbs you are technically overweight and to gain muscle quickly you will have to gain new weight (and unavoidable also some new fat) which will make you even more overweight. Losing fat and weight is relatively easy when you are young but if you get to be 30 pounds or more more overweight and also older it will become harder and harder. At the same time, at only 17 years of age you may still be growing. If you end up growing to be 6 feet or taller, then you can afford to gain some weight. In any case, think carefully before deciding to gain more weight, especially if you've stopped growing in height. The alternative to aggressive muscle and weight gain is to stay at your present weight or even lose a few pounds while doing heavy whole-body weight training or sports -- this will let you gain some (not much, but some) new muscle while bring your weight down to healthier levels. And after that you could consider going on a more aggressive muscle and weight gain.

Assuming you decided that you want new muscle regardless of being overweight (if for example you need it for sports), then here what you'll need to do:

1) Learn what foods are good for you and what are not by reading http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/nutrition . Even when you are gaining weight you will want to eat only the healthy foods -- just a lot of them!

2) Pick a reasonable starting diet plan. All calculators are approximations. If you eat a lot already, start with something like http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/muscle-gain-diet-3300-calories . If you don't eat that much now, start with http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/muscle-gain-diet-2800-calories . The article I linked before will help you figure out how to customize these diet plans to your specific tastes, But that's the rough calorie range (2800-3300 daily) and macronutrients you should be looking for.

3) This is important, continuously monitor your weight by weighing yourself every few days on empty stomach in the morning and every time 3 weeks or more go by without any weight gain, then increase your daily calories by 300 or so. Anybody who is bulking up (gaining muscle and weight through eating and heavy weight training) will need to continuously increase calories like this in order to keep gaining. This is why the exact initial calories aren't that important -- in any case you will need to monitor your weight and adjust calories to keep yourself in track.

4) Do heavy whole-body weight training and/or resistance-oriented sports (American football, rugby, wrestling, etc) to make sure your body converts all those calories into muscle and not just new fat. Read http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/weight-training if you are not very familiar with weight training -- that article will also have some sample programs you could follow.

Aim for weight gain of about 1 pound every 2 weeks. If you gain much faster than that you will simply be adding a lot of new fat. Our bodies can only build muscle so fast, so 1 pound of new weight every 2 weeks is about the right pace for young guys like yourself.

And again, before you start gaining, think about whether you really need the new mass now considering you are overweight already. Especially if you are no longer growing in height. Good luck!