This is probably a good time to reiterate that we claim no expertise as nutritionists or dieticians. These posts are based on a lay reading of readily available information, plus a spreadsheet. Math is, after all, the great equalizer.

Where did we come up with that number? Does a 13-year-old athlete weighing 130 pounds really need to eat 750,000+ extra calories to grow to a 17-year-old athlete weighing 175 pounds?

Basically, yeah.

Look at the chart below. Ike adds about 1 pound per month every month until the summer before his senior year. Each pound he adds increases his maintenance caloric needs by 20 calories per day, or 600 calories per 30-day month. By the time he adds 10 pounds, he needs to eat over 6,000 more calories per month just to maintain that weight.

The caloric surplus needed for GROWTH is calculated separately, and conservatively. He probably needs about 2,800 calories to gain a pound of muscle and about 3,500 calories to gain a pound of fat. So each pound added is calculated as requiring about 3,000 excess calories. Add it all up and Ike needs to add 764,520 calories to his current baseline diet over the next 1,400 days.

Bon appetit, Ike!