This can depend. Primarily on how you respond to certain calorie ranges, carbohydrate gram levels, etc. In other words, there is no such thing as a iron clad "rule" for you.
You must find the area that works best for you in the muscle to fat tissue growth--ratio.
But I can provide (an example) area to work within, and where you would manipulate as you get feed back from your body as you move forward. You simply will have to "experiment", and keep working with it and sticking with it, to "potentially" find a sweet spot, if there is one in the first place.
Constructing a diet, with one "wanting a goal" isn't really that difficult in the numbers game particular to the person.
1. Establish your BASELINE calorie needs.
This means look here to obtain this information:
Nutrition 101
Delaware Consumer Health Information Services (Originally Posted by Wrangell)
You probably already know this, and have calculated this.
Start with a mild surplus then adjust as needed. Small surplus meaning something like 300 to 500 calories, if you are worried about fat accumulation, IMO, I would start out on the lower end, and THEN increase as necessary.
2. Set a protein intake around the "ballpark premise" of 1g per pound of body weight. Simply a figure "around" this mark. The .08, gets floated around, as does the 1g per pound of body weight, and above. Simply middle ground it, to about 1g, and you will be okay.
Remember not to go below .08 to 1g, at least IMO. If you're eating more carbohydrates and total calories, protein doesn't have to be as high--such as in a bulk/gain weight situation. IMO.
The lower your calories and carbohydrates go, the more protein you'll need, such as in a cut/or lose the fat situation. IMO. You actually need more protein while "losing weight" than you do while gaining, so keep this in mind, at least in my opinion.
3. Set carbohydrate intake appropriately, either low, moderate, or high.
Where this ends up, can depend on how you respond (whether dieting to lose to tissue or dieting to gain tissue).
This is a KEY AREA of weight gain....good and bad.
Here you could define very low as 20g to 50g, low as under 75-100g, and moderate 100-200g, and high would be anything over 200g per day.
For performance needs and weight gain, 200g or more per day is a good starting point, but could be extremely high for wanting to lose tissue. And, its one (in a diet to cut tissue), I would not consider. And, it is possible this gram range could be to high for you, in a bulk. Tweak and find, I say.
If you're looking to improve body composition and drop fat quicker, keeping carbohydrates under 100g per day is a good idea for most. The moderate approach is the balance point, still allowing improvements in body comp while not entirely sacrificing performance.
Tweaking this almighty macro nutrient is powerful, and find a range that works with you.
Simply, fill in the rest with good Fats.
Once you've established your calorie baseline, MT-Line, and surplus, protein and carbohydrate consumption, you simply fill in the rest with fats, and tweak you calorie and macro nutrients in accordance with the type of bodily response you "personally receive". If its not so good on the fat accumulation front (speaking in terms of just......dietary perimeters), you would then potentially look at two things: Your calorie intake and carbohydrate intake, and tweak one of these or both of these, and mediate the differences remaining in grams.
This is the most basic and most simple way I can put it for you.
Best wishes,
Chillen
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