Answer: If you wanted to gain one pound of body fat, you would have to consume 3500 calories more than you burned in any timeframe. But your question is probably referring to gaining a pound of muscle, not fat. The interesting thing is that when people gain fat weight, they also gain lean body mass (LBM) even if they don’t exercise. Due to the added load and stress upon the body of carrying around more weight, small amounts of muscle, bone, etc., will be added (usually one-quarter LBM to three-quarters fat). Therefore, we often use the formula of 3000 calories per pound for weight gain. Muscle weight is primarily water and its dry weight (protein) contains four calories per gram vs. the nine calories per gram fat holds, thus muscle can yield about 800 calories per pound when including the water weight. When we project muscle gain within any goal we make calorie adjustments based on these numbers. To ensure muscle gain, the appropriate stimulus of exercise is needed, followed by sufficient calories and nutrients to take advantage of the workouts. There are other fine-tuning measures that can be utilized to ensure that muscle building occurs at its greatest possible rate. See Xtreme Muscle Stack: Creating the Perfect Anabolic Storm for more information on how to maximize your rate of muscle gain.