What does someone bulking actually log?
The same four things as anyone keeping a record: what the food was, how much of it, what it was cooked in, and where the figure came from. Eating at a surplus changes the volume, not the method. The days are bigger, so there are more items in them, and the items repeat more: the same breakfast, the same shake, the same rice and chicken, week after week.
Three things are the easiest to leave out of a dense day. Liquids, because a shake is easy to forget and easy to say, "400 ml of whole milk and 30 g of whey"; oils and nut butters, because they are how a day gets denser without getting heavier, and 10 g of olive oil is about 88 kcal (USDA FoodData Central, checked 15 September 2026); and second helpings, which are their own item rather than a vague upgrade of the first. A repeated meal is the shortest sentence of all: "same breakfast as yesterday". IZeat holds no saved recipe and no repeat button, so what happens is a read then a write: yesterday's breakfast is read from the record, and today's is logged from it.
Protein is the figure with a published reference behind it. The International Society of Sports Nutrition, in its 2017 position stand read on 17 September 2026, writes that "For building muscle mass and for maintaining muscle mass through a positive muscle protein balance, an overall daily protein intake in the range of 1.4-2.0 g protein/kg body weight/day (g/kg/d) is sufficient for most exercising individuals". That is a published range for healthy people who exercise, not a figure IZeat gives you; whether it fits you is a question for you, and for a doctor or registered dietitian if you want one.
What does the day show when the target is a surplus?
The same card, read the other way round. A target of 3 200 kcal and 150 g of protein makes the day's line say what is left of both: after breakfast and lunch, "1640 kcal remaining · 74g protein remaining". In a deficit that number is room; in a surplus it is work. IZeat does not know which you meant, and writes it the same way, because the record holds the target you chose and not the reason you chose it.
| What happens | What IZeat shows | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| A day below your surplus target | "820 kcal remaining", in the same words as any other day | Call it a failure, or a missed day |
| A day above it | "240 kcal over target", same type, same colour | Turn red, or congratulate you |
| A day with nothing recorded | A gap in the week, left out of the average | Reset a counter; there is none |
| Protein short with one meal left | The grams remaining, on every read of the day | Tell you what to eat, unless you ask the assistant |
| The scale moving | Nothing: IZeat records food, not weight | Estimate what the gain is made of |
Bottom line: the direction of the target is yours; the record reports the distance to it without an opinion.
The rest of the report behaves as it always does. Each meal carries its calories and macros with the source on each item; the card IZeat returns with the day, when interactive reports are enabled for the account, splits the day's energy into three shares at 4, 4 and 9 kcal per gram and shows each macro target as a bar; the week is an average per recorded day with the count of recorded days beside it. Nothing counts streaks, and a day you did not record is a gap rather than a zero. A day has six named meals, breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and evening, and a big day fills them with more items rather than more meals: a second helping or a late addition is added to the meal it belongs to, and the receipt shows that meal again in full.
IZeat is the calorie tracker inside ChatGPT, Claude or any other assistant. Tell the assistant you already use what you ate instead of searching for foods and entering them one by one. A bulking day, said across a Tuesday, looks like this.
- 07:10 — "Same breakfast as yesterday, plus a second banana." Yesterday's breakfast is read from the record, and today's is logged from it with the extra banana; the receipt shows the rows as recorded today.
- 10:00 — "A shake: 400 ml of whole milk, 30 g of whey — the label says 120 kcal per 30 g scoop — and a tablespoon of peanut butter." The label values are read back before they are recorded.
- 13:15 — "Lunch: 220 g of cooked rice, 200 g of chicken thigh, and about a tablespoon of oil in the pan."
- 16:30 — "How much is left?" A signed read gives the calories and the grams of each macro still to eat.
- 20:00 — "Dinner was the pasta bake, about a third of the dish, and two slices of bread." The assistant is asked what a third of the dish means in weight, or what went into it, before estimating.
- 22:00 — "200 g of Greek yoghurt and a handful of almonds, about 30 g."
Six sentences, one of them a question. The receipts name each item with its source, so the week can be read later: the rice and the chicken as reference values for the weights you gave, the whey from its label, the yoghurt from a reference value with the assumption it states, since plain and sweetened differ by about half, and the pasta bake as an estimate that states the share it assumed. If the third of the dish was optimistic, one sentence corrects it and the day total follows.
What it cannot tell you: IZeat records what went in. It does not weigh you, does not estimate what your body used, and cannot tell whether a kilogram gained is muscle or fat; the food, not weight article says why that side is missing. It sets no target, recommends no surplus, and judges no day. What it gives you is a record dense enough to read: what you actually ate on the days you trained, and what you actually ate on the days you did not.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions people type, each one sourced above.
How do you track calories when bulking?
The same way as at any target: say each meal to the assistant you already use, with weights where you have them, and the record holds it with the source on each item. What changes is the target, which sits above your maintenance rather than below, and the volume, since bigger days mean more items. Shakes, oils and second helpings are the ones people forget, and each is one short sentence.
What calorie surplus should I eat?
IZeat does not set that number, and this page does not either: a surplus is the gap you choose between what your body uses and what you eat, and the first side is not something a food record measures. Whatever figure you choose, IZeat stores it as your target from the day you name and shows the distance to it each day. If you want help choosing, that is a conversation for you, and a qualified professional if you want one.
How much protein for bulking?
A sports-nutrition position stand from 2017 gives 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg of body weight a day as sufficient for building and maintaining muscle in most healthy people who exercise. For an 80 kg person that arithmetic comes to about 112 to 160 g a day. It is a published range for a stated group, not a figure for you; IZeat stores the protein target you choose and shows the grams left each day.
Does IZeat work for gaining weight, not just losing?
Yes, and nothing in it assumes a direction. A target is a number you set, above or below your maintenance; the day shows what is left of it or by how much it was passed, in the same words either way. Nothing turns red, nothing congratulates a total, and no day is ranked against another. The record is the same; only the number you chose is different.
How do I log a second helping?
As an addition to the meal already recorded: "add another 200 g of the pasta to dinner". A day holds one meal of each of six types, breakfast to evening, so the second plate joins the dinner rather than opening a new one, and the receipt shows that dinner again in full with its new figures. If it was eaten hours later, record it under the evening instead.
How do I log a shake, a beer or anything else I drank?
Like any other item, by volume: "400 ml of whole milk", "two pints of lager", or with a label where there is one, in which case the declared figures are read back to you before the row is recorded. Drinks are easy to leave out of a dense day and among the easiest rows to get right, because the container states the amount.
Can IZeat tell me if I am gaining muscle or fat?
No. It records what you ate, with the source on each item, and compares it to the target you chose. It does not record body weight today, does not measure body composition, and does not estimate what your body used. What the gain is made of is not a question a food record can answer; the scale and, if you use them, other measurements are yours to read beside it.
What if I go over my surplus target?
The day says so in the same words it would use for a deficit: "240 kcal over target", in the same type and colour as "240 kcal remaining". There is no red, no message and no comparison with yesterday. Over and under are both facts about the distance to a number you picked, and what to do about either is yours to decide.