Importance of diet for a high metabolism 17 year old

[Turnthemusicup]

I've never really paid attention to what i eat, im one of those guys who can literally eat as much as i want of anything that i want and gain absolutely no weight. But im wondering just how important eating right is to properly working out and getting the max muscles gain from it.

 

[Warboss Alex]

in your case diet is more important than for most. you'll have to eat a lot of food (20-25 cals per lb bodyweight and maybe even more depending on your activity levels) plus missing a meal will set you back badly.

be prepared to eat come hell or high water, and you'll get there.

 

[Turnthemusicup]

Seeing as how i play a little over 4 hours of basketball a day how many more calories would you add per pound?

 

[grr]

Four hours of basketball a day is somewhere between 1000-2200 extra Calories you're burning, depending on the intensity.

This shows you'll probably be burning around 1800 Calories:
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/spotlights/calories_per_hour_table.htm

(Note that this chart seems a little off, others I've seen say basketball is 500 Cal/hr. Its hard to imagine someone burning the same Calories walking for an hour. Maybe they're power-walking & playing lazy basketball or something. Basketball is a HIIT sport by nature so something is definately up with that chart.)

Four hours of basketball a day will make weight lifting gains almost impossible for the average male. Even if you only did it on your days off it would still be hard to make size gains. To simplify it just think about it like this: Your heart can only metabolize so much in one day.

 

[Turnthemusicup]

Hmm does burning calories = good exersize/muscle gain? What im trying to say is can i get in good shape just playing basketball assuming that i still do around 30 minutes with dumbells and a bench for my workout? Or does burning calories just run gas through my engine...

 

[Warboss Alex]

trying to add muscle while playing sports is very difficult. enjoy your basketball, and when you've had enough take up lifting.. if you just wanna work out for the fun of it though go ahead.

it's not so much the extra calories but four hours of basketball is far too much for your body to recover from in order to grow muscle. I'm a big advocate of cardio but basketball is too strenuous if adding mass is your goal.