Gaining muscle help

I'm 5'3, 123 lbs (gained from 110lbs for no reason).

I run 5km+weight train or I have soccer (competitive) 6 days a week.

I ate 1200 cals and I wasn't losing, so I figured it was starvation mode and everyone says at least 1800 cals

So I want to up my cals but gain as much in muscle as I can (and less fat) and I was wondering, can you gain muscle from carbs or only protein? How much weight training should I do to minimize fat storage and encourage my body to use the extra cals for muscle?

Thanks!

*bump*

no one? :(

You can only gain muscle by converting a surplus of energy.   It doesn't matter where the energy comes from.... all types of food contain energy.   1800 cals for you is still undereating by quite a long way... so you need much more than that.  As I've said in other posts...

"A very active person your age and with your stats needs about 2500- 2900 cals to be healthy.  You will gain weight initially as you come out of starvation but by how much and for how long you won't know until you try.   However, the alternative is an increasingly sickly existence of malnourishment and medical problems.  No alternative really"

Body-weight is a combination of muscle, fat, fluid and bone.  As you eat more, if you gain a little weight you will gain everything but bone.  You can't gain solely muscle.   If you find it difficult to eat more and if your fears of gaining mean you'd prefer to carry on starving then you should talk to your parents and also your doctor as soon as possible.

I plan on upping my calories by 300 cals every time my body stablizes and starts to loose again, so eventually I will get to above 2000 :) because for now, the 300 extra that I'm eating technically IS a surplus right?

Original Post by gi-jane:

You can only gain muscle by converting a surplus of energy.   It doesn't matter where the energy comes from.... all types of food contain energy.   

 That's only half true.  You do need a surplus of energy to gain muscle, although some of that surplus can come from losing fat -- it's just a much slower process.  However, if you're not feeding your body the amino acids that serve as building blocks to make the protein that muscle is made of, you won't gain muscle.  Period.  Which isn't to say you need a lot of protein to gain muscle, but you do need some.  And you also need to eat enough additional energy so that the protein you eat is used to build muscle instead of broken down for energy.

Original Post by jessiexo:

because for now, the 300 extra that I'm eating technically IS a surplus right?

If your body needs 2500-2900 calories all the extra 300 means is that you're undereating slightly less badly than you were before.   So no, that's not a surplus....  is any of this going in?

All the time you prevaricate and put off eating normally, you're not getting any healthier or stronger or building muscle.  Because you're young your body can withstand this kind of abuse short-term.  But longer-term (and probably not all that far away) you're going to have problems.   Do talk to someone about this and/or make an appointment to see a doctor.