GAINERS, FEEDERS, AND ENCOURAGERS: Be familiar with the concept of Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)! It's very easy for your daily calorie burn to get WELL over 2k calories when you're big, even when sedentary. You may be shocked how much food you need to just break even! There are a variety of online calculators available that can be used to easily estimate your TDEE (tdeecalculator.net/), and give you an idea of how much food will be needed to achieve your goals. Remember: it takes 3,500 excess calories to gain a pound of fat, and that excess means over your ACTUAL energy burn rate, not just the "2,000 recommended calories" you see on food labels. If you get in at least 500 more calories than you actual TDEE every single day, you can see a pound of fat gained per week! 500 calories is pretty easy- but your gotta make sure you're getting enough to fully cancel out your daily burn. Also remember that TDEE calculators are just estimates, physical activity will vary from day to day, and food absorption isn't always perfect. Definitely a good idea to assume you need a bit more beyond that, to compensate. You gotta be consistent, too. One day of light eating can potentially cancel it several days of progress, depending on how aggressive your goals are.