mass gaining calorie question

im going to start bulking soon and i just wanted to make sure of something.
should i just eat as much as possible or just add 500 calories over my maintenance ?

try with 300-500 calories over maintainence and if your not gaining 1 lb.+ a week up it until you are.

Goals by end of 2009:
Bench 205
Squat 255 ATG
Squat Clean 185

"There is no elevator to success, you must take the stairs."

^^^ Agree.

To add to that, make sure your getting quality calories. Getting 500 extra calories a day is easy, for about a dollar you can go to McDonalds and get a double cheese and your set. Do that your whole bulking phase and you may see extra bulk but not the kind you want. Although gaining fat is inevitable, you will see much better results eating healthier foods such as whole grains a few hours before a workout for constant enery, fruits after a workout for quick insulin and equal parts carbs/protein after that, you will be much much better off. Hope this helps.

"Lifting is not a comfortable activity, so get out the
**** out of your comfort zone and lift some heavy ass weights!" - Alex Cassidy

As a general rule of thumb, your caloric intake should be about 15-20 times  your body weight. This will give you the overload that your body will need inorder to rebuild muscles bigger and stronger.

also, all calories are not made equal! you want to put on LEAN muscle mass...