Daily calorie requirement

[kingfish]

Hey all,

The bulking diet is coming along (man, is this a lot of work) and I'm being really good about keeping it clean. My question is how you determine your daily calorie requirement to support muscle growth. If a cutting diet is based on your daily maintenance calories minus 500 (to lose 1lb a week) then would a bulking diet be based on the same number plus 500? I've read threads where guys say to take in 4000 to 5000 calories daily which sounds like a huge amount to me. My maintenance calories number is 3000 - where should my daily intake be at? Is it more important to get in the proper amount of daily protein instead of getting in all the calories?

[kingfish]

...bump...

Any input from the forum gurus? I don't want to resort to high-sugar weight gain shakes if I'm supposed to be up at 4000+ calories.