Heavy lifting without surplus

charlieaulert

Just wondering, if you're lifting heavy trying to bulk, but your not eating a surplus of calories, what happens? Will you become more shredded?

Wheelhouse15

charlieaulert wrote: »

Just wondering, if you're lifting heavy trying to bulk, but your not eating a surplus of calories, what happens? Will you become more shredded?

How will you bulk without a suprlus? That is like trying to drive without gas, you won't get very far. If you are eating at maintenance then you will recomp and if you are in a deficit you will lose fat and lean down but you will also lose some muscle and strength as you go.

psuLemon

Even if you recomp, you won't really add size. The amount of lean body mass (not just muscle) growth is extremely slow. So you can have some offsetting muscle gains with fat loss while recomping but you might have to give it a year or two or even more depending on your goals.

nordlead2005

If you are lifting heavy and eating in a deficit then you will lose weight and depending on how far along you are in training you may get stronger.

If everything goes well (eating well, lifting well), then the answer is you will become more shredded. You won't really add muscle mass though, but the loss of fat will make your muscles look bigger.

charlieaulert

nordlead2005 wrote: »

If you are lifting heavy and eating in a deficit then you will lose weight and depending on how far along you are in training you may get stronger.

If everything goes well (eating well, lifting well), then the answer is you will become more shredded. You won't really add muscle mass though, but the loss of fat will make your muscles look bigger.

Thanks, this is what I thought!

CasperNaegle

you won't bulk you will lose weight fat and muscle. Depending on where you are in your journey you can maintain muscle with a good high protein diet, but that's about it.

HamsterManV2

Basically you are saying eat at maintenance or slight deficit (i.e. not caloric surplus/ bulk). Assuming you keep on lifting and keep your protein intake high (.8g per lean body mass), you will lose very little muscle and mostly fat. Don't expect to increase your lifts if you are past novice strength levels however...