Caloric maintenance or caloric surplus for muscle building?

mauridaher
mauridaher Posts: 55 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've been losing fat for a while now. I've definitely slimmed down, but I've also shrunk a bit on size overall, muscle wise. I stopped going to the gym, and focused on my cardio instead.

If I'm not wrong, what I've learned from Fitness 101 is that:

Burn fat/Calorie deficit
Gain muscle/Calorie surplus

Now my question is, wouldn't it make more sense to eat up to MAINTENANCE while lifting, thus keeping body fat at a steady level while constantly building muscle? Or do I really need to add a surplus?

I'm not quite there yet, but I want to know for when I reach my ideal weight. I realize this question may be stupid, and I'm sure there are logical reasons that I just don't know yet:) Thanks.

Replies

  • rejectuf
    rejectuf Posts: 487 Member
    Your extra mass has to come from somewhere. If you're burning all your calories, where's that muscle going to come from?

    Note that you can still build strength while on a cut or maintenance. And also realize that you may end up building some muscle on maintenance because it's essentially a guess. Your metabolism varies from day to day and 'maintenance' is just a guess at a number that will average out to no gain or loss.
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    It depends on your current bodyfat percentage and your training age. If your a very lean person, you'll have trouble building muscle at maintenance or below. If you bf% is higher, you MIGHT be able to build at maintenance or below. IF you have been training for a while then your rate of gain will be much slower than someone who is new to weight training or has been training improperly/lacking intensity etc. In summary, it depends

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