Strength Training vs Body Building Diet

Well I wouldn't say there's an actual difference in diet. Bulking just typically means eating at a surplus. Macros will "roughly" be the same since the bulker is usually trying to gain muscle mass. Just depends on what your goals are. What u should do first is determine your daily caloric burn then u can adjust from there. If u dont want to gain weight stay at maintenance. But to figure out your maintenance you'll have to determine your actual TDEE (Your daily caloric burn to get thru the day+your activity level burn) When I was going thru my strength program I would burn up to 600cals during my workout alone, so u need to account for those calories. If your gonna be constantly lifting at a deficit your strength is gonna suffer and stall. Keep in mind eventually the only way to increase strength is to increase mass. So depends on what ur ultimate goals are and how strong u wanna get, you'll know when you've hit the "wall".

There are plenty of online calculators that will help you estimate some initial numbers to get you going. I would monitor weight and make sure u are in fact staying at maintenance, if you find yourself losing weight then slowly up your cals by 100-200 a day until your maintaining. Recalibrate every few weeks. Good luck!

JordanLomb wrote: »

I've been researching this for a while, but what exactly is the difference if any between a Strength Training diet vs a Bulking diet? I'm trying to increase my strength and not necessarily looking for mass gains, and trying to figure out if I need to eat an excess of calories or eat to maintain for optimal results.

Here's my understanding but strength gaining does not necessarily mean bulking. When I look at bulking I think of gaining muscle mass. This does not necessarily correlate to strength, simply size. Therefore, bulking diets require a bit more calories. Strength diets are a bit more geared towards maintenance with minimal excess. Just my thoughts really, I could be way off...

I strength train and compete. I eat well balanced and extra protein, aminos etc. I don't know what body builders eat. But if you are looking to get stronger versus getting bigger, that's more about what happens int he gym than what you eat. Form and technique and building your muscles and body for strength rather than size, a totally different program than bodybuilders.

Almost all trainers recommend consuming 1.5-2 g/lb of protein for muscle gain. There are associated calories with this. Hence, competitive bodybuilders go through cutting and bulking cycles.

WeaponXI wrote: »

@dwolfe1985 There are different schools of thought regarding the whole fat and carbs, some say fat intake needs to be increased, while carbs need to be decreased, while others say it's the other way around. Both sides seem to have countless studies to back up their views. Which is right, I really don't know.

It's funny because I'm about to finish my MS and some days I feel like I don't know anything because when you really look into the details, we really don't everything 100% and by "we" I mean the academic community. There are so many studies that prove one thing and contradict another. I think if you look at the large body of evidence these are a couple good takeaways...

1. To build strength & hypertrophy you really need to be in a hyper-caloric state. Not to say that some muscle growth isn't possible in a hyper-caloric state but most academics agree that you need to be in a hyper-caloric state. Keep in-mind that many top academics are also strength & conditioning coaches, elite or at least advanced body builders and strength athletes as well.

2. Carbs fuel performance and many view carbs as an ergogenic aid (something that improves performance). How much do you need is up to the individual. Can some perform well without, definitely; but in-general carbs will help you perform better.

You'll have to play around with things and see what tends to work for you.

Don't eat in a surplus and you won't gain mass. So hit your standard macros and you should be set.