Lean bulking on a high carb diet

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MassarDv
MassarDv Posts: 76 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Will eating over maintenance say + 350 cals on lifting days and eating below maintenance say -250 cals on rest days will build muscle and also aid fat loss at modest rate?
Macros - Protien 25 % fat 25 % Carbs 50%

Has anybody used this strategy to stay lean while bulking after a 3month cut ?

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  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    edited April 2018
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    Building muscle whilst losing fat is recomposition, generally happening when you're eating at maintenance. Your calorie cycling may have this effect...

    If you're going to cycle calories, I'd probably calculate protein and fat in grams and keep these as consistent minimums every day.

    Are you trying to stay lean or get leaner?
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    What does that intake work out to be, would that put you in an overall surplus or maintenance? Your overall calories will be the biggest factor in terms of your results. The higher the calorie intake, the more you gain (muscle and fat).. the closer you are to maintenance the leaner you will stay.. but muscle building will be slower. So that can be a big drawback for some.

    Calorie cycling can be great for adherence and workout performance (especially in a deficit) but it offers no additional significant muscle building benefits as far as I know.

  • djeffreys10
    djeffreys10 Posts: 2,312 Member
    edited April 2018
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    I mean, I know a lot of people with much better bodies than me eat lower calories on non training days. This has just always seemed counter productive to me. Rest days are for recovery. Your body doesn't actually build muscle in the gym, it builds muscle while you are recovering from what you did in the gym. Seems logical to me that one would eat the same amount of calories to fuel recovery as you do to fuel the workout. That's what I have always done.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    Basically this is a 'maintain' strategy. I have not done this type of strategy but I understand that while on your calorie deficit days your protein synthesis is impaired and lower protein synthesis means less potential muscle growth so in this regard its counter productive. Basically the cycling only allows you use the days in a surplus to get a bit more out of your training and calorie deficit days to balance your weekly energy intake and prevent fat gain.

    Because you say you want to "aid in fat loss at a modest rate", you have more body fat to lose or its currently less than optimal to be bulking? If you are already fairly lean fat gain will be minimized if you were to stay in small surplus.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    for me, my high calorie days (3100ish) are rest/light workout/recovery days - let the glycogen in my cells restore etc, then hit it hard on slightly lower calorie days (2700-2900ish)

    i carb cycle - high days are 450g, low days are 350g (with higher fat on that day) - i'm maintaining/losing very slightly at this
  • MassarDv
    MassarDv Posts: 76 Member
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    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    Building muscle whilst losing fat is recomposition, generally happening when you're eating at maintenance. Your calorie cycling may have this effect...

    If you're going to cycle calories, I'd probably calculate protein and fat in grams and keep these as consistent minimums every day.

    Are you trying to stay lean or get leaner?

    Stay lean !
  • MassarDv
    MassarDv Posts: 76 Member
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    sardelsa wrote: »
    What does that intake work out to be, would that put you in an overall surplus or maintenance? Your overall calories will be the biggest factor in terms of your results. The higher the calorie intake, the more you gain (muscle and fat).. the closer you are to maintenance the leaner you will stay.. but muscle building will be slower. So that can be a big drawback for some.

    Calorie cycling can be great for adherence and workout performance (especially in a deficit) but it offers no additional significant muscle building benefits as far as I know.

    Overall weekly calorie surplus would be 0 .
  • MassarDv
    MassarDv Posts: 76 Member
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    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    Basically this is a 'maintain' strategy. I have not done this type of strategy but I understand that while on your calorie deficit days your protein synthesis is impaired and lower protein synthesis means less potential muscle growth so in this regard its counter productive. Basically the cycling only allows you use the days in a surplus to get a bit more out of your training and calorie deficit days to balance your weekly energy intake and prevent fat gain.

    Because you say you want to "aid in fat loss at a modest rate", you have more body fat to lose or its currently less than optimal to be bulking? If you are already fairly lean fat gain will be minimized if you were to stay in small surplus.

    Less than optimal for bulking . It’s someway between 15-16 percent
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    MassarDv wrote: »
    sardelsa wrote: »
    What does that intake work out to be, would that put you in an overall surplus or maintenance? Your overall calories will be the biggest factor in terms of your results. The higher the calorie intake, the more you gain (muscle and fat).. the closer you are to maintenance the leaner you will stay.. but muscle building will be slower. So that can be a big drawback for some.

    Calorie cycling can be great for adherence and workout performance (especially in a deficit) but it offers no additional significant muscle building benefits as far as I know.

    Overall weekly calorie surplus would be 0 .

    Ok so your goal is to maintain/recomp. I know in the other thread you mentioned lean bulking, in this case you won't be putting on weight overall but staying the same weight, getting a bit leaner and building a bit very slowly over time. Depending on your stats though, if you are too lean or your bodyfat% is lower, recomping can become less effective.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    OK so you just posted your bodyfat which is a bit high to start a bulk, recomp sounds like a good option for you
  • MassarDv
    MassarDv Posts: 76 Member
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    sardelsa wrote: »
    OK so you just posted your bodyfat which is a bit high to start a bulk, recomp sounds like a good option for you

    Thanks

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