Slight surplus, or Advanced surplus... Which is best?

NaturalGainsRecned
NaturalGainsRecned Posts: 86 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
250, 500, 1,000? How many calories should you consume to build quality muscle and get stronger?

Replies

  • NaturalGainsRecned
    NaturalGainsRecned Posts: 86 Member
    jdog022 wrote: »
    Are all these threads you create questions you have or are you just interested in creating debates so that you can give your opinions? Serious question

    Just interested in hearing people’s opinions, and how they go about different topics. I’ve done nothing but encourage on my threads, people get bent outta shape when someone has a strong opinion about a certain subject.
  • NaturalGainsRecned
    NaturalGainsRecned Posts: 86 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Depends how much fat you want to gain at the same time.

    Exactly, I’m asking. How would you go about it? Just eat as much as possible and not worry about fat gain, or try an monitor it and gain weight and strength slowly?
  • jdog022
    jdog022 Posts: 693 Member
    edited February 2019
    NaturalGainsRecned wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Depends how much fat you want to gain at the same time.

    Exactly, I’m asking. How would you go about it? Just eat as much as possible and not worry about fat gain, or try an monitor it and gain weight and strength slowly?

    I eat +250 cals above maintenance with the goal of .5 ibs per week. +200 when I stall. The standard lean bulk
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    It depends on your goals, age, sex, how advanced you are, how close you are to your muscular potential etc.

    Some people like to take it really slow and keep fat gain at bay, some people want more size right away and are willing to accept more fat gain. I wouldn't recommend gaining too fast to the point where muscle gain becomes so suboptimal and bodyfat becomes unhealthy of course.

    I am a female, beginner-intermediate and I like gaining 2lbs per month, so about 250cal surplus. It is a bit high but I've tried less and it was too slow for me. I only have a short time to bulk I need to get in as much as I can.

    I do find some people can be a little too scared of fat gain that they take the surplus so slow or they cut when they lose a hint of definition, I find they really set themselves back and don't get the results they want and spin their wheels. On the other hand there are people that gain way too fast, too much fat very little muscle, have a hard time getting back and also fall short. The key is finding that sweet spot.
  • Tammyrae99
    Tammyrae99 Posts: 29 Member
    Slight. It isn't a race and that cardio is gonna kill u when it's time to cut
  • magnusthenerd
    magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
    A calorie surplus seems facilitative of gaining, not causative. I don't know of any study that shows there is any faster muscle gains from using a 1,000 calorie / day surplus.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    First I would be concerned if a person was sensitive or resistant to training.

    I would flag what their body composition is currently as well as if they were geared.

    You might want to define "quality muscle" and "get stronger". There is a very wide range there.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Eric Helm's view is that diet is permissive and you can't force feed muscle growth, a bigger surplus relative to an individual's potential rate of adding muscle just adds more fat but doesn't add more muscle compared to a more modest surplus.

    With my age and length of time training to achieve "adding quality (?) muscle and get stronger" my surplus of choice would be zero. Another factor for me is that for my main sport being heavier is a performance disadvantage. 40 years ago it would have been a very different story when I could add muscle very quickly and easily, eat big to get big would have made sense then.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud7CnPJcK6U


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