Gaining vs. Cutting

[navigator]

Hi All,

Often times, I read that in order to gain muscle, one must eat about 500-700 cal above maintenance; and in order to drop fat, one must eat about 500-700 cal less than maintenance. I also hear (read) a lot about how one has to "eat enough to gain muscle."

Honestly, though, during my last cycle, I didn’t eat much above or below maintenance, and I still gained some size muscle and dropped a tiny amount of fat (at least, it looks this happened). This makes me wonder: Imagine a lifter having some muscle and some fat (say, around 15%), who performs a HST cycle correctly and eats at maintenance throughout the cycle. Since we know that HST is stimulating muscle growth, doesn’t it make sense that this lifter will gain some new muscle at the expense of some fat stores? If so, wouldn’t it appear that this lifter gained a bit of muscle size while dropping some fat at the same time?

I have always heard that the body replenishes its fuel stores, even at the expense of fat if need be, resulting in the 'calories in versus calories out' relationship.

 

[Aaron_F]

When eating at maintenance, there is potential for you to gain some muscle and lose some fat, as you will potentially burn more fat off to supply additional energy to the muscle production.
But, its not the best way to achieve either goals.
So eating more is the best way to gain muscle
Eating less is the best way to lose fat
Eating maintenance can lose fat and gaiin muscle, but not as much as the other 2 options

 

[Calkid]

I did that for a cycle and absolutely nothing happened. No change in bodyweight, no change in measurements, no change in maxes. A complete waste of a cycle.

-Calkid