Eating at maintenance, then upping cals

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Dilsie

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If I eat at maintenance calories for the 15's and 10's, then up my cals for the last 4 weeks, should I see significant gains?  Or should I just eat in a surplus the whole cycle?
 
Well, it depends on your goals. I did it the past cycle and managed to gain 12 lbs. Fausto did it - gained weight and got cut at the same time. It's probably not a bad idea for people who have bf% in the 10-15 range.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (colby2152 @ Dec. 29 2005,5:01)]Well, it depends on your goals.  I did it the past cycle and managed to gain 12 lbs.  Fausto did it - gained weight and got cut at the same time.  It's probably not a bad idea for people who have bf% in the 10-15 range.
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That describes me. I've done 3 bulking cycles, gained 30lbs, but wanna keep my waist from getting over 36". I fall in that 10-15% BF range, so I think that eating this way could be a welcome change of pace for me.

My question is: I've ate 4000-4200cals/day last cycle and gained 10 lbs. What should I eat for maintenance? Thanks for the help.
 
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (colby2152 @ Dec. 29 2005,6
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1)]Well, it depends on your goals.  I did it the past cycle and managed to gain 12 lbs.  Fausto did it - gained weight and got cut at the same time.  It's probably not a bad idea for people who have bf% in the 10-15 range.
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That sounds like a good idea.  I am around 10-12% bf, so I think I will just eat at maintenance for the first 4 weeks, then the next 4, I will up my calories by about 500. I am curious as to how this works though?
 
Same here. I am in the 10-12% boat, so gaining 12 lbs without having to eat bulk style for 8 weeks sounds good to me. What's the science behind this??

Oh, and don't mean to hijack, but should the macronutrients be around 30p/45c/25f ? That was the best I could gather from the HSN article.
 
Yes, you can eat at maintenance initially then up the cals during the heavier phases. That's okay if your bf isn't low already. 10-15% is a good bet to do that if you wish, since by the time you reach 15%, you should start cutting already, anyway.
I'm actually cutting right now, and I'm doing something like that myself as my BF is already 14.2%, measured via bioelectrical impedance analysis.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Oh, and don't mean to hijack, but should the macronutrients be around 30p/45c/25f ? That was the best I could gather from the HSN article.
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Yes, around that, more or less. Fat intake should be 25-30% to avoid lowering testosterone levels. As for the protein to carb ratio, for gaining mass, the ratio is around 15% protein and 85% carbs. But that isn't etched in stone as well, you can just as well eat 0.7 - 1.5 kg of protein per bodyweight, then 30% fat, then the rest of your calories from carbs, whatever that amount may be. And for cutting, eat more protein and less carbs, for the added benefit of getting a higher thermic effect of food.
 
Glad this question was raised b/c I have been confussed as hell on this for a while.

So pardon for the simple question.

So JV my question is

can you gain muscle at maintance if you are a veteran like me?

Can you gain muscle below maintenance in a deficit...I would think not???

Also now here is were i get confussed if you have a guy who is say 20% bodyfat then of coarse he does not want to bulk.

So he would cut down to desired %.

So my ? is someone like this who is still too heavy and wants to cut is basically not going to gain any muscle right?

I mean in order to put on muscle mass you have to be taking in more calories than you burn???

So theoretically somone who is in a calorie difficit is not going to add any muscle but will just burn fat?

This seems so simple yet hard?

B/c take myself for example been lifting 12 years. I am happy b/c i cut down to 8 or 9% bf this summer and I have basically maintained my weight within couple of pounds.

But I have been eating at just maintenace so that means for me the good news is I am still lean, however if I have been doing this and staying lean within say 3% change in bodyfat then that means I have basically been wasting my time as far as hypertrophy goes? Right?

I say this b/c I have not done a huge bulking cycle at all, I have just ate within moderation since summer?

Sorry for length..guys. :D
 
I believe you can still gain muscle if you are eating at a deficit (300 calories), but if you weren't getting enough protein then I would say no you couldn't gain muscle as there is nothing there to repair it.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]can you gain muscle at maintance if you are a veteran like me?
Can you gain muscle below maintenance in a deficit...I would think not???
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If clearly at a deficit, generally no, unless you have a high BF (really fat, beyond the upper limit of the healthy range, which for men is 20% BF), and the deficit is not so much.
At maintenance, possible, yes, but very slowly - and depending on a lot of other factors like activity level aside from weightlifting, stress, bodyfat level, etc. Naturally, if you have a high BF (like I mentioned earlier), then you obviously can gain muscle too in maintenace level since you can do so in a deficit.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]So my ? is someone like this who is still too heavy and wants to cut is basically not going to gain any muscle right?

I mean in order to put on muscle mass you have to be taking in more calories than you burn???

So theoretically somone who is in a calorie difficit is not going to add any muscle but will just burn fat?
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Well, answers to these are already above.

Going further however, in extreme situations, muscle mass will form even without a steady supply of AA or nutrition, as seen in synergistic ablation studies. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's the ideal way to train, or you can throw nutrition to the wind. Not at all. But in some extreme situations, muscle mass is gained even in the absence of generally required factors. As mentioned earlier, one of these extreme situations is when you have a very high BF.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]But I have been eating at just maintenace so that means for me the good news is I am still lean, however if I have been doing this and staying lean within say 3% change in bodyfat then that means I have basically been wasting my time as far as hypertrophy goes? Right?
I say this b/c I have not done a huge bulking cycle at all, I have just ate within moderation since summer?
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If eating in moderation means not eating too much beyond your maintenance, then you probably aren't wasting your time. What does your caliper and weighing scale tell you? Did you simply lose/gain a little weight and bodyfat (the 3% you mentioned)? Or did you gain a little muscle too?

Even if you just tried eating at maintenance, you probably are going a little over it, small enough to stay lean, but enough to allow muscle to grow, even though slowly.
 
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