Dear Rippt,
1. "will 7000 calories for example lead to more muscular hypertrophy than 3000 calories, physiologically?"
All else being equal, 7,000 calories will provide a much greater anabolic bolus of food than 3,000 calories. 3,000 for some would be just 500 calories above maintenance. If 7,000 were maintenance, then the person would have to weigh around 700 lbs, which you and I know is impossible. For argument's sake, let's say that your system gets saturated at 3,000 calories per day. Taking any more than that just leads to fat storage. It won't be wise to take 7,000 calories then.
Traditional bulking methods tend to lean towards too much fat gain. You can bulk prudently to maximize muscle gain but minimise fat gain. The best way to do this? Work out your maintenance calories, then add 500 calories per day for a week. Weigh yourself at the end of the week. Shoot for a weight gain of about 2lbs per week. Any more than this and it's probably more fat than muscle that you're gaining. If you don't gain any weight, increase calories by 500 per day for the following week, then weigh yourself again. Repeat this process until you get a slow but steady gain in weight of 2lbs or so per week. Keep bulking until you've reached 15% bodyfat. When you do, diet down to a single digit before you start bulking again. When bulking, it is a good idea to include CLA as part of your EFA cocktail. 2-6gm a day of CLA is good medicine.
As for aerobics: any activity burns calories. Is this contraindicative to bulking? Maybe, but aerobics do not burn much calories to begin with. What about hormonal stressors due to aerobics? Let's not do a thousand wind sprints a day then, and we should be fine. We do know that exercise itself increases insulin sensitivity, and this is a good thing. If I were interested in gaining muscle weight, I'd focus on working out. If I really feel like aerobics, this would in the form of washing the car, doing some housework, walking the dog, taking a stroll, a summer frolick at the beach.... I wouldn't adovcate anything more intense than these.
For a natural, taking in anywhere between 4000-5000 calories is quite sufficient for gaining good muscle. This is assuming you get adequate rest and have a sound training program (e.g. HST). Taking 7,000 would just be too much. Then again, track your weight gain as I have suggested, and if you can only gain weight at 7,000 calories per day, so be it
Godspeed, and happy HSTing
