Caloric requirement questions

S

slowgrower

New Member
So I had some quick questions regarding caloric requirements. We all know that there is a basal metabolic rate that is required to maintain the status quo in your body. We know that exercise increases this BMR requirement as a result of cardio, lifting, etc...

Experts have recommended 1g/lb protein a day or more.

1. Assuming a 200 lb man, if he meets his protein requirement of 1g/lb (or more), but doesn't increase his total caloric intake, will exercising increase his metabolic rate such that he slowly loses body fat while building muscle?

2a. Does the body require a certain amount of protein/nutrients ingested before exercising again in order to maximize the growth process?

2b. If the body does not get this amount, and exercise occurs again, will catabolism occur in the exercised muscle?

3. A man requires 3000 calories to maintain current weight. He exercises in such a way that his body requires 4000 calories a day to maintain current weight. He only eats 3600 calories. Assuming he meets his muscle's protein requirements, will he build muscle and lose fat at the same time?

4. A train leaves the Newark station heading east traveling at 45 mph... just kidding
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Yes or no questions are hard to come by especially regarding hypertrophy and diet. A TRAINED body will not build muscle while on a caloric deficit. The caloric deficit will signal the body that there is less energy then it requires and it will start a sort of protective mode to conserve energy. Building muscle is exactly the opposite of conserving energy. This, of course, is not always 100% true, specially in very overweight individuals, novice trainers and "assisted" lifters.
That being said, if you are a veteran, regular weighted, natural lifter, you will most certainly only grow lean muscle when there is caloric surplus and sufficient protein.
Using very specific diets such as cyclical or ketogenic, you MIGHT get a somewhat build muscle and burn fat result but it is not guaranteed and, in my opinion, the cost of all that trouble will not result in sufficient benefit. You are better of alternating bulking with cutting cycles. I also don't think that heavy bulking and heavying cutting are healthy or too advantageous, so I'd stick with slow-ish bulk and slow-ish cuts.
What is important is that you stick with what you are doing, be patient, heap rewards in the long run and slightly adjust things to what you like best and what your body responds to better.
 
slowgrower, the answers to your questions aren't cut and dry. Here are a few things to consider.

1) Insulin/carbs will effect how easily you are able to retain protein.
2) The more protein you eat, the greater the rate of protein oxidation. If you chronically eat more protein than you need your body will increase its capacity to metabolize it for fuel or simply break it down without impacting lean mass. The more protein you eat, the more carbs will be required to keep you from developing a protein-burning metabolism.
3) Exercise creates an anabolic environment that counteracts to some extent the catabolic effect of dieting.
4) Your body fat can supply you with at MOST 31 kcals per pound of fat per day. Exceed that and you are "shrinking" without accelerating fat loss.
 
Thank you for your responses... I posed these questions based on things I had read/heard during the 2008 Olympic games regarding Michael Phelps. I think NBC did a special on him that described him as eating maybe 9000 calories a day? (or something ridiculous like that). I know he trains like 8 hours a day and expends ridiculous amounts of energy, which makes me wonder if that's the reason for his muscular size/low body fat. A lot of that reminds me of an article that Berardi wrote a few years ago regarding G-Flux, do you know what I'm talking about?
 
Well, I know that NBC said that Phelps ate 1,200 calories per day. Later Phelps said on television that he never said that and in fact eats like everybody else and eats whatever he wants.

I have not read about g-flux.
 
Ahh, then I must be mistaken about the 9000 calories...

Here are 2 links (lengthy, depending on how fast you read) regarding G-flux...

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/g-flux.htm

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/members/showthread.php?t=6790

It talks basically about eating an excessive amount of calories (4000-6000 calories), then doing even more exercise on top of that to create a caloric deficit but because there is so much energy turnover, you end up building mass and losing body fat at the same time. It's quite interesting, but definitely not for the lifters who are limited by time...

I'm sorry, I probably did a horrible job of paraphrasing those links, please take a look at them if you're interested, he does a better job of explaining the methodology than I.
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Bryan Haycock said:
slowgrower, the answers to your questions aren't cut and dry. Here are a few things to consider.

4) Your body fat can supply you with at MOST 31 kcals per pound of fat per day. Exceed that and you are "shrinking" without accelerating fat loss.
Click to expand...

so is what you are saying Brian is e.g. i have 20lbs bodyfat, i can draw roughly 600 calories from that per day, so if i go below a 600 calorie deficit there is no addidtional fat loss. I say this as im in my 10 week cutting, ive benn dropping my calories 200 per day each time i dont lose more than .5lb in a week , im aiming for a max of 2lbs per week. However im currently at 2000 per day at 197lbs and just losing 2lbs per week. Is this too much deficit and am i wastimg away muscle.

Thanks
 
You have to consider additional effects of dieting, such as water retention. The larger the deficit, the more resistance will the body put up by producing starvation hormones. The fat loss may be "hidden" by these responses. When you create larger and larger deficits you will starve off more and more muscles also. Keeping the deficit within these 600 kcal your fat loss may be slow but the muscle retention effect is larger. A small deficit (~300-400 kcal below maintenance) over the duration of 3-4 months should do the trick (depending on your initial BF%). Remember that weight loss isn't purely 100% fat at any time.
 
Bryan Haycock said:
slowgrower, the answers to your questions aren't cut and dry. Here are a few things to consider.

4) Your body fat can supply you with at MOST 31 kcals per pound of fat per day. Exceed that and you are "shrinking" without accelerating fat loss.
Click to expand...

What does exactly mean?
 
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