Is muscle gain based purely on protein intake and not calorie surplus? Please explain to me how this isn't the case.1. Work out2. Eat enough protein but be at 500 calorie deficit3. Body takes 500 calories from body fat reserves to maintain homeostasis4. Muscle volume increases and body fat is reducedUnless you are at 0% body fat, you will always have enough calories to burn and be at a surplus it is just in the form of body fat instead of food
>>74122400that's not how it works, your body will never burn JUST fat. Even if your diet is completely optimized, some percentage of the energy your body gets is by cannibalizing muscles, even if it's just a small amount.
No, you need>stimulus lifting>materialsprotein>laborenergy i.e. caloric surplusall 3 or no gains
caloric surplus = gain % bodyfat and % muscle, exercise will increase muscle% caloric deficit = lose body% and %muscle, exercise and protein intake maintain muscle%this is why people bulk and cut, and use extra protein powder on cuts because its the lowest calories for the amount of protein you can getand on a bulk, extra calories will also fuel your workouts and increase performancethis board died the moment people quit pointing newfags to the sticky
>>74122400your body needs ATP to grow muscles, so you need to be in a state of excess energy to effectively grow. you will still grow a tiny bit in a deficit, providing you have enough protein and carbohydrate etc to facilitate the process, but "bulking" will always be better
>>74122400>1. Work out>2. Eat enough protein but be at 500 calorie deficit>3. Body takes 500 calories from body fat reserves to maintain homeostasis>4. Muscle volume increases and body fat is reducedThis is accurate but it only works if you are a dyel and have excess body fat, you can't always use your body fat to continue to build muscle because there's a bare minimum of bodyfat needed to fuild your body with the energy necessary to even function so the lower your body fat the less energy you will have to function and workout, much less build more muscles, ideally you want to ve around 9-15% bodyfat.What you described is called body recomposition where you burn 1lbs of fat amd build 1lbs of muscle, is only possible if you have say 20% bodyfat, they you have that extra 5% bodyfat to fuel your muscle growth but once you are at your ideal bodyfat (wich will vary depending on your height, someone taller needs more bodyfat) you need to be on a surplus to get the energy necessary to continue building muscle because the energy from your fat reserves won't be enough to sustain muscle growth.Keep in mind that your required caloric intake will change based on your weight, if you lose weight your body might adjust and drop your required caloric intake, similarly when you build mass, muscles require more calories to be maintained so your caloric intake will have to be higher to continue building muscle.
>>74122400The ratio of fat/muscle gain/loss improves with more protein, up to a point.
>>74122400Yes you are correct that is how it practically works for 99,999999999999999999999999999999999999% of people.Now that 0% fat is a bit exaggerated, your body needs more like 4% to survive so its not gonna get rid of the last 4% of bodyfat to build muscle. it would rather hold the 4% and stay alive and ditch the excess muscle. So does it work at 5% bodyfat then? Well its a scale, anything under 10% and its seriously difficult. Its so difficult that its hard to measure change. Theoretically you probably can still build muscle going from 10% to 9% but its so slow to build muscle period, let alone in this circumstance that its not gonna be substantial.But if you are 25% bodyfat and you drop to 20% you certainly can and will build tons of muscle. Absolutely your body has enough excess calories in the form of stored fat that it can use that to build muscle and "recomp".
>>74122514And thats why everybody looked like shit because they fell for the roider scheme. Bulking and cutting is for roiders because 1. when you use anabolic steroids your cap to muscle gain is MUCH higher that it actually makes sense to eat as much calories as possible to maximize the muscle gains. As a natural lets say you can gain 3kg of muscle in a year. Okay you gain that 3kg of muscle in a year with 200kcal daily surplus as you do with 500kcal surplus or 1000kcal surplus. Eating more doesnt allow you to gain more lean muscle mass than what its possible to gain naturally. But since the cap is much higher with roids, it does make sense to eat 1000kcal surplus daily if not more.And cutting? Well with steroids you can go on a much more aggressive cut and lose the fat faster and hold on to much higher % of that lean muscle mass.Now Im not here to argue semantics. If you call 1kcal surplus a "bulk" then so be it. But natties should never do traditional bulk/cut "cycles". Instead you should spend like 1-3 years at a time in a moderate +50kcal daily surplus and whenever you start losing your abs and get fat, you should do mini 3-4 week cuts. The biggest mistake you can do is spend half a year bulking and half a year cutting because you gain excessive amount of fat for no reason and then have to spend absurd amount of time on a deficit because of it.
