Why does muscle gain require extra calories?

[RichMcguire]

I know this was started a bit ago, but I thought I'd give some personal insight OP.

You asked,"am I then correct in saying that I can trust my body to burn existing fat stores to fuel its caloric needs for muscle gain without having to stuff my face (as Subsistence said earlier on in this thread)? At least until some of the fat is burned off by which time fat will become harder to burn (tfarny earlier on) and I will naturally have to up my calorie intake? Or will I need to start eating a ton right away to fuel muscle gain?

According to Rip, "the SS lifting program is designed for novices of all types. To this can be added the GOMAD diet if weight gain is desired."

"If you are losing a couple of pounds a week and continuing to maintain a strength increase, that's about as good as you can do. With your current body fat levels, a strength increase occuring with a weight loss means body fat is coming off."

To that end, OP, if you are wanting a decrease in body fat, you shouldn't do the GOMAD and you shouldn't expect to gain weight. Try the SS program and continue to make linear progression as your body fat falls off. It's highly individual. You will lose fat much more quickly than you put muscle on, so the scale will read you as losing weight.

You can indeed build LBM at the expense of body fat..especially as a novice. However, gains in LBM will not be 100% optimal and they will begin to slow down as you approach lower body fat%'s..simply because you only have so much body fat to use as fuel.

So, thats option 1 and completely viable as a novice.

Option 2 is to pick a target body weight. At 5'5 you could aim for 190-195 lbs. Thats about 3 lbs per inch of height. Once you get there, you can move to option 1 and continue to get stronger with the TM or continue with SS if you are still making workout to workout gains. Dropping body fat is easy. Much easier than mucle is to put on so often its best to worry about it later.

It should depend on you though. Some people aren't happy with carrying around a lot of fat. For them, they would be better off dropping some weight first. But since you said you don't care about it, you simply don't want to be a walrus..I'd go with option 2. Just remember, the higher your body fat %, the more likely you will be to add fat rather than muscle.

[devnull]

OP - For what is worth here is my take:

I take it you want to lose weight and be strong. Take advantage of the fact that you have a surplus of mass that will make getting stronger a lot easier, and will then make losing fat easier.

Or lose the weight, get weaker, and then work on getting stronger, by having to eat more and gain some fat, that then you have to work on losing again.

How much to eat: as much as it takes to allow you to keep gaining strength. At first you don't need to eat that much to be able to add weigth to the bar: a good chunk of the initial strenght gain doesn't come from gaining muscle, but from improvements to the way your nervous system works. For the first month clean up your diet, drop all processed sugars, breads, grains, and liquid calories (exept milk). Eat all the lean protein you want, anything green, eggs, cheeses, and just about anything not sweetened or overly processed. When it starts to get hard, eat more of the good stuff and add some creatine.

Don't overthink this approach until you get to 315# squat (I’m not there myself). At THAT point is when I’m planning to decide whether to get stronger or leaner.

[Joshua Denny]

While I don't have the answer to you from experience I can tell you my plans. I am fat and detrained. I have lost about 35lbs recently bringing me down to 275lbs at 6 feet tall. I used to be decently strong and in pretty good "shape" (fairly lean) but it's been a long time since I trained hard or consistently. I want to get stronger and have more muscle so SS is my plan. I am going to do what a lot of people have suggested in this thread, lots of clean food but I don't plan to go too crazy with excess calories as I would like to go from this 40" waist to a 38" (lower eventually). My plan also includes consuming a good carb/protein drink before, during & after the workouts to help with recovery.

I debated trying to lose some more fat first so I could start leaner and be less concerned with fat weight gain but truthfully I want my strength back. Where I may be better off than the OP is that hopefully muscle memory will give me some quick initial gains (re-gains if you will). I plan to base my recovery on the weights going up over time and if I reach a point where those slow or stagnate I will add more calories in. I think staying as close to Rip's suggestions will give the best results. So I think you really need to choose your goals wisely and go from there. I have been fat for many years so staying fat or only reducing it slightly isn't going to kill me. Everyone's body is a little different too so you don't know what is going to happen until you just do it. I am pretty confident that especially in the first few weeks I will drop some bodyfat so I'm just going to hit SS hard and see what happens. Before I let other things distract me I could squat 315, DL 405 and Power Clean 285 so I want to get back to those numbers or close to them before I worry about finding my abs.

[forgeforth]

^It's not like you can't lose fat while barbell training. Learn the exercises and perform them, even if you're not "doing the program." Hell, these exercises burn a shitload of calories and at the end of the day fat burning = establishing a caloric deficit, whether you count the calories you put into your body or not. If you're eating protein from lean sources, spacing out your meals accordingly and carb rationing for breakfast and pre and post training, you'll do fine. And you don't have to space out your meals if you don't want to, but I find it better for monitoring your protein requirements and getting adequate pre and post nutrition.

If you're untrained and start lifting on a caloric deficit, you'll still get stronger for a little while. It's not like you have to do linear progression at 3x5. If you do that your strength gains will diminish a lot sooner. Focus on fat loss if you like, but this shouldn't stop you from barbell training.