Caloric Surplus ?s

[ehcundiff]

Will, in general, a novice gain more muscle mass with 2500 cals over maintenance or 250 cals over maintenance? And in better words, maintanence meaning total calories burned per day (with activity not just resting).

The question is asking, will a novice gain only so much muscle in their progression, with the rest being fat?

It is hard to word this. Will more muscle mass be gained on Mark Rippetoe’s dietary instruction (he advocates a lot over maintenance) or a slower, less over maintenance approach? What Mark says does seem to make people fatter than what someone else says. Do not be angry, but give an argurment defending Mark intelligently. I will not do what someone tells me to do without evidence.

[Dalton Clark]

Rippetoe's dietary instruction comes directly from who he is most fervently addressing - vastly underweight individuals. He also addresses obese individuals in his books. You will notice that he does not provide any guidelines for individuals who are not either obese or substantially underweight. This is because Rip doesn't particularly enjoy discussions about diet and nutrition. The in-house go-to person for nutrition information is Dr. Feigenbaum. He finds nutrition to be very interesting.

There is a theoretical maximum to the amount of muscle protein synthesis that can occur in a particular trainee. By corollary, there is a theoretical maximum to the amount of calories that can be partitioned for muscle protein synthesis. This implies that calories taken in above the muscle protein synthesis plus maintenance threshold will be stored as fat. If your body can only utilize 500 calories per day to produce muscle mass, eating 2000 calories over that value will net you 2000 calories worth of fat assuming perfect retention. An individual that is substantially underweight will be able to use more calories for muscle protein synthesis. However, someone at a decent weight should not eat 2500 calories over maintenance. More calories does not mean more muscle mass.

[TommyGun]

Rippetoe's dietary instruction comes directly from who he is most fervently addressing - vastly underweight individuals. He also addresses obese individuals in his books. You will notice that he does not provide any guidelines for individuals who are not either obese or substantially underweight. This is because Rip doesn't particularly enjoy discussions about diet and nutrition. The in-house go-to person for nutrition information is Dr. Feigenbaum. He finds nutrition to be very interesting.

There is a theoretical maximum to the amount of muscle protein synthesis that can occur in a particular trainee. By corollary, there is a theoretical maximum to the amount of calories that can be partitioned for muscle protein synthesis. This implies that calories taken in above the muscle protein synthesis plus maintenance threshold will be stored as fat. If your body can only utilize 500 calories per day to produce muscle mass, eating 2000 calories over that value will net you 2000 calories worth of fat assuming perfect retention. An individual that is substantially underweight will be able to use more calories for muscle protein synthesis. However, someone at a decent weight should not eat 2500 calories over maintenance. More calories does not mean more muscle mass.

Poster, good question and this remark is right on. Rip when he does address nutrition is generally for the weak, underweight novice. And even then he keeps it simple, GOMAD and lots and lots of calories.

So what I do is take a middle path between Rip’s simple guidance and Jordan’s very technical direction. I eat a lot, sometime clean, sometimes not. Some days a full GOMAD, sometimes half a gallon. I think if you are training a surplus is mandatory. You will find your own point of surplus calories that works for you.

But review Rip’a article about the three questions. It’s almost always recovery and insufficient caloric intake.

[Tiburon]

The question is asking, will a novice gain only so much muscle in their progression, with the rest being fat?
.

Read Lyle McDonald's summary articles about the "p-ratio"