Jump to content
Forums are back in action! ×

Caloric parity


Recommended Posts

I had a question for the collective wisdom of Nerdfitness.

What happens when you strength train, but your caloric intake is at the same level of your BMR adjusted to training. So, say your resting BMR is 2000 calories, and your BMR adjusted for all your activities is 2400, and you eat 2400 calories worth of healthy food.

I understand that when you eat at a deficit, depending on your activities, you'll lose fat and muscle, and when you eat at a surplus you gain fat and muscle. The percentages of what you gain and lose depends on your activity. If you lose while strength training you'll mostly lose fat and if you gain while strength training you make larger muscle gains than if you were sedentary.

But at parity, you have no reason to lose fat OR gain muscle. But if you're strength training then muscle breakdown still occurs which needs to be replenished by protein. So do fat cells get used for energy while protein in the system replaces muscle?

I've come to realise that without a signature, people tend to ignore the last line of whatever I say, this exists to rectify that

Link to comment
Guest Carjack

The body never remains at a stasis. If your calorie intake is adjusted to stay as the same weight or lose fat very slowly, you'll very slowly gain or lose muscle with fluctuations.

Nobody really knows their exact BMR so just eat a lot of protein if you do something like that to keep the muscles growing.

Link to comment

Well, despite the gain and loss of muscle, one thing I'm interested in, is would I get stronger? Because I know strength is more to do with nerve fibres contracting things than muscle mass.

And of course the exact BMR is a mystery, I didn't mean to pretend that this was an exact science. But take it that a guy got lucky 60 days in a row and hit his exact BMR with his caloric intake by random fluke.

Edit: My protein intake is quite high for interest's sake. I consistently eat about a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.

I've come to realise that without a signature, people tend to ignore the last line of whatever I say, this exists to rectify that

Link to comment

Nobody really knows their exact BMR so just eat a lot of protein if you do something like that to keep the muscles growing.

This - your BMR is an approximation and will vary daily. Plus the extreme variation in actual calories of the food you eat.

Well, despite the gain and loss of muscle, one thing I'm interested in, is would I get stronger?

Absolutely. Both your strength and your muscular endurance can increase dramatically. If you continue to eat a deficit, you will eventually run into the limits of your functional strength.

Repairing a lifetime of bad habits...

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

New here? Please check out our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines