How being in a calorie surplus is important for building muscle

A calorie surplus is when your energy input (food intake) is higher than your energy output (exercise/daily activity). This creates a positive energy balance, therefore, providing your body with more than what your current bodyweight needs to maintain the weight you are at. This positive energy balance causes your body to start to store and utilise more food, helping to build muscle when paired with consistently sticking to a well-designed hypertrophy workout plan. 

You can be in a gradual calorie surplus whilst maintaining a high level of exercise and daily activity to avoid dramatically increasing your overall body fat percentage. Some people hear ‘eat to grow’ in the gym to gain muscle and neglect the fact they still need to have a relatively high exercise or daily activity level and a diet full of nutritious food to make any serious muscle gain and not just gain a lot of unwanted fat. 

(Image source: https://www.thespruceeats.com/steak-and-eggs-4780185)

A slang term often heard in the gym would be a ‘Dirty bulk’ this could mean eating an extra 2000kcals than your body needs in McDonalds and fatty processed foods and does not have the same effect as eating a higher amount of ‘clean’ (or food with nutritional value) on your progress for muscle gain goals. You still need to be eating more calories than your current body weight can maintain, but with better food choices and a suitable, more gradual calorie increase based on your specific height, weight, age and activity level.

Being in a calorie surplus should mean more energy to fuel your workouts, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be eating extreme amounts of food or you might just end up packing on a load of fat. 

So, to make the most of the extra fuel you have during a ‘bulking’ phase or simply eating in a calorie surplus – Choose food you enjoy so you will stick to it long-term and an exercise plan designed to suit the goals you have in mind, consistent progress is made when you have specific goals and monitor your progress to ensure you are constantly progressing. 

Scared of eating too much and becoming bulky? – Contact me today to discuss how I can help you build muscle or look ‘toned’ without putting on too much unnecessary fat! 

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So why do I need to be in a calorie surplus to optimise muscle growth? 

The body is an incredible vessel with many different movements available such as flexion, extension, contraction, rotation, circumduction, adduction, abduction, dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, inversion, eversion, supination and pronation. We can jump with force, land safely from a height, run marathons, swim at high speed, perform long endurance challenging sports, lift more than our bodyweight, dance and millions of other different, complex movements.  

What powers all these movements? Muscle, which has high energy requirements. The body doesn’t NEED big biceps, big round glutes or to be able to deadlift 150kg, and so unless you are providing the body with more than enough supplies of energy it can utilise to support the rest of the body’s more vital energy requirements, it will not prioritise muscle growth. 

(Image source: https://www.stephaniesanzo.com/blogs/fitness/how-to-deadlift)

This means, if you are in a calorie deficit, the chances of building muscle are low as the body is using any of the energy you provide it with to support the main functions of the body, instead of muscle hypertrophy. 

If you are already very lean, it is even more important to be in a calorie surplus if you want to gain muscle, due to the fact your body is working even harder to support the most vital bodily functions. 

That being said, if you have a much higher fat percentage, you can actually be in a calorie deficit and still build muscle optimally because the body can utilise the plentiful stores you already have to promote muscle gain. You should bare in mind again, best results would be achieved with a well-written muscle hypertrophy exercise plan and a nutritious, well balanced energy intake with a high protein percentage. So if you have a high fat percentage and want to ‘tone up’ (which is a common slang term used to describe a decrease in fat percentage and an increase in muscle mass) this would be an optimal time to build some muscle! Remember, fat cannot turn to muscle and muscle cannot turn into fat, the ‘toned’ look people often chase is simply building muscle and revealing it better by having less fat covering it! 

Need some guidance on building muscle in a calorie surplus? Message or email me today to see how I can help you achieve your goals! 

Contact me via email at: coachedbykashima@hotmail.com – To arrange your FREE consultation for my online coaching.

Or visit the ‘Client reviews’, ‘Online coaching’ and ‘Your coach’ tabs on my website for more information. 

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