After getting into weight training, something is confusing me. They say that you cannot gain muscles by weight training if you are in a caloric deficit. But if someone is actively working on their muscles through weight training, why is this?
Would this rule carry over to someone who had a high % of body fat or does this only apply to people with low body fat %? If someone had a high body fat %, will they still not gain any muscles if they are weight training but in a calorie deficit?
I genuinely don’t understand! TIA!
In: Biology
Think of calories as money. Its a lot easier to do whatever you want when you have an excess. Sure you can dig into savings every month but you’re gonna be cutting corners.
The same thing applies to the body, excess calories can **maximize** muscle growth, is it absolutely necessary? No. You’ll still gain something like 70% of what you could without a surplus.
And as for high body fat individuals its a lot harder to study because of the natural variance in workout sensitivity, some people put on muscle the moment they look at a weight. This applies if they’re skinny or fat and we see this in the real world.
As far as we understand excess calories are a signal not a bank. Your body doesn’t have a savings account where it counts how much fat it has then calculates if its enough to count as a “surplus”. The excess calories you eat just activate the machinery that says “go ahead and use this, more’s on the way”.
Latest Answers