Macro and Nutrition questions.

[Jukeboxhero77]

Hey Guys,
A little about me. I’m a 40 yr old male and I've been working out periodically over the past 2-3 years. Usually this will be a 4-5 month spurt of me working out regularly (2-3 times a week--sometimes 4) and then eventually quitting due to sometimes legit (like a hernia or tendonitis in my left elbow) or just general laziness or insufficient motivation to get back on the horse.
I’m not sure what I should have expected during the times I was working out, but I feel like I had relatively minor gains, compared to what I was hoping for (and I definitely fell short on my goals.
For the past few months, I’ve been working out pretty regularly, and doing my best to track everything I eat and my log my workouts. I feel like I’m off to a good start, but I want to seek your guidance so I’m not just wasting time at the gym and not getting the results I want.
My goal is a good balance of aesthetics and strength in lean, muscular physique
So, here are my questions.

Macros/Nutrition

-Caloric Deficit or Surplus for Muscle gain?
Some say you need a calorie deficit and others say you always need a surplus to gain muscle. Both of these theories seem to come from reliable sources (Athlean-x seems to support High protein diets with caloric deficit for example)

-Adjusting Calories/Macros based on exercise.
I use Fitness Pal to input the food I eat and keep track of my Macros. It’s also linked to my Fitbit step tracker and as I get more steps/exercise, it increases the amount of calories I can have. Right now, I have my Calorie goal set at 2k. If I get about 10k steps in a day, it will bump up the amount of calories I can consume by about 500, so to break even, I could consume 2,500 calories. Should I use this adjustment for my macros or just stick to pure numbers regardless of exercise?

-How important is body type to Macros (ie. Endo, Ecto, Meso)? It seems like I’m mostly Meso, but I’m not sure.

I will post pics later.

[Vandeman17]

Read the stickies at the top of this page. You will learn a lot from them and then you can ask more specific questions. As for body type, it has ZERO importance as they are just made up terms.

[Heisman2]

Read the stickies, specifically the one on macros. Stick to pure numbers regardless of exercise.

Athlean-x is great for many things but nutrition is not one of them (and I'm a big fan for what he is good for, not trying to diss him).