To gain muscle: Calories per week instead of day?

[Salamander13]

To gain muscle, would it still be effective to make sure you have surplus calories per week instead of a per day basis? I ask because in case I don't have time to eat/cook enough on a day I work out, can I make up the calories on a rest day?

[germaine07]

Yeah pretty much.

[NDeeps27]

your body doesnt know when the clock goes from 11:59 to 12:00 and OH! a new day! time to start over...

dont think of it like an on off switch...

weeks > 1 day

[antdez]

Im not sure I agree with the above posters. That would be like saying my daily maintenance calories are 2500, so in a week I would need
2500*7 = 17,500. I could eat 500 calores per day (3500) and then make up the difference in one day by eating the remaining 14,000 calories in one day. Now I dont have any evidence, so take it with a grain of salt but Im pretty sure that will not be conducive to gaining muscle, more likely if you could even eat that much most of it would probably come out unutilized in some form.

[germaine07]

Im not sure I agree with the above posters. That would be like saying my daily maintenance calories are 2500, so in a week I would need
2500*7 = 17,500. I could eat 500 calores per day (3500) and then make up the difference in one day by eating the remaining 14,000 calories in one day. Now I dont have any evidence, so take it with a grain of salt but Im pretty sure that will not be conducive to gaining muscle, more likely if you could even eat that much most of it would probably come out unutilized in some form.

No idiot is going to eat 500kcal a day. You're taking things to the extreme. If he's short by 3-500kcal on 1 day, he can eat extra the next day. No big deal.

[lee__d]

Im not sure I agree with the above posters. That would be like saying my daily maintenance calories are 2500, so in a week I would need
2500*7 = 17,500. I could eat 500 calores per day (3500) and then make up the difference in one day by eating the remaining 14,000 calories in one day. Now I dont have any evidence, so take it with a grain of salt but Im pretty sure that will not be conducive to gaining muscle, more likely if you could even eat that much most of it would probably come out unutilized in some form.

Yea, but that's just totally impractical.

[antdez]

I understand my example was the extreme version of the situation however I was using it to make a point. The title of the thread "To gain muscle: Calories per week instead of day?, " Implies that OP was going to just use a weekly total calorie surplus to try to gain muscle. If the calories are made up a day or two after then probably not a big deal however if he is short 300 calories per day on his surplus (more realistic) and decided to try to make up 5 days of being 300 calories short in one day then that is probably not conducive to building muscle.

[germaine07]

I understand my example was the extreme version of the situation however I was using it to make a point. The title of the thread "To gain muscle: Calories per week instead of day?, " Implies that OP was going to just use a weekly total calorie surplus to try to gain muscle. If the calories are made up a day or two after then probably not a big deal however if he is short 300 calories per day on his surplus (more realistic) and decided to try to make up 5 days of being 300 calories short in one day then that is probably not conducive to building muscle.

Re-read OP;

To gain muscle, would it still be effective to make sure you have surplus calories per week instead of a per day basis? I ask because in case I don't have time to eat/cook enough on a day I work out, can I make up the calories on a rest day?

[antdez]

Re-read OP;

Thank you for clarifying... However, my personal schedule has me working out 3-4 days in a row followed by a rest day. Im assuming most people dont work out one day and then have a rest day the next day.

[PriceySocks]

I understand my example was the extreme version of the situation however I was using it to make a point. The title of the thread "To gain muscle: Calories per week instead of day?, " Implies that OP was going to just use a weekly total calorie surplus to try to gain muscle. If the calories are made up a day or two after then probably not a big deal however if he is short 300 calories per day on his surplus (more realistic) and decided to try to make up 5 days of being 300 calories short in one day then that is probably not conducive to building muscle.

Especially when you begin to consider how he is making gains during workouts. If he is at a level where he can progress on all of his exercises every workout, then he needs to be eating enough calories to be making those gains. For example if he eats at a deficit monday-saturday, and works out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, then he can expect to only be seeing gains on his Monday workouts.

A calorie is a calorie, but you have to consider your workout regimen too. In other words: if you want to lose weight through diet alone and exercise isn't a factor, you could eat on a weekly diet; however if you are trying to progress in your exercises you need to make sure you are eating enough calories in relationship to the workouts to give your body enough energy to supercompensate to the exercise you just did.

[germaine07]

Thank you for clarifying... However, my personal schedule has me working out 3-4 days in a row followed by a rest day. Im assuming most people dont work out one day and then have a rest day the next day.

Actually most people train 3-4 days a week, and quite often have a work out day proceeded by a rest day. And he was just asking if one day he happens to fall short, which happens, can he make it up the next day.

[germaine07]

Especially when you begin to consider how he is making gains during workouts. If he is at a level where he can progress on all of his exercises every workout, then he needs to be eating enough calories to be making those gains. For example if he eats at a deficit monday-saturday, and works out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, then he can expect to only be seeing gains on his Monday workouts.

A calorie is a calorie, but you have to consider your workout regimen too. In other words: if you want to lose weight through diet alone and exercise isn't a factor, you could eat on a weekly diet; however if you are trying to progress in your exercises you need to make sure you are eating enough calories in relationship to the workouts to give your body enough energy to supercompensate to the exercise you just did.

What are you trying to say? Who would eat at a deficit 6days a week if they are trying to bulk?....

[antdez]

I suppose we just interpreted his post differently. He now has enough information to make a decision either way if he feels like listening to the advice given in this thread.

[germaine07]

I suppose we just interpreted his post differently. He now has enough information to make a decision either way if he feels like listening to the advice given in this thread.

Yeah. Well both our examples work. One could not eat at a large deficit and then binge, but going short a day and making it up is perfectly acceptable.