Bulking: necessary to 'eat back' calories?

[schnauzers]

I've read that when people ask about eating back calories they burn doing activity (ie cardio) during a cut they are told NOT to eat back the calories that they supposedly burn. This is because the activity factor in the calculation takes care of the extra calories burned during activity. Also because they may over estimate how much they burn and will end up eating back too many calories so that they won't be in a deficit any more.

Does the same rule apply during a bulk? Should I not eat back calories that I may burn doing activity on top of my weight training? I don't do cardio 'on purpose' but I play squash. When I decided to start bulking I dropped all HIIT and limited the amount of squash that I play. However, I find that I need to play more than one game a week of squash in order to practice and improve my skills. If I add more squash games during the week should I: eat back some calories on days that I play--how many extra? OR should I just recalculate the calories I need to eat using a higher activity factor even though I may not play extra games consistently?

Thanks.

[KCBiggs]

I think it would be simpler to just aim for weekly weight gain (say for example 0.5-1lb) and increase calories if you're not hitting this target. Compensating for lost calories can be confusing and inaccurate as you might be burning less/more than you think.

[acrawlingchaos]

I don't understand why anyone bothers with activity modifiers. You over-complicate a simple process.



Use a static intake (~), if you are trying to bulk and not adding weight, add calories. If you are trying to lose weight, decrease current intake.

It really is that simple.

[Botika]

Pick a calorie level and eat the same amount each day, for a couple weeks. Track your weight over this some and if you are:
A) still losing increase your calories,
B) maintaining increase your calories,
C) gaining moderately keep your calories the same, or
D) gaining excessively reduce your calories.

I reverse dieted up until I was gaining each week.

[schnauzers]

Alright, that clears it up....just eat even MORE!

Truthfully, I don't rely on the calculators all that much as it put my maintenance around 2550 (IIRC) and I'm eating 3000+ and haven't gained weight for a few weeks now. I do realize that the calcs are just an estimate and that there's a huge YMMV element to this. Just want to make sure that I'm not screwing myself over by sweating it up on the squash court a few days a week. Solution = eat more, I like that Thanks.