How does bulking work?

[SandManTFC]

Just wondered how the extra calories help in building muscle? Is it the energy for working out from food or does the food turn to muscle rather than fat?

thx anyone who can answer this.

[commi]

The reason you need the excess amount is in order to feed the muscle growth. Of course you will gain SOME fat but little if done properly. You can either dirty bulk which is eating basicly whatever and risk gaining quite a bit of fat with that muscle or you can clean bulk which is eating good food and this will make the fat increase little. You should expect to gain 1-2 pounds a month if your going over that you are probably gaining alot of fat or your geneticly gifted, a body fat caliper or test every few weeks is a must when bulking.

[Chissle]

As far as i remember it was once put to me in a simple way.

Lift heavy,it will split a single cell into 2 in the muscle you used.

Feed the 2 smaller cells with good clean protein and they will grow,therefore increasing muscles size....

That was told to me about 7 years ago,i dont know if the knowledge has changed?

[AphtaLyfe]

As far as i remember it was once put to me in a simple way.

Lift heavy,it will split a single cell into 2 in the muscle you used.

Feed the 2 smaller cells with good clean protein and they will grow,therefore increasing muscles size....

That was told to me about 7 years ago,i dont know if the knowledge has changed?

Muscle can grow in 2 ways... either cell size or number of cells.

Typically muscle grows only in cell size.

There is no such thing as clean vs. dirty protein...

....

With bulking you will always gain a little fat, and how much fat depends on your lifting, how big your calorie excess is and how clean those calories are.

With cutting you will always lose a little muscle, and how much muscle depends on how big your calorie deficit is, how you are lift, and how clean the calories are that you're actually getting.

[littlejohn]

Muscle can grow in 2 ways... either cell size or number of cells.

Typically muscle grows only in cell size.

How do you add cells? I thought you were born with a certain number of muscle cells, just the same as fat cells. You don't create more fat cells by getting fat, you just grow the ones you already have. I always thought it worked the same way with muscle.

[AphtaLyfe]

How do you add cells? I thought you were born with a certain number of muscle cells, just the same as fat cells. You don't create more fat cells by getting fat, you just grow the ones you already have. I always thought it worked the same way with muscle.

You do grow more fat cells. Once all your fat cells are full, you will start to create more fat cells.

[littlejohn]

Well I guess you learn something new every day.
I saw a show a long time ago about liposuction and the doctor was explaining that you have the same number of fat cells whether you're skinny or fat, it just depends on how much you fill them up.