Deficit / surplus on different days of the week?

[WeightSwinger]

Probably a stupid question but What If my weight training is good, and some days I eat a deficit while other days I eat a surplus... Would I technically be able to cut fat while gaining muscle throughout the week? How come this is never suggested during my research ?

[AdamWW]

Probably a stupid question but What If my weight training is good, and some days I eat a deficit while other days I eat a surplus... Would I technically be able to cut fat while gaining muscle throughout the week? How come this is never suggested during my research ?

The short answer is yes, but this is well-established thing (not a novel idea you're just now coming up with)...

All you're talking about is gaining muscle while in a deficit, which again is perfectly possible. However, you will eventually reach a point where your bodyfat is too low to perform with high enough intensity to facilitate new growth adaptations and/or you will stop recovering well enough to actually build new tissue. This happens at different points for different people.

But, you could do the exact same thing while keeping calories the same EVERY day, and not cycling them like this.

When you eat less on non-training days, you won't recover as well... so even if you feel more energy to lift on the days you're in a daily surplus, the deficit days won't provide the same growth benefits you would get if you just ate the same amount every day, so it basically cancels the other out or in some cases might even be worse to undulate.

[WeightSwinger]

The short answer is yes, but this is well-established thing (not a novel idea you're just now coming up with)...

All you're talking about is gaining muscle while in a deficit, which again is perfectly possible. However, you will eventually reach a point where your bodyfat is too low to perform with high enough intensity to facilitate new growth adaptations and/or you will stop recovering well enough to actually build new tissue. This happens at different points for different people.

But, you could do the exact same thing while keeping calories the same EVERY day, and not cycling them like this.

When you eat less on non-training days, you won't recover as well... so even if you feel more energy to lift on the days you're in a daily surplus, the deficit days won't provide the same growth benefits you would get if you just ate the same amount every day, so it basically cancels the other out or in some cases might even be worse to undulate.

Thanks that made a lot if sense to me !

[blue9steel]

Probably a stupid question but What If my weight training is good, and some days I eat a deficit while other days I eat a surplus... Would I technically be able to cut fat while gaining muscle throughout the week? How come this is never suggested during my research ?

As it turns out, biological processes are pretty slow and have quite a bit of inertia to them. While this seems to make sense in terms of acute response, the overall end result doesn't usually work out the way you'd expect. Broderick Chavez is probably a good person to look up, he explains this pretty well.

[yak93]

Hi, this all depends on your average daily caloric intake vs your average output. I would suggest keeping your protein the same each day (i.e 1.2g/ lb LBM vs 35% daily cals). This will help with recovery and even on low cal days, you will be getting adequate protein.

Keep it up.

[AlexSays]

What you're talking about is essentially a method of recomping, the results will differ depending on your total calorie intake over time.

So for instance if by the end of the week the total training day cals + total rest day cals left you in a deficit you would lose fat. Because muscle synthesis in the body is such a slow process (taking place over weeks and months), being in a surplus on only your training days isn't really enough to stimulate meaningful mass gain if your net intake is a deficit (unless you are very overweight or very new to lifting or both). In this case you may as well just eat at a steady deficit (same calories but spread evenly over training and non training days)

If at the end of the week total cals = weekly maintenance you are likely to build some mass over time and lose a little fat over time while weight remains steady, thereby recomping. In this case you might as well just eat at maintenance every day and see the same results

If total weekly cals = weekly surplus you will gain weight. On the deficit days you will lose some fat but it will simply be regained along with muscle (over time) due to the net surplus. In this case you may as well just eat at a small surplus every day and see the same results


If you kindof get my drift here, altering calorie intake day to day is a waste of time as any real changes in composition don't happen on a day to day basis

[Mrpb]

Probably a stupid question but What If my weight training is good, and some days I eat a deficit while other days I eat a surplus... Would I technically be able to cut fat while gaining muscle throughout the week? How come this is never suggested during my research ?

Gaining muscle while losing fat is perfectly possible while just eating the same amount of calories per day. Complicated eating schemes like you're suggesting aren't necessary, but you can follow them if it makes you feel good.

While gaining muscle while losing fat is perfectly possible, it becomes harder to more advanced and leaner you are.