Total calories have to constantly be increased as you gain muscle?

[Animal2692]

So I thought about this for a bit. You need about a 200 calorie surplus to "lean" bulk. However, if you gain 10lbs of muscle or so over a year, you will be burning an extra ~500 calories a day so technically your maintenance has to go up while surplus remains the same. I'm guessing that for someone who is already lean, each surplus of 200 calories lasts for a little while at a time since that surplus starts to decrease as you gain muscle, so you technically always have to add another 100 calories every month or so to keep the progress moving along because muscle tissue is metabolically expensive. So if that person stalls, it's not necessarily their routine, but their calorie surplus relative to their maintenance calories becoming zeroed out due to muscle gain. Can anyone here confirm if this is the case?

[AdamWW]

So I thought about this for a bit. You need about a 200 calorie surplus to "lean" bulk. However, if you gain 10lbs of muscle or so over a year, you will be burning an extra ~500 calories a day so technically your maintenance has to go up while surplus remains the same. I'm guessing that for someone who is already lean, each surplus of 200 calories lasts for a little while at a time since that surplus starts to decrease as you gain muscle, so you technically always have to add another 100 calories every month or so to keep the progress moving along because muscle tissue is metabolically expensive. So if that person stalls, it's not necessarily their routine, but their calorie surplus relative to their maintenance calories becoming zeroed out due to muscle gain. Can anyone here confirm that this is the case?

Yup, 100% true.

Eventually, your surplus will become your new maintenance if all other lifestyle factors remain constant.

[xuerebx]

I guess it's obvious isn't it? I mean the amount of calories I need to maintain or grow at 65kg is *very* much different from someone who is at 85kg (assuming same bodyfat% too, just to compare like with like), which is why the bigger guys eat, umm... big too.

[Animal2692]

I guess it's obvious isn't it? I mean the amount of calories I need to maintain or grow at 65kg is *very* much different from someone who is at 85kg (assuming same bodyfat% too, just to compare like with like), which is why the bigger guys eat, umm... big too.

I mean it should be obvious but many times it isn't because people start blaming their routine and want to program hop instead, wasting even more time. But anyways it's good that I have the gist of it then, I just wanted to make sure.

[air2fakie]

I mean it should be obvious but many times it isn't because people start blaming their routine and want to program hop instead, wasting even more time. But anyways it's good that I have the gist of it then, I just wanted to make sure.

Not everything is as B&W as you want it to be. In that ex and yours, if that guy gained ~40 lbs (10 lbs/yr) and is stalling while doing literally the exact same program over 4 whole years, there likely are changes that need to be made program-wise too.

[Mrpb]

I'm guessing that for someone who is already lean, each surplus of 200 calories lasts for a little while at a time since that surplus starts to decrease as you gain muscle, so you technically always have to add another 100 calories every month or so to keep the progress moving along because muscle tissue is metabolically expensive.

It's more like ~10-20 kcal per month.

For example: with Katch McCardle formula 180 pounds 6'2 10% body fat maintenance is 2696 kcal. At 181 pounds and same stats it's 2708 kcal.

But it's too simplistic. They way you train can affect your expenditure too. For example if you're training heavier you may be more tired causing you to move less.

[desslok]

In theory you got the gist of it ,but grossly overestimating how much 10 pounds adds to your BMR