# eat more or lift heavier in order to grow?



## icamero1 (Jul 3, 2009)

bit confused about something..

In order for muscles to grow they must be put under more stress than they are used to, so in theory, as you train more, you lift heavier weights, so your muscles grow bigger to accommodate the heavier weights, ok fine. but then i hear people say you have to eat more and more if you want to get bigger, and that you have to put on a certain amount of pounds in order to gain an extra inch on your arms.. so which is true? lift heavier and you will grow, or eat more and you will grow, or both? can you lift more, eat the same and still grow????

anyone help?


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

you will not grow no matter the amount of weight you lift if you do not fuel the body, Calories build muscle....look at it like a car the engine size determines how fast it can go but it still needs petrol to make it run the same can be said about food and muscle.....


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## EXTREME (Aug 5, 2005)

Is this a trick question?

If muscles are effectively stored protein, you need to eat an excess of protein to allow it to be stored in your muscles in the response to your muscles being overloaded by increasing the weights you lift.

So summarising, you need to lift to stimulate growth and you need to over eat protein to allow the growth to happen.


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## icamero1 (Jul 3, 2009)

its not a trick question. reason i ask is that I speak to guys in the gym who are very muscular, but dont know anything about dieting, they seem to eat what they want, and probably not in large quantities either, so I wondered if its possible to increase muscle size just by eating adequate amounts of food, and slowly increasing your lifts, or even sticking with roughly the same weights, but doing more sets, or more reps etc..?


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## yannyboy (Jun 20, 2009)

Think of it logically, if you was to gain 10lbs of pure muscle over what you weigh now, then your body is going to require more calories to maintain that weight.


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

icamero1 said:


> its not a trick question. reason i ask is that I speak to guys in the gym who are very muscular, but dont know anything about dieting, they seem to eat what they want, and probably not in large quantities either, so I wondered if its possible to increase muscle size just by eating adequate amounts of food, and slowly increasing your lifts, or even sticking with roughly the same weights, but doing more sets, or more reps etc..?


can you gain weight/muscle on moderate cals....yes if the moderate cals is above your maintenance levels would it be alot of gain probably not.....


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## Loz1466868022 (Oct 12, 2011)

Hi There

The body as an average uses 1200 calories just to maintain itself, and if you are exercising with weights you will burn say 300+ so straight away you would need to eat 1500 calories per day just to maintain and then add say 500 for growth, so roughly eat around 2000 but more intense training will require a lot more.

i trained for six months quite intensely and put no major growth on at all at 14 stone and just seemed to get more toned(im not a big eater or wasnt) then upped my food intake and bracketed my meals with protein shakes and then after a few months my chest popped out first and then other muscle groups followed slowly .now i eat a lot more because as your muscles grow they will burn more calories!!! eat well and results will come.

Hope this helps


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## doggy (Mar 26, 2011)

PScarb said:


> can you gain weight/muscle on moderate cals....yes if the moderate cals is above your maintenance levels would it be alot of gain probably not.....


how do you work out whats needed to maintain? is that your BMR?

thanks


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## yannyboy (Jun 20, 2009)

doggy said:


> how do you work out whats needed to maintain? is that your BMR?
> 
> thanks


Easiest way is to make a diary or use an online calorie tracker to find out how many calories are needed to maintain bodyweight.


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## icamero1 (Jul 3, 2009)

lozza, the average recommended calorie intake for men is 2550 a day, where did you get your figures from? (i googled it)

i downloaded an iphone app today that works out how much you need to consume daily in order to get to your target weight, I have to consume 3380 calories a day in order to get from 74-78kg by febuary 18th (a average gain of 0.2kg p/w).. does that sound realistic???


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## yannyboy (Jun 20, 2009)

icamero1 said:


> lozza, the average recommended calorie intake for men is 2550 a day, where did you get your figures from? (i googled it)
> 
> i downloaded an iphone app today that works out how much you need to consume daily in order to get to your target weight, I have to consume 3380 calories a day in order to get from 74-78kg by febuary 18th (a average gain of 0.2kg p/w).. does that sound realistic???


It could be, just try it and aim for 2lbs/1kg weight increase per week.


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## justheretosnoop (Jun 15, 2012)

I'd go with what Yanny says but if you want specifics take a look through this BMR Calculator

About the only thing the above wont do is take into account your bf% but it's certainly better than just averaging out your calorific needs based on the rest of the global population.


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## crazycal1 (Sep 21, 2005)

i eat more when training intensity/poundage warrants it..

eating more doesnt enhance my training as far as ive noticed..

training drives my eating..

i simply dont "get" the other way round at all. it just makes me fatter..

i dont recover any better or appear to get an extra increase in muscle..

also eating more isnt always the answer its dealing with any stress/anxiety type depression if its an issue..

i ate twice as much as i do now when i did nites..


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## AChappell (Jun 1, 2011)

Some good responses on this thread. Kamero1 Hypertrophy is the result of your body recruiting satellite cells along a muscle fibre that are then incorporated into damaged fibres to increase muscle fibre density and size. Fibres eventually get thicker and stronger thus the amount of stimulus required to stimulate these cells and stimulate growth increases. There is also a whole cascade of hormones/growth factors that come into play, but that's muscle growth in a nut shell. Now because muscle growth is based around building stronger thicker fibres there are numerous approaches and protocols. You could increase weight like you've stated or you could increase sets, extend sets, reduce rest and so on and so forth. It's really up to you, I'd suggest though you make the amount of weight you push/pull your primary concern if you want to progress. As for food well it's simple really your body needs food to facilitate that growth. If you don't have enough coming in to maintain what you've got then you'll struggle to make gains. I cover a lot of these issues in my thread on natural size building on the Natural training page.

As for the expectations on how many pounds a week you could hope to gain, it's difficult to say the longer you train the slower the gains. You should make great gains though initially if you've struggled with eating.


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## Loz1466868022 (Oct 12, 2011)

Hi

Camero

Yeah i was just giving a starting figure of calories for a person to give and idea of what would be needed, i agree your figure is correct , each individual will be diffrent dependant on metabolism, exercise and other factors, 4 kilos in 4 months?? seems high to me, its all down to a healthy diet and backing it up with the training, i still struggle some days to eat 2000 when really busy, some really do have a proper eating plan and this is a good thing , i just try to have six meals a day and make them more carb based early morning and then more protein and fats in the afternoon/evening, you will grow if you eat more, i took me a year to gain 2 stone but i do run every alternative day (2-4) miles when not using weights and my gains are very slow and i am sure if i stopped the cardio my gains would be greater

hope this helps


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## The Trixsta (Sep 6, 2009)

yannyboy said:


> Easiest way is to make a diary or use an online calorie tracker to find out how many calories are needed to maintain bodyweight.


And IMO you cant get a better one then this : Free Calorie Counter, Diet & Exercise Journal | MyFitnessPal.com


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