Caloric Deficit vs. Maintenance vs. Surplus on the 12 Week Strength Template

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
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Hey, Doc

Thank you for all the info, the IG Q&As, the vlogs, the free Bridge 1.0, and on and on. BBM is a life-changer. After so many unproductive years spent in the internet wasteland of Stronglifts and Madcow and 5/3/1, I feel like Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption after his prison escape. I crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness and I’m washed clean in the pure rains of BBM GAINZZZ.

I just finished The Bridge 1.0, after running the Texas Method in the winter/spring, and now I’m starting the 12 Week Strength Template. I’m 5’6 3/4, 172lbs. I weigh myself morning and night and track my calories and macros. I tend to gain weight when I eat >2600 cal/day. I tend to maintain weight when I eat 2200-2400. I tend to lose weight when I’m <2100. Right now, I’d like to lose a bit more bodyfat.

Here’s my plan: 2,000 cal/day for the first 4 weeks; 2,200 cal/day re-composition for the second 4 weeks; 2,600 cal/day for the third 4 weeks during the 12wkst, with macros generally in line with “To Be A Beast,” re-evaluating weekly. By “re-evaluating,” I mean that I’ll adjust the calories and the length of the blocks based on my bodycomp and strength goals.

My questions:

Generally speaking, is this a reasonable plan?

Is 2000 cal/day sufficient for a program like the 12 Week Strength? Or is this so particular to each individual as to be a meaningless question? A follow-up might be, sufficient for what? Well, having enough “energy” to run the program effectively. This, again, may not be answerable.

Regarding muscle growth in a caloric surplus, is there an upward limit to the total number of “productive” calories a lifter can consume for the purpose of adding skeletal muscle? By “productive” I mean productive for developing skeletal muscle. To my knowledge, we can’t choose what sort of tissue the body creates with the calories we give it (adipose tissue or skeletal muscle), but what’s the difference between consuming, say, 3,000 cal/day and 6,000 cal/day? Or even 12,000 cal/day? Is there a point where additional calories provide no benefit for muscle gain? This was a difficult question to word. If it doesn’t make sense, that’s my fault.

If this is all too specific and more suitable for 1 on 1 coaching, I apologize. Coaching is on my radar.

Best,

Brandon

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Hey Brandon,

Thanks for the thoughtful post and the props. We really appreciate it!

As far as your plan, I think that if you’re relatively new to the 12WS program then I’d probably have you start at 2200kCal/day while on the higher volume portion of the plan to reap as much hypertrophy as possible while leveraging the increased activity level. Then I’d probably lower slowly. There’s no real reason your way wouldn’t work either though.

As far as the last question, overfeeding studies have answered some of those questions but the more important variable there is what was going on in the individual prior to the overfeeding period. If they were calorie restricted with lower body fat, the will rapidly gain adipose tissue with overfeeding (along with some LBM). However, the general thinking is that you have a certain amount of LBM gain per unit time that doesn’t really change with a surplus of 1000 vs 5000 from a skeletal muscle standpoint.

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I’ll give this an update. I hired a BBM dietitian to guide me through this process and after about 3-4 weeks and some tweaking I’m down to 167lbs and I’ve lost about 2 inches around my waist. We started with a macro split of 200c, 210pro, 70f, which we’ve since reduced to 185c, 205pro, 67fat. Under the bar, I’ve set a new deadlift PR, so things are looking good! I hope compete in my first USAPL meet in 2019.

Onward and upward!