I am looking to gain 0.5lbs a week and was wondering, is it important to be in a ~250kcal surplus each and every day? For example, if I am in a +1000kcal surplus one day, can I just go in a -500kcal deficit the next day or should I just continue eating at +250kcal as usual and do better to not go over next time?
We don’t really know the answer here, but larger short-term increases seem to promote greater fat gain compared to more modest, sustained energy surpluses.
Short term as in a weekend, or i.e. a 4 week period? Perhaps the scale of a 1 day increase (i.e. a big “cheat day”) is simply too small to measure.
Both and everything in between, though there are variable and complex dynamics at play with respect to eating behaviors in response to a large surplus