How does the size of a caloric surplus affect partitioning?

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’m not sure if I phrased the question correctly so let me elaborate.

Let’s say a given strength trainee does his workout and eats for the day. Let’s say if he eats at a 500 calories surplus the mass gain will be 50/50 fat/LBM.

Let’s say if he eats at a 1000 calorie surplus the split will be 70/30, and the in general the larger his surplus the less desirable the split will be until.

What I’m wondering is how does this split move in the opposite direction?

Might a 300 calorie surplus be something like 30/70 fat/LBM?Would then a 50 calorie surplus be almost all LBM?

In other words, excluding longer term phenomena like overtraining and changes in metabolism, does partitioning change in a linear way as surpluses increase? Or is it more complicated and a smaller than optimal surplus might actually be partitioned less favorably than the optimal surplus?

2

In general, the more rapid your weight gain, the less of it is going to be lean body mass. That said, the p-ratio (partitioning ratio) can only get so good. In other words, you can’t gain purely LBM in most cases.

Also, overtraining has not been demonstrated to occur in resistance training. I don’t know what changes in metabolism you’re referring to.

3

Thank you.

The last part doesn’t really matter to the question, I just wanted to exclude any long term partioning effect from undereating relative to your training. But I guess you will just progress slower.