Question regarding caloric surplus

Hi Doctors :slight_smile:

today I thought about caloric surplus.

If I ask Powerlifters in Germany whats the key to getting stronger the answer is mostly train harder, eat more.

I am currently at about 93 kg down from about 109 kg in October '21 and got stronger in all the Big 4 (training with PB I, PB II two times and currently on PB III)

Believing in the calculators the internet provides I should be eating about 3000 cal/day to get to my estimated ideal weight of about 89kg. (1m76cm height).

I do want to lose the love handles that are still there although I have visible abs, but I dont want to lose much of my strength. So I figured I could try to eat in maintainance mode to not lose too much strength but lose the last 4-5 kg over a longer time is the possible?

I got a little bit lost here.

Back to my first question. Would just eat say 5000 calories make me so much stronger than eating just about 200-300 cal surplus?
I mean there must be a limit to how much energy my body can put into strength without just adding fat to my body.

Thanks as always and sorry for spaming the forum but I find it hard to get such good advise anywhere around me.

Joshua,

I would not say that eating 5,000 Cal/day would reliably make you stronger than eating a 200 to 300 Calorie surplus. You have plenty of evidence around us to know that isn’t true.

I would use this to predict your energy needs: Body Weight Planner - NIDDK

-Jordan