Right Direction Part II

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Jordan,

I tried replying to my original thread on 11/4 and 11/11 2021. Didn’t get another reply. It was suggested when I emailed support to start a new thread.

Original thread https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/forums/nutrition-q-a-with-dr-jordan-feigenbaum/69720-the-right-direction

My question

Jordan,

Not sure if it’s better to create a new topic or reactivate this old one but my question is related to this one. As stated previously you mentioned that you didn’t think I needed to lose more weight unless I wanted to. Well I have been hanging out around 198-202lbs and a 34.5"-35" waist for a little over a month now.

My desire is to gain muscle size and I know to do that I need to be in a slight caloric surplus but my concern is being only 2.5" away from the 37" waist cut off. I’m assuming in a slight surplus and slow gain it might take some time before I reach 37" (hopefully) but once I get there is it immediately “hit the brakes back up my friend” and cut again? Or in order to gain muscle size does one have to be comfortable with staying at that higher waist size or even going slightly over it for a period of time before cutting again?

2

Brian,

The science of muscle gain isn’t as clear as we’d like it to be, which results in a number of unknowns. For example, we don’t know if muscle gain is greater on a slight surplus than at maintenance level. We do have data showing greater muscle gain with larger surpluses, though it looks like concomitant fat gains are also higher.

To answer your questions, I think if you’re getting close to the 37" waist circumference then your approach could use some tweaks, e.g. programming, size of surplus, other lifestyle factors, etc.

I think gaining a lot of muscle involves people weighing more than they would otherwise want to weigh for periods of time, yes.

-Jordan