Weekly nutrition timing

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

It’s been a while, but the last info I remember reading on nutrient timing and meal spacing showed it didn’t really matter much. Macro was overwhelmingly king for non-competitors. I’m focusing on hypertrophy for this question.

I don’t remember there being studies on variation throughout the week, though.

Do you believe there would be significant different hypertrophy outcomes between a balanced daily weight gain phase versus:

  1. Intermediate, mid 30s lifter
  2. Working out 3/4 times during weekdays
  3. Under maintenance during weekdays (~300 calories under)
  4. Over maintenance on weekends. Enough to have a mild weekly surplus (0.25-0.5 % weekly weight gain)

This type of diet plan would be easiest for me to stick to (family man!) as I transition from weight loss back to muscle building. I am concerned the proportion of fat/muscle gain will be less than favorable, though.

Thoughts?

2

I suspect little to no differences here, as my understanding on energy balance suggests a much longer period of “reckoning” over multiple weeks to months. Day-to-day changes in energy intake don’t really predict weight trajectory or body comp, though I think fueling workouts is important and wouldn’t want some training days to be ultra low if it’s avoidable.

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