MUSCLE BUILDING THE 4 BIG BOULDERS

1 A CALORIE SURPLUS

People with a low training age can build muscle on maintenance calories (energy in equal to energy out) and even a calorie deficit (energy out greater than energy in), this is commonly known as newbie gains. But once you have a couple of years of “proper” training under your belt those gains will be minimal if any, so in order to build muscle your body requires extra available energy, this is achieved through a calorie surplus (energy in greater than energy out), otherwise, where is your body going to get the energy required to build that muscle?

The size of the surplus will vary from person to person and can change over time for an individual. A good starting point is to calculate your maintenance calories using a simple online TDEE (total