Hypertrophy Evidence Notes
All topics

Bulk, Cut, or Recomp

A small surplus of up to 0.18–0.35 kg per week is enough for a bulk. Let your waist decide which one to run.

121Last reviewed Verdicts

Verdicts on this page4
  1. CMay be trueWhen trained lifters eat a large surplus, most of the extra weight is fat. A small surplus of about +5–15% is enough.
  2. BProbably trueA calorie deficit blunts muscle gain but not strength gain. At a deficit of about 500 kcal/day on average, muscle gain nearly stops.
  3. CMay be trueEven trained lifters can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time with high protein and progressive training.
  4. DUncertain, inferenceAt 172cm and 70kg, your FFMI is about 19–21 anywhere between 12% and 20% body fat. That leaves 4–6 points below the natural limit of around 25.

Bottom line

At 172cm, 70kg, and 3–4 years of training, you still have plenty of room below the natural limit for muscle mass. Measure your waist (at the navel) to decide which approach to take.

WaistApproachTarget
Up to 84cm (abs faintly visible)Lean bulkMaintenance +5–10%, body weight +0.18–0.35 kg/week
84–88cmRecomp, or a short cutMaintenance calories, protein 2.0–2.2 g/kg
88cm and upCutDeficit of no more than 500 kcal/day, protein 2.3–3.1 g/kg

Every 4 weeks, review your waist and 7-day average body weight. If your waist grows 1cm or more per 1kg gained, shrink the surplus.

Rate of gain

CMay be true

When trained lifters eat a large surplus, most of the extra weight is fat. A small surplus of about +5–15% is enough.

  • An 8-week RCT in 17 trained lifters compared maintenance, +5%, and +15%. The +15% group gained more subcutaneous fat, but muscle thickness barely differed. Rate of weight gain explained 49% of fat gain (Helms 2023)
  • In a 4-week trial in 11 bodybuilders, the high-calorie group also gained much more body fat (Ribeiro 2019)
  • The surplus needed to maximize hypertrophy is still unknown (Slater 2019)
  • A practical target is 0.25–0.5% of body weight per week (Iraki 2019). At 70kg, that is 0.18–0.35 kg/week, or 0.7–1.4kg per month

If maintenance is 2,500–2,700 kcal, the surplus is +130–400 kcal/day. The most accurate way to find maintenance is from your log: over 2–3 weeks, find the intake where your 7-day average weight stays flat.

Building muscle in a deficit

BProbably true

A calorie deficit blunts muscle gain but not strength gain. At a deficit of about 500 kcal/day on average, muscle gain nearly stops.

In a meta-analysis, a calorie deficit reduced lean mass gains (effect size −0.57, Murphy & Koehler 2022). If you cut, keep the deficit within 500 kcal/day (weight loss of 0.5kg per week or less).

Recomp (changing body composition at the same body weight)

CMay be true

Even trained lifters can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time with high protein and progressive training.

A review (Barakat 2020) found several RCTs in trained people that observed both at once. The exception is contest-prep athletes who are already very lean. The changes are small, though, so they are easily lost in measurement error.

Headroom by FFMI

DUncertain, inference

At 172cm and 70kg, your FFMI is about 19–21 anywhere between 12% and 20% body fat. That leaves 4–6 points below the natural limit of around 25.

An FFMI (lean mass ÷ height²) of about 25 was reported as the upper limit for people not using drugs (Kouri 1995). The table below is my own calculation.

Body fatLean massFFMI
12%61.6 kg20.8
15%59.5 kg20.1
20%56.0 kg18.9

Waist-to-height ratio is a better marker of metabolic risk than BMI (Ashwell 2012). The common cutoff is 0.5, which is 86cm at 172cm tall. The boundaries in the first table are based on this.

References

  1. Helms ER et al. 2023. Effect of Small and Large Energy Surpluses on Strength, Muscle, and Skinfold Thickness in Resistance-Trained Individuals: A Parallel Groups Design. Sports Med Open. PMID 37914977 ↩
  2. Ribeiro AS et al. 2019. Effects of Different Dietary Energy Intake Following Resistance Training on Muscle Mass and Body Fat in Bodybuilders: A Pilot Study. J Hum Kinet. PMID 31915482 ↩
  3. Slater GJ et al. 2019. Is an Energy Surplus Required to Maximize Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy Associated with Resistance Training. Front Nutr. PMID 31482093 ↩
  4. Iraki J et al. 2019. Nutrition Recommendations for Bodybuilders in the Off-Season: A Narrative Review. Sports (Basel). PMID 31247944 ↩
  5. Murphy C, Koehler K. 2022. Energy deficiency impairs resistance training gains in lean mass but not strength: A meta-analysis and meta-regression. Scand J Med Sci Sports. PMID 34623696 ↩
  6. Barakat C et al. 2020. Body Recomposition: Can Trained Individuals Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time? Strength Cond J 42(5):7–21. doi:10.1519/SSC.0000000000000584 ↩
  7. Kouri EM et al. 1995. Fat-free mass index in users and nonusers of anabolic-androgenic steroids. Clin J Sport Med. PMID 7496846 ↩
  8. Ashwell M et al. 2012. Waist-to-height ratio is a better screening tool than waist circumference and BMI for adult cardiometabolic risk factors: systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev. PMID 22106927 ↩