Xxain said:
Mummelmann said:
It's usually about the balance of nutrients. While proteins are the building blocks for the expansion of muscle cells, carbs are the fuel (glucose). If your blood glucose levels are too low on average, and especially during or around workouts, you will not only see subpar performance but also a smaller degree of hypertrophy since low blood glucose typically means inhibited protein synthesis and thus less actual use of said building blocks. One of the most common dietary mistakes is not filling up the blood glucose levels after a workout, limiting the body's ability to and interest in building muscle. Strength gain is somewhat easier since it's more about neural adaptation than the actual size of the muscle itself (in other words; two muscles of roughly equal size can be neurally adapted to performing at completely different levels), but there is, of course, a connection between the size and strength of a muscle as well.
Proponents of keto diets will argue that one doesn't need carbs at all, or very little of it. The problem with that is that the majority of people who attempt to go into ketosis don't actually succeed in doing so, or they do at an intermittent rate. Either way, they're unlikely to become free of glucose dependency in their training (keto diets are really hard for most people).
TLDR: Calories are only a piece of the puzzle, nutrients are more important, specifically the balance between them and to a lesser extent the timing of their intake.
PS: For simultaneous weight loss and muscle gain, one should be in a small-to-moderate caloric deficit, any more than that and you run the risk of sending your body into a fat saving mode with the added issue of it "eating" its own muscle mass for energy. My own daily maintenance level for calories would be around 3500 at my current rate of activity, I hover right around the 3000 mark currently. Note that it usually takes quite a bit longer to recomposition one's body than it does to bulk it up and then cut fat in separate cycles.
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It is not recommended for the underexperiended to attempt body recomposition. That is advanced along timing of macro intake. Keep it simple.
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It's not immensely complicated, but you do have a point. The caloric deficit should be roughly the same when you're simply aiming for weight loss as well though, a larger deficit will cause problems and won't really help anyone long term. And the contents of the calories matter a whole lot, even when not attempting body recomposition. I'd probably recommend straight up weight loss anyway for someone inexperienced, they would have the added benefit of building muscle really quickly once into the bulking phase.
