Hi Scott and John :)

I wonder how if my total daily calorie intake should be the same on the working days and ret days? I'm targetting 2800 daily calorie intake. Should I take every day the same amount or split them, for example, to 2500 on rest days and 2900 on working days knowing that my workout days are 5?

Another question please, is it ok to do carbs cycling when doing a clean bulking? if yes, to how much extend I should reduce my carbs percentage and I assume the reduction should be in rest days, right?

Thanks

@Akahwaji if you are in a surplus to gain muscle, keep your calories the same everyday, including rest days, that's when you are growing. You can definitely do carb cycling though, so it would be smart to reduce the carbs on your rest days, but increase your fats and protein to make sure you are still getting enough calories overall to still be in a surplus.

Scott is correct. Calories need to remain the same for rest and training days. Carb cycling is a tool to ensure you are gaining lean mass and reducing potential bidy fat gain when in a calorie surplus for growth.

When I carb cycle, I make my total carbs 40-45% of my daily calories on workout days and 25-30% on rest days. My fats decrease on workout days and increase on rest days - to counteract the raising and lowering of carbs. Protein stays the same. Total calories in are a bit higher on workout days and lower on rest days. I, however, am not going for muscle gain but rather maintaining my current mass and staying lean.

John

Thanks you all :)

I'm confused. A while back I posted this same question about how many calories I need on workout days vs. rest days, and you both told me that on rest days I can reduce my calories as long as I remain in a surplus. But now you're both saying they need to stay the same on both workout and rest days. Can you please clarify.

Hey @nyyanks937, sorry about that! It's kind of a person-by-person thing with diet.. not everyone works the same way, and for you only working out three days a week, you probably didn't/don't need as many calories on your off days if you're not really being active at all. @Akahwaji is going to be training 5 days per week so could use the extra calories.

I was just going back through that discussion we had and you were worried about being on the higher end of the intake scale on your off days. So yes, maybe I should have told you to aim for the same calories no matter what and simply reduced carbs but increased fats and protein on off days.. but.. what kind of results have you been seeing so far with 2200 calories on rest days? I did mention in my last post that 2200 might be too low but you never replied 😊

Oh ok. I'm unsure what you mean by I "was worried about being on the higher end of the intake scale" on my rest days. The reason I asked that question initially was because I was having trouble eating enough to reach my calories goal, so I asked if I can lower my calories on rest days to make things easier for myself, and you guys said I can as long as I stay in a surplus on rest days. Unfortunately I haven't been seeing the results I expected so far...but over the past couple of weeks I've increased my calories by 100 on both workout and rest days to see if that helps. If it still doesn't I guess I'll increase them a bit more. Getting the 2200 (now 2300) on rest days hasn't really been an issue...it's the 2600 (now 2700) on workout days that, although I have been able to reach consistently, has been hard.

Yeah so like I say, it's trial and error. You had made it clear that getting the calories in was going to be difficult, so if you could try to stay in a gaining phase with lower calories, you needed to try it because that's what fitted your lifestyle best - make sense?

Now that you HAVE tried it, you know you need more calories. No problem. Getting 2600 daily shouldn't be too much of an issue at all.. what are your macros at for your 2300 calorie days currently? I'll give you some suggestions of what macros to increase and foods you can use 😁 

@Akahwaji you are welcome man!!

If you are trying to gain muscle, you must be in a calorie surplue everyday - workout and rest days - from your TDEE. If your TDEE is 2,500 calories, then you need to eat 3,000 calories everyday to gain muscle (a 500 calorie surplus).

The calorie reduction option is if you want to minimize fat gain a bit more while gaining muscle. If we take the same TDEE of 2,500 calories, what we mean is on workout days you still eat 3,000 calories but on rest days you can lower it to 2,800 calories. You still are in a 300 calorie surplus over your TDEE of 2,500 but you are eating 200 calories less on your rest days. This forces your body to look for the missing 200 calories from body fat.

Calorie surpluses (to gain muscle) and calorie deficits (to lose fat) should be in the 250-500 calorie range each day. What I outlined above is just a way to reduce the calories a bit on rest days to make the body use a bit more fat as fuel. You do not have to do this and the easiest way is just to eat the same calorie surplus or deficit each day to gain muscle or lose fat.

John

When I was aiming for 2200 on rest days, you said I should get 150g carbs, 200g protein, and 90g fat. Since I've increased it to 2300 I haven't paid much attention to where those addition 100 calories come from, but they come from all three macros, so now it's slightly above those three numbers.

Thanks gentlemen for the positive discussion. Can I summaries the conclusion as the below with assuming the TDEE is 2500:

* 3000 calorie on daily basis is a good option to build muscles.

* 3000 calorie on daily basis with cycling carbs on rest days is a smart option to minimise gained fat and build lean muscles.

* 2800/3000 on rest/workout days is a good option to minimise gained fat and build lean muscles.

* 2800/3000 on rest/workout days with cycling carbs on rest days is the best and smartest option to minimise gained fat and build lean muscle?

Thanks :)

So fat can go up to 100g - that's 90 calories more right there. Then you can probably add another 25g-35g of carbs for an extra 100 calories, and probably throw in about 20g more for protein too. That would take your numbers too..

Protein: 220g (880 Calories)

Carbs: 180g (720 Calories)

Fat: 110g (990 Calories)

Total Calories = 2590

Think you could hit these numbers and gauge your progress? Because you're bulking you could add a little more carbs to workout days and then lower them again on your rest days while increasing fat and protein to still hit your total calories.

@Akahwaji that's right bro you have got it figured out!! That would in theory keep you in a 300-500 calorie surplus daily which is perfect for adding mass, and the carb cycling will help kee the gains lean! 💪 

Well on workout days I already get 250g of carbs. The 150g we're talking about applies to rest days. My protein and fat stay the same for both days. This is what you suggested for me on the other post. Although I could hit the 2590, I'd rather not jump all the way there right away since that's pretty much what I get on workout days (prior to my recent 100 calories increase) which is difficult enough as it is for me, hence my initial question of whether or not I could get fewer calories on rest days. I'd rather increase by 100 calories at a time for a few weeks to see if that works...if I don't see progress I'll just keep working my way up haha.

Well.. you can increase it slowly, yeah. But if you haven't been seeing the results you want, it's only a 200-300 calorie jump from 2300 - 2600 right? So I would do it over maybe 10-14 days if you can.

You can keep the carbs at 250g on workout days then - sorry for throwing so many numbers at you, but with all the posts I do it's hard to remember exact numbers I have given people all the time haha.

But yeah, aside from that, work on hitting those numbers over the next week or so 😊