Diet setup critique

[Scott Stevenson]

Thanks for the response Altamir..

My whole thinking around this is that I want to be in a 2-300 kcal surplus so that I facilitate muscle growth without excess fat gain.. yes fat gain is inevitble but if I can keep it at bay and stop packing it on as quick then in turn my off-season / gaining phase will be hella more productive, lengthy and more successful. The last thing I want to do is 2 blasts and have to mini cut to bring things back in line such as insulin sensitivity etc.

Also in regards to the kcal per lb equations they were just listed so that whoever read this had an indication as to where they were at relative to body weight.

I have been gaining weight @ approx .5lb a week throughout my blast however LOSING weight throughout the cruise (no training period) which indicates my surplus is coming from training days hence the loss of weight during the cruise. The surplus itself is obviously quite high to offset the deficit on a rest day and I am curious as to whether I would be better off bringing them more in line with one another rather than sitting at one end of the spectrum on a training day (surplus) and the other on a rest day (deficit).

Essentially would I be better off by doing the following:

Sitting at a 300kcal surplus overall on a training day and sat at maintenance on a rest day which in turn gives me 1200 kcal surplus across the week.

or....

Doing what I am doing now which is sitting at a 700 kcal surplus on a training day and a 400 kcal deficit on a rest day which in turn gives me a 1200 kcal surplus across the week.


You can see that the weekly surplus is exactly the same come the end of the week but is there a benefit to doing one over the other?

What is the most optimal way ?

Sorry if it didnt come across that way throughout my OG post.

If the progress during the Blasts is good (as it sounds) and you're regressing only during the Cruises, I would simply eat more during the cruises. You could increase kcal during the non-training days (same foods, etc. just more) or have a day or two during the latter part of the IC (when not training) that's a "re-feed" of sorts.

I would bet you'll come back felling really good and quite strong doing this.

How much weight are you losing during the Cruises?... (And how much strength, if any?... Or do you rebound strength-wise despite the weight loss?...)

-S