Calories To Build A Pound Of Muscle

[Doc Bunkum]

So I'm looking at some numbers today. We've all heard the number 3500 given for calories in a pound of fat. Not as common is the figure of 700-800 calories in a pound of muscle.

It would stand to reason then, one would think, that to build a pound of muscle all you would have to do is consume an extra 700-800 calories for a couple of weeks and train hard.

But it's not so simple. Apparently, from what I read, to build a pound of muscle tissue requires over 45,000 calories. Muscle anabolism and catabolism are not reversibly equivalent - the anabolism part has an almost unbelievably high energy cost.

Which makes a lot of sense as anyone that's tried to add muscle mass knows it's not that easy.

But given these numbers has another interesting take.

A lot of people, females in particular, are reluctant to add weight training to their exercise/diet plan for fear of adding muscle.

Well, if these numbers are correct, we can see that's almost impossible. If you're cutting calories and are in a deficit to your daily needs, then what are the chances of adding new muscle if it takes 47,000 calories to add a new pound of muscle?

What you will get is toned, firmed and shapely muscles from lifting weights, but the chances of getting huge are slim to nil.

Same thing you hear about guys wanting to lose weight and build muscle. Well, which way is it? It's almost impossible to do both when you look at the numbers.

source:
(about half way down the page he starts crunching the numbers - talking about "the energy cost of making one mole of protein" and lots of other fun stuff.

Uh, Steve, have you run across these numbers before?

 

[Steve]

I've seen similar numbers in terms of the number of calories in one pound of muscle. I have not seen the number in terms of caloric requirements to build one pound of muscle. Is it accurate? Let's see how it plays out in real life....

My maintenance intake is roughly 2800 calories.

I bulk using something like a 3500 calorie intake.

If it requires 45,000 calories to build one pound of muscle, my 700 calories surplus would add one pound of muscle to my frame in 64 days. That would mean I'd be adding 5-6 lbs of muscle per year.

And ya know what, that actually isn't too far from reality to be honest. It's tough for me to add 10 lbs of muscle in a years time at my stage.

Novices can add much more muscle each year, but there's more to hypertrophy at their stage. They can add muscle in the face of a deficit since they have 'magical' partitioning abilities given their fat and/or untrained status.

But experienced lifters add muscle very slowly in my experience.

I've seen figures where people with an advanced 'training age' can expect gains in lean mass of about .5 - 1% of total body weight per month. At 190, that would put me at near 1.5 lbs per month if I'm splitting that range in the middle which is aggressive in my opinion. But that comes from some reputable trainers with a ton of experience and I can't say I'm the most consistent when it comes to training for hypertrophy. But if their figures are accurate, that would mean the 45,000 calories figure is overstated by quite a bit.

Incidentally, here is a quote Lyle provided from a text he has. How accurate is it? Who the hell knows. I don't know how applicable it is b/c I really think, as noted above, it depends on so many factors such as training age, fat mass, p-ratio (partitioning ability), etc. Anyhow....

"Muscle tissue consists of about 70% water, 22% protein and te remainder is fat, carbohydrate and minserals. Bcause the vast majority of muscle tissue is water, which has no caloric value, the total caloric value is only about 700-800 calories per pound of muscle. However, extra enegy is needed to synthesize the muscle tissue

It is not known exactly how many calories are necessary to form 1 pound of muscle tissue in human beings, nor it is konwn in what form these calories have to be consumed. The National research councile notes that 5 calories are needed to support the adition of 1 gram of tissue during growth, while Forbes cites a value of 8 cal per gram in adults. Because 1 pound equals 454 grams, a range of 2300-3500 extra calories appears to be a reasonable amount....A study by Robert Bartels and his associates at Ohio State U revealed that an additional 500 calories per day resulted in nearly a 1 pound increase in lean boyd mass per week during a resistance-training program."

 

[Doc Bunkum]

I'm curious where those numbers on that link I gave came from. A physiology text of some sort?

Of course, there has to be an upper genetic limit to how much mass you can pack on your frame no matter how hard you train or what you eat, unless you start resorting to using some funny stuff.

I looked for that study by Bartels, but came up empty. An additional 500 calories per day resulted in nearly a 1 pound increase in lean body mass per week during a resistance-training program?

Hello?

Interesting too that Robert Bartels Ohio State U is a marketing prof.

No, I don't think anyone can pinpoint a number that would result in a pound gain of lean body mass, but I believe it's a lot higher than 700-800 calories.

 

[Steve]

Yea, I'm not real sure. I like the simple math I did above regarding my own experience. Seems to be the most telling.