[Flabbibulin]

Just a little personal thought on my experience with calories in vs calories out as it relates to bulking or cutting- I have consistently been counting calories for a number of years- I am always intentional with my diet in terms of whether I am trying to bulk or cut, and I know for sure what my caloric intake needs to be for both- and because of that, I can easily gain or lose weight. This initially came down to experimenting with different caloric levels to determine how my body would respond.

Anyway, for me, I have never been able to cut calories down to a deficit level, shed fat and weight, yet gain strength. By the same token, I am not sure I have been in a maintenance zone with no relative weight change, yet gain strength. I think the old adage after all is lean and weak or puffy and strong- I suppose this doesn't always have to be the case, but it certainly is for me. This isn't just a byproduct of the number of calories I am taking in, although certainly a big factor, but also a matter of weight loss being a loss of muscle and fat, with weight gain being an addition of those two (catabolic vs anabolic state). Certainly there are methods and supplements that maximizes one and minimizes the other, but for me strength will always increase or decrease relative to weight gain and weight loss. It is highly debatable how much you can manipulate the ratio of muscle loss:fat loss and conversely muscle gain:fat gain, but I believe, from experience, that high protein is key to both, with carbs being the main thing I manipulate when bulking or cutting.

Hope that isn't a bunch of blah blah blah... just what I have found, the summary being that strength has always been a correlation of my weight- directly or indirectly.