I'm having this discussion on another board as we speak. Here's some highlights:
1) Training for hypertrophy/bulking is the same concept as training to maintain muscle while losing fat; the difference is in the amount of volume and progression in weight that you can support. Maintaining requires much less volume, and in turn represents much less of a stress on the system.
If you're bulking you can scale up the volume and diversify the weights/rep ranges you use. For a calorie deficit condition, you need to maximize the economy of your training.
2) Using strength-endurance methods (high reps, intermittent/interval work, etc) is occasionally useful as accessory work, but should not be the emphasis. Optimally heavy weights with low to moderate volumes will stimulate the hypertrophy pathways/blunt the atrophy pathways without causing some of the problems inherent to metabolic work.
If you use these methods, diet needs to be adjusted accordingly; AMPK will antagonize the Akt/mTOR pathway responsible for protein synthesis if glycogen is depleted. Good for fat loss, not so good for hanging on to muscle.
You have to have some kind of balance in play.
3) Heavy is better, but only to a point. From a return on investment standpoint, working with a handful of sets in the 4-8RM range will likely be the best bet. Keeping the volume in check, and not chasing after PRs is important; the less calories you have, the less of each you need. Too heavy is bad because it won't provide adequate stimulus; too light is bad for the same reason.
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