Impact of Calories on Strength Gains

[chaddukes]

I've been wondering about this for a while. I meant to ask this before but hadn't gotten around to it. Then I noticed this while reading the thread below.

http://forums.jpfitness.com/tr aining-discussion/38917-frustrating-squat-problem.html

Originally Posted by Squat Rack

I've never quiet understood why this is the case. Strength gains, from my understanding, have to do with the nervous system being able to recruit more motor units. But I've always read people saying you need to be in a caloric surplus to gain strength.


Reading your later posts, it seems you mean eat more for hypertrophy, which then can help you get stronger. Is this the case? Or is a caloric surplus somehow directly linked to strength gains?

Not sure if I'm making any sense!

That's exactly what I've been wondering.


From my basic knowledge it seems like strength is a combination of two basic factors; hypertrophy and neurological efficiency. Obviously, I'm over simplifying. It seems that the neurological components outweigh hypertrophy.


So, I'm trying to figure out what impact calories play in all of this. It's obvious that they are a prerequisite for the hypertrophy part of strength, but what about the neurological part. Part of my curiousity comes from the experiences I've had in the last six months or so of losing weight, but still getting alot stronger. Now, admittedly I'm a newbie, so my experiences aren't going to be the same for anyone with any real training age. I've had days where I was light on calories and lifted heavy without any issues. I've also had days where I've lifted and was so wiped out that I couldn't get through the workout. But, my best days have been the day or after a cheat day!


So, how much of an impact does caloric intake have on the neurological component of the development of strength?

[LisaS]

I would think that some of what you might have experienced is not merely calories but the fact that after a big eating day your glycogen stores are full topped off and so when you're muscles are looking for sugar they have it available in abundance. Plus if you were eating plenty of meat (your natural source of creatine) you would have possibly topped off your creatine stores - again, favoring ready energy in the muscles when needed.

But you could perhaps have had the identical effects on your stores with targeted eating and not just having a caloric excess.
Who really knows?

[chaddukes]

Originally Posted by LisaS

I would think that some of what you might have experienced is not merely calories but the fact that after a big eating day your glycogen stores are full topped off and so when you're muscles are looking for sugar they have it available in abundance. Plus if you were eating plenty of meat (your natural source of creatine) you would have possibly topped off your creatine stores - again, favoring ready energy in the muscles when needed.

But you could perhaps have had the identical effects on your stores with targeted eating and not just having a caloric excess.
Who really knows?

I totally agree. And thats kind of what I was getting at. I'm sure that having good peri-workout nutrition can have an effect on your energy levels during a workout. If you eat a large portion of your calories around your workout you can have energy and sustain a deficit. But, can you maintain glycogen stores this way? And what about recovery?

And while energy is important from a stand point of getting through a workout, what if you can force yourself to get through it anyway? Would you still have the same benefit?

It's a lot of hypotheticals and it's not going to change what I'm doing right now. I don't want this to look like a paralysis by analysis situation. I'm just curious.

[cycomiko]

Its not always so acute, but rather the long term impact of caloric restriction on the body, andin some cases, macronutrient restriction.

Cellular energy changes, muscle area changes, leverage changes, neural output/neural drive, yada yada yada

The noob nature of your performance will hide some fo the effects of caloric restriction on strength. Somebody who has already been around and gotten to ~90-95% of their maximum possible performance is going to have more issues.

[karky]

calorie balance has en effect on (myofibrillar)hypertrophy (muscles becoming bigger) which make you stronger.
Then of course there is the energy stuff, glycogen stores, etc.

[Frank.S]

I think something to consider as well is recovery. I know when I am eating more, recovery between workouts is much faster, in turn that means more rest and better prepared to make strength gains the next workout.