ERIC HELMS: IS BULKING DEAD & MAINGAINING IN? | EP. 209
Chasing Clarity: Health & Fitness PodcastShow Notes
A lot of people still think muscle gain is simple: eat more to gain more muscle.
But the real question is: do you actually need an energy surplus to maximize hypertrophy or do you just need to be out of a deficit, training hard, and executing consistently?
In this episode, I’m joined by return guest Dr. Eric Helms to break down the relationship between weight gain, rate of gain, and muscle growth — including what the research actually shows and how to apply it in the real world.
TOPICS WE COVER: IS AN ENERGY SURPLUS NEEDED FOR MAXIMIZING MUSCLE GAIN (SLATER ET AL.) WHAT PREVIOUS WORK LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR YOUR RECENTLY RELEASED WEIGHT GAIN STUDY? A BREAKDOWN OF THE HELMS ET AL. 2023 STUDY “EFFECT OF SMALL AND LARGE ENERGY SURPLUSES ON STRENGTH, MUSCLE, AND SKINFOLD THICKNESS IN RESISTANCE-TRAINED INDIVIDUALS: A PARALLEL GROUPS DESIGN” HOW TO TRACK MUSCLE GAIN PROGRESS IN THE REAL WORLD
If you want a smarter framework for building muscle without blindly force-feeding calories, this one will bring a lot of clarity. WHERE TO CONNECT WITH ME:
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More from Chasing Clarity: Health & Fitness Podcast
What if you could cut a significant amount of time off your workouts without sacrificing the training volume and hypertrophic stimulus you need to keep progressing?
For most of my career I would have told you spot reduction was a myth, and I would have been right to, because that’s what the evidence supported at the time. But over the last decade the research has moved, and it changed my position from “this is impossible” to “this is a small, real effect you can take advantage of under very specific conditions.”
What actually separates the people who successfully lose body fat, keep it off, and build a better physique from those who spend years bouncing between diets without making lasting progress?
Everyone wants to know if you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time. But the more important question is how you actually program for it.
Do refeeds and diet breaks actually improve fat loss, preserve your metabolism and help you maintain more muscle, or do they simply give you more calories and slow down your diet?