# @luis_villasenor_kg on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcePukuIbvg
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69586688-luis-villasenor-kg-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/928dee271f.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-25T18:11:26.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Luis Villasenor (@luis_villasenor_kg) — https://gondola.cc/luis_villasenor_kg

## Caption

You probably don’t need a 300–500 calorie surplus to build muscle.

A new 2026 preprint tried to estimate the actual energetic cost of constructing 1 kg of human skeletal muscle.

Their estimate?

About 3,481 kcal total.

Spread across 12 weeks, that’s roughly 41 kcal/day.

Basically… a rice cake.

Now, don’t misunderstand this.

That doesn’t mean adding 41 calories magically builds muscle. The calculation estimates the cost of constructing the tissue itself. It doesn’t fully account for training, recovery, remodeling, changes in activity, or individual differences.

But it does challenge one of bodybuilding’s longest-running assumptions:

You have to eat hundreds of calories above maintenance every day to maximize muscle growth.

The limited research we have on intentional bulking points in the same direction: larger surpluses reliably produce more weight gain, but much of that additional weight tends to be fat—not extra muscle.

Muscle growth is rate-limited.

You can’t force-feed hypertrophy.

For most people, I’d rather see:

🥩 Protein prioritized
🏋🏻 Progressive resistance training
⚖️ Calories around maintenance or a small surplus when appropriate
📏 Waist, strength, measurements and photos tracked alongside body weight
🔥 Dietary fat adjusted according to your goal

If you’re carrying significant body fat, you may not need to “bulk” at all. You already have stored energy available.

If you’re lean and advanced, muscle growth becomes increasingly slow—which makes aggressive bulking even harder to justify.

This is why I’ve always preferred body recomposition over simply chasing scale weight.

Protein is a goal.
Carbs are a limit.
Fat is a lever.

Stop trying to gain weight.

Start trying to build muscle.

Join our new Ketogains Bootcamp starting September 7 - Link in Bio.

#Ketogains #BodyRecomposition #MuscleBuilding

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## Tags

bodyrecomposition, musclebuilding, ketogains

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