What's the reason for bulking up?

Question

There is a popular fb page that represents bodybuilders in my nation , admins always speak about how you should eat lots of food to pack on muscle mass.They actually recommend that people should eat lots of carbohydrates along with protein to bulk up . I don't get it , i mean from what i've learnt carbohydrate is just only the fuel we need if i ate the carbs i need daily for my daily activities including the workout i won't gain fat weight plus i would be gaining muscle mass.Then, why should i be eating more than my needs ???

Maybe, I need to get my facts corrected ....

Answer 1

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expendature. There are 2 questions here.

1. Why do you need to eat more than normal to pack on muscle?
2. Why can't you use carbohydrates only?

Question 1

If you eat at your TDEE level you should not put on or lose any weight provided you don't change your daily activities drastically. To efficiently gain muscle you need to work out, this raises your TDEE to a higher-than-normal level. To ensure your body has both the fuel it needs to work at a sustained intensive rate and that your body can recover, creating muscle mass: you need to eat at your new, higher TDEE.

Question 2

Its not just matching activity to TDEE there are other factors to consider. Lifting heavy weight means your central nervous system will take a pounding. It will also mean your sleep is more important. If you over eat, you will have more energy to hit the higher weights in your workout. The protein is there to give your body the bits to build muscle and the carbs are the fuel.

You can match your activity to your TDEE and eat just enough but it is much, much harder than if you are eating OVER your TDEE. The principle is Bulk and Cut.

Answer 2

So you can be strong.

If you only eat enough calories to replace what you burn through exercise your body will not have the extra energy it needs to build muscle mass.