The Stronger By Science Podcast · StrongerByScience.com

Is Bulking Necessary for Muscle Gain?

·1 hr 50 min·10 clips

A 900-calorie shake isn't actually 900 calories of net surplus.

The show opens with Greg Koppels, Dr. Pack, and Milo Wolff catching up after the last couple episodes. The mood is easy and a little jokey before the segment settles onto bulking and the familiar question of whether muscle gain really needs a dedicated surplus. The tone stays conversational. From there, the conversation shifts into how people estimate maintenance calories, how total daily energy expenditure gets built from BMR and an activity multiplier, and why those numbers often look cleaner on paper than they do in real life. The math gets messy fast. Pack notes that BMR formulas can carry error on the order of 200 calories a day, which is enough to throw off a small surplus before anyone has even started adjusting for activity. That point becomes the spine of the episode. The hosts then work through how a seemingly reasonable 5% surplus can stop looking reasonable once the underlying estimate is already off by a couple hundred calories. They do not treat that uncertainty as a rare edge case. Instead, they treat it as part of the normal process, which keeps the discussion anchored in what lifters actually run into when a bulk feels too fast, too slow, or just hard to pin down. The episode keeps its feet on the gym floor. The conversation also circles around the practical problem that activity multipliers are vague, not especially well-defined, and easy to overtrust when someone wants a precise number to build a diet around. That vagueness matters. The hosts then move from theory to coaching reality, including the idea that if someone has spent a year bulking, put on only about 10 pounds, and found it to be a real grind, a maintenance phase can be a useful way to hold onto habits before moving back toward easier eating. The ending stays patient. The show closes by favoring a slower approach over a dramatic one, with the familiar line that slow and steady wins the race. It is not a mystical message. It is a practical one about accepting error, trimming ambition to something sustainable, and not confusing a calculated number with a law of nature. The result is a discussion that values restraint without getting timid. For lifters who want the evidence translated back into everyday decisions, that balance is the point.

As heard by us

Bulking, minus the fantasy that a calorie formula can do all the work.

This episode treats bulking as a practical problem, not a neat formula. Greg, Pack, and Milo spend much of the conversation on how body-weight goals get turned into calorie targets, and the main point lands early: the math is useful, but not exact enough to make tiny surpluses…

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Why you'd press play

If you are trying to bulk without pretending calorie math is exact, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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