Question...

[ZanderBlair]

I was considering muscle/strength/weight gains and how they relate to each other. Firstly, if you are adding muscle and some fat at the same time, is there any actual advantage to eating well over maintenance and adding a considerable amount of fat, as opposed to eating enough to add muscle but limit the amount of fat gained? Improved recovery time? More energy? Better leverage? And, given that muscle is not a direct measure of strength, is it easier to build strength whilst adding more fat/eating much more food?

The strongest men in the world are generally the fattest/pretty fat (olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, WSM etc. without a weight limit)... I was not considering becoming a blob in order to be strong, and of course 'enhancing agents' are a part of the equation for a lot of said competitions, but i was quite curious.

[craig1014]

Strength is composed of things like neural efficiency, movement efficiency, and muscle size. Efficiency can't be improved by adding more fat. With regards to muscle size, its highly likely there is a maximum amount of muscle you can put on in a certain time frame. This will be determined by genetics, adequate load, and adequate energy for growth. The genetics and loading aren't going to be influenced by calories. Energy for growth will be influenced by calories. But once this energy requirement is met, I can't see how any further calories will enhance muscular growth.

In terms of a real world example, I don't think you would get more muscle growth eating 12000kcal per day than if you ate 6000kcal.

[MJ.23]

The reason a lot of strongmen are fat is simply because they do not take care over their diet. They are all very much aware that diet is key to anyones training but do not see the necessity to constantly monitor macronutrient intake and instead just favour eating an awful lot of food. They are not looking to get up on stage here.

There are many strongmen who are very lean (Poundstone for one) and are just as strong as someone with a gut. Having a little fat around the joints can be beneficial in stability but apart from that it is just down to lazy eating habits.

The larger you get the more food you need to intake to support your growing frame. Brian Shaw at 200kg must consume an awfully large amount of food. Jon Pall Sigmarsson used to go up to 20,000 calories before a competition. He was incredibly lean at many points in his career.

It also boils down to strength athletes being concerned that their calories are under maintenance. If you do not consume enough food your strength will suffer; and perhaps they rigidly make sure they are over by just eating loads of food.

You can become just as strong as the fat guys by being sensible with your diet.

[ZanderBlair]

Yeah, that guy is a beast! (Sigmarsson) 20,000 calories, not to be sniffed at haha.

I guess strength is the primary concern and in the end they do just make sure there is no chance of underfeeding. In some of the WSM events extra bodyweight might come in handy (a belly seems useful in an axle clean!), but also some of the speed events would surely suffer. In olympic weightlifting, there were a few ripped superheavies (Kurlovic comes to mind) but were the exception rather than the norm. Extra fat definitely gives them extra stability, especially in the snatch.

Thanks for the replies, motivates me to keep my diet under control but adequate, think I've been guilty of not eating enough in the past to keep up with my levels of activity.