calorie/protein intake question

[vinnie700]

hey all, havnt really posted on these forums much (or at all i think) but have been reading for a while. anyway just had a question about calorie and protein intake while trying to gain muscle mass. first off, im 23 years old, 6'0 tall, 80kgs, 11% bodyfat. i dont want to do an all out dirty bulk and just gain numbers on the scale. i just want to go hard but take my time and try and keep my fat levels reasonably low so i can spend more time muscle building and less time cutting in the long run. i train every second day at the moment with a general full body muscle/nervous system stimulating work out (heavy load bearing compound exercises), similar to the squats and milk cycle routine, and mostly focusing on the diet/nutrition for growth. i only mainly eat whole foods for calorie consumption, and have 2 protein shakes a day (250 cal each) and 2 litres of milk (no mass gainer shakes), 2000mg glucosime, 2 flax oil caps, 1 mens multi. so all keeping it pretty basic and consistent for now. (will go back to individual muscle group per day type workouts after i finished this current 6 week plan, then throw it back in again every couple months).

Now heres my question! ive calculated i need about 4300 calories to grow. basically what i want to know is, if i dont get my minimum calorie intake amount during the day, but im having surplus protein will my muscles still grow because they are still getting the required protein feed? or will they at least be maintained, or will they actually get smaller if this calorie restriction continued for a while (theoretically speaking) even with the surplus protein intake. im not talking massive restriction. im just saying, if i was to be having slightly less calorie intake than output for a certain amount of time, but had surplus protein intake.

and yeah obviously i know that i need surplus calories and protein to get good gains, and i know its just common sense that if your putting in less calories than your consuming then your not going to get any gains. but how much of an effect is it when having surplus protein for the muscle growth, just slightly not meeting calorie requirements.

its kind of a confusing question but i hoped i worded it properly for you guys to understand. and any advice about any of my workout/nutrition/calorie intake requirements would be much appreciated.

cheers, vinnie.

[Dyceast]

I dont think any1 could really tell you over the net...

How long and how ofter do you under eat your callories really?

A day or 2? Then i doubt anything will change... A month or 2 +...

If your asking will your muscles go from eating less carbs/fat and more protein... well that is the common way of how most people cut... So you would drop your weight nice and slow, but keep some/most of your muscle gains depending how long you undereat for and what you eat and train etc..

As for getting more gains, ever1 is different and some could gain muscle that wasy, as some couldnt. That would have to be through trial and error...

I say keep as close to you needed calories if your wanting to gain muscle... But if you slip up here and there, dont sweat it... It wont do anything major... Long term slip ups well thens another question lol

[BigPauli]

I let the Tape Measure be my friend. You know your bodyfat %, so I presume you are keeping track of waist, arm etc measurements. Also, I cycle my calorie intake. Seems to work for me.