Skip to content

How Much Should You Eat on a Bulk?

September 28, 2026 · 38 min

Show notes

Can intermittent fasting help you build muscle without gaining too much fat? In today's episode, we review a new 12-week study comparing lifters who bulked with an eight-hour eating window to lifters who could eat whenever they wanted.

But the most interesting result might have very little to do with time-restricted eating. One group ended up eating considerably more calories and gained more than twice as much fat, yet both groups gained the same amount of muscle and strength.

We discuss what this tells us about intermittent fasting, calorie control, and just how small a surplus you might actually need to maximize muscle growth when bulking.

Timestamps:

***

Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that follow button!

You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam.

Become a part of our Reddit community here.

***

This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden.

To support us, download the world's best gym workout tracker app StrengthLog here. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

If you want a t-shirt with "Train hard, eat well, die anyway", check out our shop here.

All episodes of The Strength Log

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.