MariposasBulking
Bulking is a deliberate training phase where someone eats above their maintenance calories with the goal of gaining muscle mass, accepting that some body fat will accumulate alongside that muscle. The core idea is that muscle tissue is expensive to build, and the body does it far more efficiently when it has a consistent caloric surplus to draw from. The nuance most people miss is the difference between a 'lean bulk' and an aggressive surplus. Eating 200 to 300 calories above maintenance tends to produce slower but cleaner gains with less fat storage, while eating 500 or more above maintenance speeds up the scale but often means a longer, harder cut afterward. Bulking also typically involves training that prioritizes progressive overload, since the extra calories are only useful if there's a stimulus demanding muscle growth. The phase is usually paired with deliberate tracking, either of calories or body weight trends, so that the surplus stays in a useful range rather than ballooning out of control.
Example
A 170-pound lifter calculating their maintenance at roughly 2,800 calories might set a bulking target of 3,100 calories daily, tracking weekly weigh-ins to confirm they're gaining around 0.5 to 1 pound per week. If the scale moves faster than that, they trim a snack; if weight stalls for two weeks straight, they nudge calories up. Over a 16-week bulk they might add 8 to 12 pounds, with the expectation that a portion of that is water, glycogen, and some fat alongside new muscle.