Pound of Muscle, Pound of Fat

[brownbear]

To lose a pound of fat, you must create a caloric deficit of 3500 kcal.

However, how much of a caloric surplus must you create to gain a pound of muscle?

I searched this site and did not find an answer. I found an answer from Google, but it was from a site that said one gram of fat and one gram of protein had the same caloric content, so I don't think the site is too trustworthy.

:confused:

[Keith]

It's impossible to figure this out. It all depends on the individual based on experience, training, rest, stress levels, etc...

But yeah, a gram of fat is 9 calories and protein is 4. So no, that site is not trustworthy.

[brownbear]

Let me rephrase my question a little bit.

How much of a caloric defecit would you need to lose a pound of muscle? As in if you were to use a pound of muscle as fuel, how much energy would result from this process?

I'm not asking this question because I want to cut away muscle, but I'm asking because I recently became ill and could barely consume 500 kcal a day.

End result, I am trying to calculate the maxmium amount of muscle mass I could have lost.

[Holto]

How much of a caloric defecit would you need to lose a pound of muscle?

~600 cals.

Muscle is 70% water.

[BBB]

3500 calories/ 1lb fat x 1 lb fat/453.6 g fat x 1 g fat/9 calories x 4 calories/1 g protein x 453.6 g protein/ 1 lb protein = (3500 x 4) calories / 9 lbs protein = 1555.5 calories/ 1 lb protein