To gain muscle, you need to be in a calorie surplus. To many people, that sounds easy--so easy, that it makes them question whether they even need to track their food. Why not just try to eat more?
But there are several reasons you should still track while in a muscle gain phase.
1. To make consistent, controlled progress.
If you’re not tracking, you’re not sure exactly how much of a surplus you’re in--or if you’re even in a surplus at all. If you aren’t in a surplus, you may not be making progress. Just like during a fat loss phase, macros need to be adjusted over time on a muscle gain setting because your metabolism adapts.
2. To limit unwanted fat gain.
Since a muscle building phase will necessitate putting on weight, some of that weight will always be fat. But an uncontrolled surplus (from not tracking) carries much more risk of “overshooting” and putting on more fat than necessary. Your body can only put so many calories toward building muscle each, so the more calories you add on top of that, the more fat you’ll gain without speeding up muscle growth.
3. To ensure that you’re getting enough protein, which is essential to building muscle.
Many people struggle to reach their protein needs even when they are tracking. It’s even harder when they’re not tracking. That means not tracking isn’t a safe way to ensure you’ll make the best progress while trying to build muscle.