Suppose I go 1000 cal. over maintenance on bulk. I gain good mass but also fat, then I drop 500 cal. and I am now at maintenance or still higher. Will I drop fat? or keep the fat and continue to add muscle if still over maintenance?
I'm thinking I would drop some fat if I reduce calories, but then again, if I'm still over maintenance, that couldnt be right. Some thoughts, please.
1000 calories is a pretty big surplus to create, unless you're highly active. You'll see a lot of members on the board say to not factor calories burned in exercise. I disagree with that, though I see their reason. I imagine they worry that most people will overcompensate for calories burned, and wind up eating too much. However, if you create a 500 calorie surplus, but walk 5km a day, run 5km after a workout, and train for an hour or longer you're going to easily run yourself into a minor calorie deficit, and gains won't come.
My suggestion is create a moderate surplus that partially accounts for your activity level. On training days I create a 700-1000 calorie surplus, but I (a) walk about 5km a day, (b) am following a volume program, and (c) am training for a half marathon. With the calories I burn in a training day this brings me to about a little bit over maintenance. It balances well.
However, on non-training days, where I try to rest completely, besides walking, I eat only about 100-200 calories over maintenance. Overall, this keeps my weekly surplus to only about 1200-1700, meaning it would take me about 2 weeks to gain 1 pound of fat. This is clean bulking. I track my diet, eat nothing but whole foods, and I gain muscle steadily without significant fat gain.
Now, to specifically address your question:
If you eat 1000 calories over maintenance every day, you'll theoretically gain 1 pound of fat in approximately 3.5 days (3500 calories = 1 lb fat). That's assuming no burned calories, though. Realistically, it might be more like 4.5-5 days, or whatever.
You can drop the calories on non-training days, which will level out your fat gain considerably. However, between those two days that's a pretty aggressive bulk.
The body can develop muscle only so fast. This is why it's difficult to find the perfect balance of calories in vs. calories out. With a 1000 calorie surplus you'll make fast gains, but of the weight gained it's likely that lean muscle will comprise only a small proportion.
The only way to lose this gained fat is to create a calorie deficit; in other words, to stop bulking and cut. Some people think they can just switch between bulk days and cut days, but the body doesn't function like that. The body wants to either be creating or losing, and you can't ask it to do both at the same time. Devote some time to building new tissue, then devote some time to maintain that tissue while losing the fat surrounding it.
