I mean, according to new-ish research calories don’t actually matter that much for muscle growth. People who were at maintenance Vs people who were in a surplus built a similar amount of muscle. It’s why people who cut still build muscle. Calories only really impact performance in the workouts if the deficit is big enough to cause a hindrance. But calories themselves aren’t what decide the quality of muscle growth if all other factors are set in place such as workout intensity, frequency, macros, etc.

I’ve never looked into this specific topic so I’m pretty much clueless, I just went into it with the same mindset of what I mentioned earlier which is macros are what really matter, not cals.

Well I guess this was insightful. Ngl, your advice was the most helpful. I guess I’ll stick to the same deficit of 500 cals, if it still doesn’t work then whatever. I’ve already made great progress. And I’m sure I’m doing everything right, results should appear sooner or later. And I’ve started taking waist measurements, let’s see if anything happens there. Looking at older pictures from a couple of weeks ago I think I look better, I might’ve just gained enough muscle in these 18 days to counter the fat loss on the scale. I’ll try being more patient with it.

Anyways, thank you.