I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about the terms “bulk or cut” before. Bulking and cutting are extremely popular phases in bodybuilding circles, phases that help athletes achieve their physique and performance enhancement goals. You may know that bulking means adding lean muscle mass and strength while cutting means protecting the lean muscle mass and strength while attempting to burn body fat that you may have gained during bulking.
Most gym goers want to get big and want to get shredded. But you get big in bulking cycles, and you get shredded in cutting cycles. Having this said, those who are new to lifting are asking themselves: “Should I bulk or cut?”. That’s actually an extremely common question. Moreover, it is an important question to ask and get an answer to. That’s because knowing when to cut and when to bulk is crucial for hitting your body goals. So, whether you should bulk or cut depends on various factors. Let’s check the advantages of each and try to offer better insight about it.
Bulking and Cutting
If you know what you’re aiming for, you next need to know how to achieve it. But when you just start it out, it can be pretty confusing knowing when to bulk or cut, or if you need to bulk or cut at all.
First, you must determine whether you want to gain muscle or burn fat. While it is theoretically possible to do both of them simultaneously, it is much harder and a much slower process to do both, than just aim to gain muscle or aim to burn fat. Therefore, while I do understand that you would want both, you better focus only on one of them. Regardless of whether you focus on bulking or cutting, you need to work out. There’s little to no difference in terms of training plans when we talk about bulking and cutting. I strongly recommend talking with a professional trainer because they will help determine the amount of weights, sets, and reps you need, particularly for you and your goals. Not only that, but they will help with proper form during exercises, which is crucial both for muscle growth and avoiding injuries.
What is proper form?
The proper form during strength training is defined as a full range of motion, with slow and controlled reps that will really feel like working your muscles. You shouldn’t have any swinging or momentum motions toward your muscles in order to lift. Not only do swinging or momentum motions not bring any muscle growth, but they also increase the risk of injuries.
Correct form with proper technique (that a trainer will be able to help you with, which I strongly recommend), will help add weight and reps to your workout. This will help you quickly move up in your lifting ability, which will help regardless of whether you bulk or cut. You also need progressive overload. Such as starting on a lightweight bench press with five sets of five reps with a weight that is suitable for you. Then, you can add five pounds the next week, or more reps. This is progressive overload. This example of the 5×5 approach will help you increase strength and muscle way more and faster than you think, at least as long as you do it alright, and eat right. Not to mention that you also need to pay attention to your sleep, rest time (both between exercises and between workouts), and so on.
A correct approach to dieting and training is crucial whether you aim to bulk or cut. Nonetheless, let’s check it all a bit deeper about when to bulk and when to cut.
Should I Bulk?
If you’re just starting out to go to the gym, it is very likely that you’re not full of muscles just yet. That’s where bulking comes so helpful. When you just started your lifting journey, bulking is the phase when it comes to gaining a lot of muscle and strength. You do so through the combination of a particular diet and training plan. You need to eat in surplus and train for hypertrophy (muscle growth) to pack on lean muscle and strength. However, when you eat in surplus, it is common to add some fat too. You minimize fat with a proper diet by eating correctly and workout plan by staying active. Still, a bit of fat addiction is common.
That’s why, if your starting body fat percentage is over 15-20%, then you may need to cut first if you want to see great progress. If you’re under 15% of body fat without much muscle, then you definitely need to bulk, as you may gain a bit of fat, but you will gain a lot of lean muscle to your frame, leading to a much better body composition.
So…
If you want to bulk, you must be ready to lift heavy and eat well (in surplus, usually, more than you are used to eating). You also must consistently add weight and reps to your workout (progressive overload), which will increase muscle gains. You need to focus on heavy compound lifts and follow a hypertrophy program with a proper training form. A trainer will help best when it comes to a bulking training plan, working out with a hypertrophy program. It usually involves a lot of compound movements such as deadlifts, bent over rows, back squats, bench presses, and others. But you also need to eat right. You need the proper food to fuel your workouts and to help you recover post-workout, leading to huge muscle growth.
Keep in mind that bulking is not all about heavyweights in the gym and eating as much as possible. You need to train correctly and eat correctly. There are two different bulking routes:
Dirty bulking vs clean bulking
I usually recommend against dirty bulking for various reasons. A dirty bulking may sound like a dream come true as you can eat pretty much whatever you like in whatever amounts you love. Nonetheless, a dirty bulking usually adds a lot of excess fat and will usually likely negatively affect your health and performance, as well as the way you look. Dirty bulking means a calorie surplus, but usually, it comes from high sugar and high fat foods. These foods will add weight, but they don’t do much good in the long run. It will make you feel sluggish, add a lot of fat, and affect your health, as lots of fat could increase blood pressure, cholesterol, and so on. Instead, I would recommend:
The opposite of a dirty bulking in terms of foods that you’re allowed to eat – clean bulk. While you do eat in surplus, you focus on the quality of foods, and you also pay attention to the quantity too, because you eat in a controlled calorie surplus. The clean bulk will focus on unprocessed, whole, healthy foods such as lean meat, fruits, vegetables, fish, dairy, and so on. You reduce the amount of processed foods as much as possible, such as processed meats, candies, cookies, pizza, and so on. During the clean bulk, you aim to eat in the right macro balance, getting enough micronutrients. This way, your body receives the energy it needs to properly perform in the gym, and for a proper recovery post-workout, without the health risks and higher potential fat gain!
Should I Cut?
Usually, the cutting cycle is common for people who are finding themselves in one of two situations:
- You went through a bulk, which usually helped you gain a lot of muscle, but you gained quite a lot of fat along the way. Even if you haven’t added a lot of fat, it still remains true if you want to see further muscle definition with a lower body fat percentage.
- You are just starting your lifting journey, but you are on the heavier end of the scale, carrying quite a lot of fat. Usually, such overweight people have at least some level of muscle too. So, in order to support their body goals, they need to lose a decent amount of fat.
If you find yourself in one of these situations, you may need to cut first. During the bulk, you eat in a calorie surplus (usually, the daily surplus of calories is anywhere between 200 to 1,000 calories). As said, when it comes to bulk or cut, the training program doesn’t change much. The biggest thing that changes it is the fact that you eat in a calorie deficit. Pretty much the same deficit of calories of about 200 to 1,000 per day. It is natural to gain fat during bulking, and extremely likely during dirty bulking. That’s when cutting with lower calories is so helpful to get rid of excess fat (and attempting to maintain muscle mass). This is what leads to body composition as you keep muscles and lose fat.
So…
The cutting phase is the opposite of a bulking phase in terms of how much you’re allowed to eat. In both cycles, I strongly recommend paying attention to your macronutrient balance (which doesn’t change much, if at all), but you significantly reduce the calories. You eat far more calories in bulking. But if you want to burn excess fat, you need to stay in a calorie deficit. Also, unless you start the fitness journey with a huge amount of fat, you need to aim for about 0.5 to 1 pound a week of fat loss! Faster loss puts you at a higher risk of losing lean muscle and strength – the opposite of what you’re aiming for.
So, you need to calculate the body fat percentage to determine your fat loss goals. You also need to know your daily calorie needs of course. There are online calorie calculators that can help with that. Let’s assume that your maintenance calories are 2,500 per day. This means that you would need about 3,000 calories a day or even more for bulking. Or 2,000 calories a day or even less for cutting!
Also, during bulking it is important to calculate macros, but for cutting that’s even more important! Make sure you get enough complex carbs, healthy fats, and quality protein to sustain muscle growth and strength as you lose fat. Don’t deprive your body of essential nutrition with a sudden drop in calorie intake during cutting. That’s a common and huge mistake a lot of beginners tend to make!
Correct cutting
Go for the correct calorie intake which should be at least 200 up to about 1,000 fewer calories a day. (Unless you’re really overweight and can reduce even more). If you drop calories and notice very little to no weight loss, then you may either add cardio to increase calorie expenditure, or eat less to decrease calorie intake, creating a calorie deficit. On the other hand, stop cardio or eat more if you lose weight too fast, as it will lead to muscle loss. The same is true about bulking – review your calorie intake if you gain weight too fast as it may gain too much fat, or if you don’t gain weight you may not gain any muscle.
As said, the workouts are very similar when you bulk or cut. Just make sure you keep good form and workout regularly with enough rest. It is important to remember that you lose fat and gain muscle and strength with the combination of correct training and a healthy diet.
When to Bulk and When to Cut?
Please understand that you should determine whether you want to bulk or cut based on your body fat percentage and goals, rather than weight, because muscle weighs more than fat, and is less in volume. If you start with a high body fat percentage, it could be a good indication that you better cut first. Yet, if you want to get stronger and bigger, you may need a bulking cycle, especially if you’re not carrying a lot of fat.
Usually, a lot of people go for a bulking cycle and once they reach a certain level, it could be the time to cut. But in the end, the answer to the question of whether “should I bulk or cut?” completely depends. It depends on your goals and your current body fat percentage. If you’re carrying a lot of fat, you may need to cut first. But if you are a beginner to lifting weights and you don’t have a lot of muscle, and not a lot of fat either, you definitely need to bulk first! Most beginners need to bulk, but then again – it depends.
You must consider your current weight, body fat percentage, goals, and calorie intake to determine if you need to bulk or cut. Regardless of whether you bulk or cut, ensure you get enough protein with other crucial nutrients into your diet. Also, work out properly, with correct form and technique, having a great hypertrophy program.
Conclusion
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