Bulking or cutting? What should you do to reach your goals?

As you progress in your fitness journey, your goals will change, so you need to consider bulking or cutting.

You may want to lean out and cut for the summer, then capitalize on those winter gains and add some size with a bulk, but perhaps you are looking for a new challenge in your training and physique by alternating between bulking or cutting, keeping your training program from becoming boring.

Whatever your reason, there is a time and place to add mass and bulk up. There is also a time and place to cut and define.

To succeed with either one, there are some parameters you need to understand to achieve the best results, such as knowing your body fat percentage, insulin sensitivity, and even your hormone levels.

• When should you do bulking or cutting?
• What is the difference between the two?
• Is cutting after bulking better?
• Can you gain muscle without getting fat? We will answer all these questions and more.

Bulking or Cutting: Which should you do?

Deciding whether to bulk or reduce body fat depends on your lifestyle, goals, and aesthetic aspirations, as well as much more than your current body composition.

It is not as simple as taking your body fat percentage and determining whether you should lose or gain it.

Successfully bulking or cutting also depends on your level of experience.

Are you wondering whether you should bulk before cutting to achieve that ripped physique?

Choosing which to start with—bulking or cutting?—can be confusing at first, but we are here to help.

• If you have more than 15% body fat (for men) and more than 25% body fat (for women), then a cutting phase will be much more effective for you before starting a bulk.
• If you have less than 10% body fat (for men) or less than 20% (for women) and your goal is to increase size and mass, we recommend bulking and then cutting.

Bulking or Cutting: Who should cut?

The obvious answer here is this: if you are not satisfied with your overall body fat percentage and simply want to lean out for more definition and strength without adding muscle or weight, then you should cut.

Likewise, if you’re overweight or dissatisfied with your body-fat percentage, then cutting will be the smarter option, even if you want to become the biggest and strongest guy in the gym someday (this should be a long-term goal). .

Reducing body fat will set you up for a higher chance of success, as well as a more optimal level of health.

If you’re somewhere in the middle and can perhaps see some (or all) of your abs with a low body-fat percentage, but you’re also looking to get bigger, then deciding whether to bulk or cut is a challenge.

Reason for cutting #1: You won’t “feel” fat

It’s nice to feel generally happy with the way you look and feel. The amount of body fat you carry (as well as your overall health) can dictate this feeling of “I feel fat today.”

Let’s be realistic: no one likes gaining extra fat, but on the other hand, it isn’t healthy to walk around with 5% body fat either.

That’s why we stick to our meal plans and macro numbers, as well as going to the gym consistently: we want to feel good and look good in our own skin, according to our own expectations and standards.

It’s okay to admit that this is why you want to look good; there’s nothing wrong with that. Is it for everyone? NO. But if you’re reading this article, chances are you can relate.

When you like what you see when looking back in the mirror, it’s easy to associate that positive feeling with doing more positive things, such as getting off the couch, making healthier food choices, and pushing yourself in the gym, whether you’re bulking or cutting.

But remember that once you reach certain body-fat thresholds (this seems to be around 15% for men and 25% for women), you’ll start to notice decreases in energy, increases in fatigue, and some feelings of “feeling fat.”

So you should consider starting a cutting phase (not even to compete, but simply to lose weight) so that, whatever your personal standard may be, you can reach it.

Although you know thermogenics are great, you’ll need some extra help, including better hydration and using certain fat/carb blockers as part of your nutrition plan.

Reason for cutting #2: Keep your “muscles”

A successful cutting phase will do two things: optimize your body fat levels while maintaining the muscle mass you have, preventing unnecessary muscle metabolism and breakdown, and contributing to an overall reduction in body weight [1].

You should also know that two “common” mistakes during this phase are:

• Restricting calories too much
• Restricting calories for too long

A cut requires time, patience, and perseverance. It’s not a quick solution for losing weight or an optimal way to go from being overweight or obese to a healthy natural weight.

That’s not what we’re addressing here, and unfortunately, many people see “cutting” as synonymous with starving themselves for long periods because of the large amount of body fat they want to eliminate. This doesn’t set them up for success; it only prepares them for an even greater disaster.

Now, can you see why we established the specific body-fat ranges a few paragraphs earlier?

If you can keep your body fat at reasonable levels, within specific ranges, your cutting phases will be shorter and more manageable, helping you avoid hunger, cravings, and fatigue.

If you’re within the appropriate body-fat ranges and can make a quick detour, you’ll set yourself up for greater success. It’s not about bulking or cutting, physically or psychologically; it’s about working hard to maintain your lean muscle mass rather than losing fat or weight, using proteins such as CFM.

Reason for cutting #3: Gain less “fat” during your next bulk

When you try to bulk with too much body fat, you’re simply setting yourself up for disappointment. Why? Because your body’s insulin sensitivity will be too low.

The first reality:

The more fat you have, the easier it is to gain weight and remain fat. We’re not shaming fat; it’s a fact.

When you have low insulin sensitivity due to high levels of body fat, your body’s natural fat-burning process slows down, increasing your overall likelihood of gaining weight.

With this process impaired, your body’s ability to synthesize protein and gain muscle is also reduced. Sounds like a recipe for a failed bulk, doesn’t it?

Therefore, to have a successful bulk, you should reduce your body-fat levels to a range in which you can respond better to insulin.

• The more insulin-sensitive your body is, the better you’ll be able to build muscle mass and resist unnecessary body-fat accumulation, which are the two most important and primary goals of a bulking phase: gaining muscle mass without gaining body fat.
• When it comes to cutting versus bulking, if you have higher levels of body fat and low insulin sensitivity, a well-executed cut will prepare you better for what comes next, even if it’s winter.

The second reality:

Higher body-fat percentages = low testosterone and high estrogen.

• Testosterone is the key hormone for building muscle, and
• Estrogen promotes fat storage.

When bulking with too much body fat, you’ll be lacking the key hormonal driver, testosterone, and will likely end up gaining even more body fat because your hormonal profile will be dominated by estrogen.

Products=Prohormonal.

Bulking or Cutting: Who should bulk?

How do you know if you should bulk? It is simple: if you are looking to maximize muscle gain while losing body fat at the same time, this will depend on the quality of your training, nutrition, and overall experience, not on how you do bulking or cutting.

If you are a complete beginner, you will probably gain some weight during your bulking phase. Instead of seeing this as something bad, simply realize that gaining weight is a necessary part of gaining mass because you will have a slight caloric surplus, and there is really no way to avoid it.

• If your body-fat level is 10% or lower and you are looking to gain some size and mass, we recommend bulking until you reach between 15% and 17% body fat.
• If your body-fat level is 20% or lower and you are looking to gain some size and mass, we recommend bulking until you reach between 25% and 27% body fat.

Bulking and body fat

There are three main reasons why starting a bulk after a leaner cut can set you up for success.

More muscle if you are leaner

You can develop more muscle from a lower-body-fat starting point.

When you are leaner (with a lower body-fat percentage), your body does a better job of building muscle and keeps body fat at a lower level, thanks to an efficient insulin response and proper hormonal function.

Estrogen levels can normalize and remain stable here while testosterone production is maintained at elevated levels.

You will store less body fat.

Even though you are entering a bulking or mass-gain phase, you do not want to allow yourself to gain too much body fat.

Starting to lose weight with a low level of body fat prepares you for the highest physiological rate of success when entering a bulk. This is due to the way our body uses insulin.

When you have high insulin sensitivity in your body, your body does a more efficient job of storing calories as glycogen and muscle rather than as extra body fat.

The fatter you are, the fatter you will end up.

If you are too fat when you start bulking, you will end up getting fatter, regardless of how you do bulking or cutting.

If you are already heavy and want to gain weight, there is a threshold at which you will simply end up gaining fat and reducing muscle mass—the exact opposite goal.

When you start losing weight, you have more room to grow and develop quality muscle mass.

Bulking or Cutting: what if you are overweight?

We sincerely do not recommend bulking or cutting for someone who is overweight or has just started a weight-training program.

When people try to transform their weight through drastic restriction of food or fluids, they may suffer more negative than positive consequences, including loss of lean tissue, hormonal changes, and impaired performance.

Although there is nothing wrong with these methods (cutting / bulking), they are not designed for this type of person to achieve the highest success rate.

When you are overweight, you can gradually improve your nutritional habits and implement exercises and activities that gradually reduce your body-fat percentage while maintaining and developing muscle mass.

Bulking or Cutting: what if you are very thin?

We are not psychologically subjecting anyone to this if they have very little muscle and a high level of body fat. If you have this type of body composition, you should not cut, but you should not focus on bulking either.

So, bulking or cutting?…. NO—instead, focus on a complete body recomposition by improving your overall nutrition, consuming more protein, and starting a strength-training exercise program to build muscle and lose body fat.

Conclusions about Bulking or Cutting

In general, the goal of defining and gaining size is to optimize muscle mass and reduce overall body fat.

If you begin a bulking phase within the body-fat range of 10 to 15% for men and 20 to 25% for women, you will truly optimize your body composition with greater quality and effectiveness.

What does this mean? It means that you will like how you look and feel better, be healthier overall, define and gain muscle mass and size at a sustainable rate, lose more body fat during cutting, and gain more quality muscle mass during bulking.

It seems that this is the best way to do it when you are considering bulking or cutting, doesn’t it? Anyway, we invite you to watch a video prepared by MASmusculo that discusses this fascinating topic.