If you’re skinny, thin, or underweight, bulking is the best place to start.You’ve never gotten close to that 20% threshold where you start to look chubby.
For example, if you start your bulk at 12% body fat and switch to a cut at 16% body fat, you’re lean in both cases. The good news is, if we start our bulks fairly lean, then even if we gain a bit of fat, we can stop our bulks while we’re still fairly lean. There’s all of this extra energy we’re eating, and what isn’t invested in muscle growth inevitably gets stored as body fat. The problem is, when we’re bulking, we do tend to gain at least a little bit of fat. That way, most (or all) of the weight we gain is muscle.Īnother Johnny, bulking with a minimal amount of fat gain. To do that, we do hypertrophy training, we eat enough protein and carbs, and we gain weight at a pace that matches how fast we can build muscle. What makes bulking different from how most people gain weight is that there’s a heavy emphasis on gaining weight leanly-on building muscle. If you’re 150 pounds and dreaming of being 200 pounds, bulking is the only way there. Plus, the only way to get heavier is to gain weight. And it’s true, gaining weight radically increases how much muscle we can build ( study). The idea is that when we eat more calories than we need, then we have extra energy that we can invest in muscle growth. When Should You Bulk?īulking is when we gain weight to build muscle, becoming bigger and stronger. Just keep in mind that it won’t improve your health, it might not improve your appearance, and your chances of building muscle are basically nil. If you’re under 10–12% body fat, cutting doesn’t make much sense unless you’re a bodybuilder, fitness model, or you want to get impressively lean. If you want to be bigger and stronger, keep bulking. That’s a healthy body-fat percentage and it’s a perfectly good place to bulk from. There’s nothing wrong with being, say, 17% body fat. If you’re between 15–20% body fat, you might be a bit fatter than you’d like, and so cutting is certainly an option. Plus, if you switch to bulking afterwards, you’ll likely regain a disproportionate amount of fat until you’re back over 10–12%.Įveryone is a bit different, so it’s hard to be precise, but as a general rule of thumb, if you’re over 20% body fat, you can improve your health and appearance by cutting down to a lower body-fat percentage. Just keep in mind that it’s difficult to build muscle while getting under 10–12% body fat.
If you’re overweight, cutting is the best place to start.Cutting is designed for fat loss, not muscle gain. It’s possible to gain a bit of muscle and strength, but the results are often fairly underwhelming. There’s no extra energy to invest in muscle growth. The problem is, when we’re cutting, we aren’t able to gain muscle very quickly or efficiently.
Johnny was able to gain strength while cutting.
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