Bulking and cutting are two phases that athletes, bodybuilders, and recreational exercisers often cycle through in a bid to gain muscle mass and strength and achieve a desired physique.
While those who have been in the fitness world for a long while may understand the typical periods and reasons to bulk and cut, many people who are new to fitness may find it difficult to understand the bulking and cutting cycle.
Let’s take a deep dive into the bulk vs cut debate to help you better understand what each phase means, how to eat and exercise, the best foods for either phase, and more.
The following table briefly explains the major differences between the bulking and cutting fitness phases (1, 2, 3)
| Bulking | Cutting | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Muscle gain phase | Muscle maintenance and fat loss phase |
| Calorie intake | Eat at a calorie surplus | Eat at a calorie deficit |
| Macronutrient distribution | Bulking meals are higher in carbs and protein to help support intense resistance training | Cutting meals are higher in protein, which helps support the muscle maintenance goal, moderate in carbs, and low in fats to reduce calories |
| Workout plan | Intense resistance training exercises with heavy weights to help boost muscle hypertrophy | Resistance training to help maintain muscle mass, and cardio to help burn any excess fat to create a leaner physique |
| Increased body fat due to eating at a calorie surplus | A cutting diet plan can be incredibly restrictive and requires close monitoring of calorie and macro intake - this can be frustrating for many and can become unhealthy if it’s taken too far |
The main difference in the bulk vs cut phases is the ultimate goal of each of them. With bulking, the main goal is to gain as much muscle as possible, while the primary goal of cutting is to maintain muscle mass and achieve a leaner physique. These goals then influence how you eat and exercise.
The Bulking Phase
If you’re bulking, you’ll need to consume more calories than your body needs, which offers you more fuel to lift heavier, thereby leading to increased muscle mass and strength. Here are some more guidelines on how to eat when bulking:
Guidelines on training differ from athlete to athlete, but researchers have described that bodybuilders typically:
Check out our clean bulking meal plan to see how you can structure your meals during this fitness phase to help reduce unnecessary fat gain. Remember, the more fat you gain during bulking, the stricter your cutting workout plan and diet may have to be. Being mindful about bulking can help you avoid this.
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The Cutting Phase
You have to bulk to cut, and the latter phase happens for bodybuilders as the competition period draws near. Remember that how a person eats and exercises during this phase is largely dependent on the individual. However, if you’re unsure about where to start, here are some guidelines you can follow (3, 4):
Regarding exercise, the cutting period calls for a combination of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. This cutting workout plan outlines some of the best exercises you can do to help your fat loss goal without compromising your gains.
Read more: Healthy Fitness Meals to Fuel Your Workout Every Day
The answer depends on two things: your goals and your current body composition. Let’s take a deeper look at this:
As previously stated, this phase requires intense resistance training and eating at a caloric surplus. Eating more calories than your body needs will help fuel the resistance training sessions and support building muscle, but as the body is unlikely to burn all the extra calories, such a diet increases your chances of gaining more body fat.
A person who is already overweight or obese usually has more body fat than their body should have. If they choose to bulk, they are then risking increasing their body fat even more, which may put their health at risk in the long term. For such a person, bulking doesn’t make sense as a fitness option. They may be better off choosing a body recomposition fitness plan that allows them to lose weight (fat) and gain muscle simultaneously.
On the other hand, if the person in question has low body fat, they may be suited for a bulking plan. Eating at a caloric surplus will increase their body fat percentage, but as this was already low to start with, the increase will unlikely have a negative effect on their health. In addition, when they come to the cutting phase, it’ll be easier to lose the fat from the bulking phase as the amount won’t be too much.
However, this demographic must remember to follow a healthy, balanced bulking diet and increase their resistance training to maximize muscle growth and strength. Failure to do this may lead to an increase in body weight and fat without muscle hypertrophy and strength.
The goal here is to reduce body fat, which helps reveal muscle definition. Cutting usually happens after a bulking phase, where the individual has improved their muscle mass and strength but gained some extra body fat during the process. This fitness phase aims for fat loss – not necessarily weight loss – and muscle preservation.
A person who has already achieved their desired muscle mass but has some extra body fat could benefit from a cutting plan, which can help give them a leaner figure that helps show off their muscle definition.
On the other hand, someone with a lot of body fat and little to no muscle definition may not find the most benefits from cutting. They could be better off with the aforementioned body recomposition plan that aims for both body weight and fat loss as well as muscle gain.
In addition to individual fitness goals and current body composition, you should take factors such as training experience and fitness plan sustainability into consideration before you decide whether to bulk or cut.
While there is no scientific research that compares how people find either experience, the anecdotal consensus is that cutting is harder than bulking. For a large part of the population, losing weight is far harder than gaining it. This is the same with bulking and cutting – the former requires weight gain and the latter requires fat loss.
While both plans require discipline, the latter is often more difficult as you need to carefully track your calorie and macro intake and it usually involves some level of restriction. Most people rarely enjoy counting calories. Cutting also comes with increased hunger and fatigue from reducing your calorie intake.
However, that being said, we can’t ignore the fact that for people with a naturally faster metabolism, bulking can be more difficult than cutting. At the end of the day, the answer to which option is harder may largely depend on personal experience/preference.
The answer to this is individual, but some guidance can be found in the ‘Is it better to cut or bulk?’ section above. All the factors mentioned above, including your overall fitness goals, current body composition, current fitness level, and the long-term sustainability of your fitness plan, should help you figure out which plan would work best for you or if you shouldn’t attempt either plan at all.
Read more: Real Food Vs. Processed Food: How Small Swaps Can Change Your Entire Diet
Being skinny fat typically means that you have a smaller body size with a higher body fat percentage and likely a lower percentage of muscle mass. As previously mentioned, bulking is best suited to those with a lower body fat percentage.
As a skinny fat person, bulking may result in increasing your already high body fat percentage. You’ll also eventually have to cut to make the muscle you gained during the bulking phase more visible. The cutting process after bulking may be much more difficult as you added more body fat than you initially started with.
Instead of bulking, you could opt for a body recomposition plan. This should help with both fat loss and muscle gain, particularly if you allow enough time to see results.
When it comes to weight loss, progress is made by inches, not miles, so it’s much harder to track and a lot easier to give up. The BetterMe: Health Coaching app is your personal trainer, nutritionist, and support system all in one. Start using our app to stay on track and hold yourself accountable!
Yes, it’s possible to gain muscle while on a cut. While this phase is generally focused on fat loss and muscle maintenance, it’s not impossible to gain some muscle with a high protein intake and resistance training. However, muscle gain can be quite difficult during a cutting phase and shouldn’t necessarily be expected. A good goal to aim for is fat loss with muscle maintenance..
Yes, you can. The goal of bulking is to gain muscle so you can bulk till you attain the muscle mass and strength that you wish for. You don’t need to start a cutting phase for fat loss and a leaner physique if you don’t want to.
Yes, you can. Cutting reduces body fat, which helps make the underlying muscle mass more visible and makes you look leaner and muscular. That depends on your goals. According to a meta-analysis published in The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, the body fat levels of bodybuilding athletes in the preparation phase (usually the bulking phase) ranged between 15.3 and 25.2% in women and from 9.6 to 16.3% in men. Once the competition got closer, the cutting phase ensued, and their body fat levels had significantly reduced to between 8.1 and 18.3% for female athletes and 5.8 to 10.7% for male athletes (5). If you’re already at 25% body fat, bulking will likely increase this percentage, which will make cutting harder. However, if you’re not a competitive bodybuilder, it may be reasonable to focus on gaining muscle mass and getting stronger if that is a goal, particularly if you’re a woman. 25% body fat is well within the healthy range for a woman. A combination of high-calorie, nutrient-dense foods and heavy lifting will help you reach your goals. It should be noted that a clean bulking meal plan is better than dirty bulking. The latter may help with rapid weight gain, but the low nutritional quality foods in dirty bulking may also lead to increased fat gain, which is difficult to lose once you start cutting. It’s always best to stick with a healthy, balanced, nutritious diet, regardless of what your goals are. A cutting phase generally lasts between two and four months, but it can be tailored to individual needs and goals (6).Frequently Asked Questions
Will I look muscular if I cut?
Should I bulk if I’m 25% body fat?
How can I bulk up quickly?
How long should a cut last?
To determine which between bulk vs cut will work best for you, you need to take more than your end fitness goal into consideration. While these fitness phases are common in bodybuilders, regular gym goers, and athletes, you shouldn’t decide to try either phase on a whim. They may have benefits, but each option also comes with cons. If you’re a beginner to fitness or you’re overweight, you can even explore body recomposition first before you jump to either a bulk or a cut for muscle. If you have individual concerns or health considerations, you should talk to your healthcare provider to get personalized advice.
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