Many of the cons can be mitigated simply by progressing gradually and avoiding crash dieting and excessive exercise. ConsensusĪs you can see, there are pros and cons of both bulking and cutting. It can markedly decrease testosterone (see HERE), increase myostatin and decrease IGF-1 (see HERE), increase cortisol (see HERE), and in general tamper with your metabolism (see HERE and HERE). Unfortunately, cutting rapidly will alter your hormonal system. Cutting will also improve your insulin sensitivity (see HERE). Bodybuilders cut down in weight prior to competition in order to decrease bodyfat and improve body composition (see HERE and HERE). The Physiological Pros and Cons of CuttingĬutting will definitely help you shed fat quickly. Furthermore, when bulking, you can easily decrease your insulin sensitivity (see HERE, HERE, and HERE for some literature on this phenomenon), and the binging can become habitual and somewhat addictive, causing some folks to struggle when attempting to diet back down. When you lose weight, you will retain this increased number of fat cells (see HERE). Unfortunately, fat cells can grow as well, and they can also undergo hyperplasia (if you want to read up on the science, please read HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE). When you diet back down, you will retain these myonuclei, which will be useful in maintaining muscle mass and improving body composition. In fact, there’s a “myonuclear domain” theory that postulates that the growth of a muscle cell is limited by the number of nuclei it contains. This translates into greater potential muscle mass. And when you’re growing muscle, satellite cells will “do their thang.” Satellite cells surrounding the muscle cells will donate their nuclei to the muscle cells so that they increase their total number of nuclei (if you want to read up on the science of, please read HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE). When you’re in an anabolic state, it’s much easier to grow muscle. When you’re lifting heavy and consuming plenty of calories and protein, you’ll be in an anabolic state. Here is the main reason why you should consider bulking – increased myonuclei. The Physiological Pros and Cons of Bulking There are also various terms that have been created, such as clean bulk (bulking with “clean” foods), lean bulk (bulking while trying to stay lean), dirty bulk (bulking while eating whatever you want including junk food), slow bulk (taking your time to gain mass), fast bulk (gaining weight rapidly), permabulk (being on a permanent bulking phase), fulking (fat bulking – thinking you’re gaining muscle but really gaining lots of fat too), and recomping (staying the same weight while improving body composition by slightly increasing muscle and simultaneously decreasing fat), but it’s not necessary to go into these in detail. For example, “bulking” to one lifter might mean gaining 30 lbs in 6 weeks, whereas to another lifter it might mean gaining 6 pounds in 6 weeks. But the rate at which you bulk and cut, or how far you let yourself go in terms of increased or decreased bodyweight or bodyfat, are not yet standardized.
Cutting means that you’re purposely trying to lose weight (preferably fat) and are therefore eating at a caloric deficit (and probably doing more cardio). Bulking means that you’re purposely trying to gain weight (preferably muscle) and are therefore eating at a caloric surplus. You could have simply progressed gradually during this entire time and avoided 1) spending excessive money on food while bulking, 2) getting fat and out of shape during the bulking phase, and 3) pain and suffering that accompanies the cutting phase.īefore we delve into things, I think it’s important to mention that there is no current accepted definition of bulking and cutting. Usually, you end up right back where you left off, or slightly heavier but with a higher bodyfat percentage than before. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you that it rarely ever happens this way unless you just started training or unless you use anabolic steroids and other drugs.
The goal is to cut 8 lbs of fat while keeping the 12 lbs of muscle you gained during the bulking period. For the next several months, you then clean up your diet and continue to train hard, possibly adding in higher reps and cardio. Say you pack on 20 lbs during this time, and 12 lbs of it is muscle while the other 8 lbs is fat. The theory is that you first spend a few months eating copious amounts of food while training hard and lifting heavy. Here’s a short course on bulking and cutting.
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