Let’s cut right to the chase with an answer many people wouldn’t expect from me.
Yes. Yes you should. You should have experience bulking. You should have experience cutting. VERY IMPORTANTLY, though, you should also have plenty of experience in what we call ‘maintenance’.
I know right! You can’t believe I am actually the one suggesting you ‘bulk’ and ‘cut’.
I probably would have slapped myself 5 years ago for saying that but I’ve learned a thing or two since then.
So for those of you who have had the patience to read more than 50 words to get to this point let’s discuss the details of what I am bringing up.
‘Bulking’ and ‘cutting’ just refers to gaining weight and losing weight. The terms are thrown around in the fitness scene often more specifically to talk about adding weight via mostly muscle and then losing weight via ONLY fat (or as close to that as possible).
So these things sound great on paper right?
The problem is that, too often, people go about them in the wrong way.
Where do people go wrong?
As you can imagine from the meme I picked the problem is that people go off the deep end on these two endeavors.
Bulking ends up being gaining 12 pounds of fat and 3 pounds of muscle in just one month.
Cutting ends up being losing 12 pounds of fat and 8 pounds of muscle in the next month and a half.
What happened there? We ended up 5 pounds lighter but all of that difference was muscle by the end of it.
So if this is easily fucked up why would I suggest you do it? (hopefully CORRECTLY…. pssst. I can help)
There a few reasons.
One, I want you to get the results you desire. If you want to look and feel better then of course I want to help you get there.
Two, I want you to actually be mindful of your behaviors. To do this correctly you need to learn WAY more about yourself and way less about how to shove protein into every recipe known to man (and that is coming from someone who constantly preaches people needing to eat more protein).
Three, this is actually a pretty natural way of living life… so you are best served being in control of it.
For the rest of this article I want to break down those three reasons in a bit more detail.
Getting the results you desire
So can you get the results you desire? Almost certainly yes.
Will it happen the way you are thinking? Almost certainly no.
Let’s just say you a 37 year old female who weighs 195 pounds. You strength train 2-3 times per week and get around 6,000 steps in daily. You ‘think’ you eat well but definitely let loose on the weekends. You have been trying to lose weight off and on for the last 8 months with little to nothing to show for it.
What would I do?
As long as you don’t have any intense mental trauma tied to food I would start with tracking our nutrition for 2 weeks straight at a minimum.
Why? It is absolutely paramount that we find out if we are starting at a place where you are taking in enough calories to actually sustainably subtract from that.
As I mentioned before, it is common for frequent dieters to get to a place where they are maintaining on a pretty low calorie amount regardless of if they think they weight ‘too much’.
If that is the case we need to spend AT LEAST 3-5 months getting a healthier nutrition and lifestyle behavior set in place. If this is successful then at the end of that time we will find ourselves eating an amount we are satisfied with and steadily gaining muscle while not gaining any weight OR gaining a pound or so per month (which would reflect gaining mostly muscle mass).
THEN we can be ready to cut back the calories by 200-400 calories (which would probably still be above our starting point) and lose weight at a rate of .5 to 1 pound per week. We would do this for no more than 2 months.
Then IF you wanted to continue that overall trend we would simply repeat.
Barring all of the individual differences that could occur this is an excellent guideline to think about ‘bulking’ and ‘cutting’.
Being mindful of your behaviors
All you see when you scroll instagram is posts about different recipes and workouts that help you lose fat.
IT IS ALL FUCKING STUPID.
Seriously… this shit annoys the hell out of me.
I’m not saying that healthy/tasty recipes and a smart training program isn’t important to getting the body you want.
I AM SAYING, however, that it is far from the most important thing for like 90% of the people I interact with.
Instead of becoming a ‘protein chef’ maybe you should start off with learning how to not end every night with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
Instead of becoming the clone of your favorite YouTube fitspo personality you should first get some sun, move every hour, and not watch 3 hours of TV per day.
My point is that the bulk of the progress a person can make will be found in the simple things that are too boring to turn into content every five seconds on social media.
We’re talking about daily activity. We’re talking about hydration. We’re talking about sleep quality. We’re talking about the consistency of your meals from day to day. We’re talking about alcohol usage. We’re talking about getting enough protein. We’re talking about being able to touch your toes. We’re talking about being able to do a few pushups.
THEN and only then we are talking about expanding on those basic behaviors and ‘leveling’ them up a bit.
Every person is different.
That is why every person will get their desired results by following a slightly different path.
‘Bulking’ and ‘Cutting’ are actually natural fluctuations of life.
For whatever reason, being in tip top shape at all times is seen as the goal of health and fitness.
I blame social media for the perpetuation of this as of late. You will find no shortage of people who cherry pick photos of themselves and their lifestyles to make you think they have their shit together 24/7.
This ain’t real folks!
Now don’t get it twisted. I am not advocating for you to gain 20 pounds in the winter and let loose.
What I am advocating for, however, is accepting the natural fluctuations your body will have that mirror the natural fluctuations of behavior over the course of the year.
Most people move a little less and eat a little more in the winter.
This isn’t shocking news to you.
Accept this as fact.
Yes, absolutely, do your best to keep up with the priorities of physical activity and healthy nutrition during this time. You should NOT get ‘unhealthy’.
But don’t beat yourself up for gaining 5-10 pounds over the course of 12 months.
Seriously… if you look at things in that time frame then you will realize how easy it can be to lose that (and even make MORE progress) in that time frame as well.
Closing Thoughts
The sooner you can embrace the idea of slow methodical changes the better.
‘Bulking’ and ‘cutting’ is an amazing learning experience for people who have little to no idea about what actually makes their body tick.
It can be very beneficial to have pre-determined times where you buckle down more and then loosen up more… it makes things wayyyy less stressful in the long run.
Enjoy yourself… if you are stressing constantly and lost… you are doing this the wrong way!
Take Action, Believe
Coach Dill