Tristan

Since there's so much nonsense out there and it's hard to tell what is right and true and what is wrong and untrue I'd like to know the opinion of the forum about cycles of bulking and cutting.

Can they be considered an outdated thing of the past or in spite of the inefficiency old-style cutting and bulking are still the only thing we have and will ever have to build muscles and lose fat?

I have always thought of bulking to gain 5 pounds of muscles with 3 pounds of fats and cutting to lose 5 pounds of fats with 3 pounds of muscles a one step forwards and one step backwards approach and so I have always thought/hoped there must be another more efficient way.

Do we have learned a thing or two in the meanwhile and put the long boring (probably unhealthy) long cycles of bulking and cutting in the archive of the last century?

For example what could be an alternative approach for a skinny fat. Someone who appears skinny and bony just because he or she lacks muscles but actually the fat percetage is high enough and most of the fat is stored in the waist?

Thank you for reading

Bigger&Stronger

It's an interesting point you bring up and unfortunately there is no easy answer because everyone has different goals and everyone's body operates differently, in that sense there will never be an 'ultimate' bulking diet/routine that puts on slabs of muscle and next to no fat (or was that steroids I'm referring to...)

For example, some guys (and girls for that matter) are willing to sacrifice losing all trace of muscular definition whilst trying to gain as much muscle as possible and especially for the 'extreme' ectomorphic guys (beanpoles) this is probably the best way to gain muscle mass.

However! People like myself who are not only vain (I hate my abs completely disappearing) but small-boned and have endormorphic tendencies (store fat relatively easily) would probably benefit from a slower, 'clean' bulk I think is the phrase that's coined at the moment.

I think it's very easy to disregard the classic 'bulking' and 'cutting' cycles as unhealthy but to be fair all dieting comes down to what works for your goals and your body.

I don't think it's the worst way to approach dieting as a beginner, it at least gives some structure to their eating and weight management rather than just going on a 'seefood' diet, so they know that in x amount of time they will have to cut down to see those abs again.

Cool topic though mate, I take it you prefer the slow bulking approach?

Tristan

Thanks a lot for the reply

I don't like the idea of putting on a lot of fat while bulking, also because I have read that the fat put on during muscle bulking is resistant to cutting and responds well only to the kind of cutting which would catabolize a lot of lean mass. Someone said that many people are willing to lose 10 pounds of muscles to lose one pound of fat or to put on 10 pounds of fat to put on a pound of muscle. What I think is that if they're willing to do so it is because they think this is the only option they have. I mean if they think that the only way to put on a pound of extra muscle is through putting on 10 pounds of fat they won't give that extra pound of muscle just because of the drawnbacks. But there are probably better ways.

I was reading about various cycles of 5 day bulking and 2 days cutting or 2 weeks bulking and 3 days cutting or 3 week bulking and 2 week cutting.
At least they're thinking about the issue and are trying to find an alternative to 3-4 months fatty bulking and 3-4 months highly catabolic cutting.

Thanks again

Bigger&Stronger

I totally agree mate.

People on the whole are very narrow-minded and goal-orientated. They need short-term goals to focus on, otherwise they recede or don't make any progress at all, hence the bulking and cutting periods are somewhat 'easier' to get your head around and take very little diet micromanagement.

However, people such as yourself, who tend to focus more on the long term goals and do efficient, slow bulking cycles usually end up better off in the long run (even if the results aren't as striking as the first group) because they are happy with slow, consistent gains.

Which is better?

Probably neither! One will mess up your body from the constant energy flux of calories and the other will make you go insane from the micromanagement!

Porky Pie

Interesting point of view....How big are you now and how big have you ever been with that approach? What's your maximum squat, bench and deadlift?

Tristan

I have not tried any cycling approach yet.
I'm just past beginner and have benefitted from the ability to lose fat and gain muscles at the same time. Now it's time to cycle and i'm trying to choose what is best from what I read online and what people at the gym tell to me.
All I know is have seen people becoming uber fat in bulking and losing a lot of muscle in cutting. Don't want to go there for sure.

Porky Pie

Let me know what you think when you've tried all the different methods and not just read about them.

Nothing wrong with "uber fat" - the birds love it.

Tristan

Life is too short to try everything that doesn't work before finding what works, that's why we rely on accumulated knowledge, other people experience, informed opinions and so on.
Other people (who have tried it) seems to agree with me. There's no reason to crazy bulk, put on a lot of fat and some muscles and go through the hell trying to burn that extra fat.

Porky Pie

The problem is that you will only know what works for YOU, once you've tried.

Some people (including professional bodybuilders) have arrived at the conclusion that getting really heavy is what works best for them. It might be that your set up is best suited to this, it might be that its not - you'll never know unless you try!

Bigger&Stronger

This is the thing: "different strokes for different folks", getting big in the offseason does give you the most anabolic environment to grow in (constant surplus of calories) which is the primary goal of a competitive bodybuilder or someone looking to put on as much mass as possible in the shortest length of time.

Unfortunately not everyone is looking to 'get big quick' or won't sacrifice their current leanness to get there, so it'll take much longer to put on muscle mass bulking slowly but you'll have less cutting to do come summertime

I've tried loads of methods for bulking, I must admit cycling (2-3 weeks in a surplus and 1-2 weeks in a deficit of calories) does work very well and I urge anyone who's currently plateauing in weight to give it a shot.

A lot of natural bodybuilders use this method: Layne Norton, Derek Charlebrois, Tommy Jeffers, those guys are not short of muscle by any stretch of the imagination!