Cut or bulk?

Badsumbeech

Hello everyone,

I'm 18 years old, and I have been working out for about 13 months. When I started a little over a year ago, I had no weight training or athletic experience at all. I was 197lbs and 5'11. I've lost 19lbs weight training, and I am down to 178lbs. I am currently about 19%-20% body fat.

I'm looking for clarity. I have been eating at a caloric deficit off and on for the whole 13 months. I've continued to get stronger, but the gains seem slow. I am unable to increase weight often and I feel like my muscle definition doesn't show a whole lot either (if that is of any relevance) for having weight trained consistently for 13 months.

I feel like I've been stuck for a few months not building a whole lot of muscle and not losing a whole lot of fat around my stomach area? Should I continue eating a caloric deficit & doing more cardio until I lose 10-15 more lbs or is it holding me back & therefore I should start "bulking" or eating slightly more than I have been?

Thanks community!

shadey152

This is actually an extremely complex question to answer and you are going to get a lot differing opinions on the subject, so here is my two cents.

First you need to figure out what is your priority: muscle gain or fat loss. From there you can decide how to proceed. You can definitely gain muscle and lose fat at the same time; however, whichever you prioritize will slow the other. If you are dead set on trying to balance the two it is going to take some extreme discipline but here are some tips.

Most importantly you need to make sure your diet is on point. If you are looking to get lean and cut then you need to track more than calories. At your weight and age you should have like 240 grams of protein, 200 carbs, and 40 grams of fat per day plus whatever you decide is your goal calories. Therefore, in order to get those nutrients and not being over or under your calorie goal you are going to have to plan your meals! (As an aside I suggest you throw in one cheat meal a week to keep your body on it's toes but keep it consistently the same day and time so that you don't screw with your insulin levels too much!)

Additionally, keep your cardio to High Intensity Interval Training. It is shown to burn more calories and doing extended traditional cardio can lead to burning off muscle and protein rather than your fuel sources and fat. If you need help working out some HIIT routines you can PM or just look around there are tons on the net.

Finally, watch supplementing. You need to supplement appropriately but don't get carried away with it. Most importantly make sure that you track your supplements nutritional value!

Hit me up if you have an questions or if you want to talk about your goals.

ndj1979

You need to get your body fat down to the 12-15% range before bulking, some would even suggest getting to 10% . So keep cutting until you are sub 15% and then reassess at that point.

ndj1979

shadey152 wrote: »

This is actually an extremely complex question to answer and you are going to get a lot differing opinions on the subject, so here is my two cents.

First you need to figure out what is your priority: muscle gain or fat loss. From there you can decide how to proceed. You can definitely gain muscle and lose fat at the same time; however, whichever you prioritize will slow the other. If you are dead set on trying to balance the two it is going to take some extreme discipline but here are some tips.

Most importantly you need to make sure your diet is on point. If you are looking to get lean and cut then you need to track more than calories. At your weight and age you should have like 240 grams of protein, 200 carbs, and 40 grams of fat per day plus whatever you decide is your goal calories. Therefore, in order to get those nutrients and not being over or under your calorie goal you are going to have to plan your meals! (As an aside I suggest you throw in one cheat meal a week to keep your body on it's toes but keep it consistently the same day and time so that you don't screw with your insulin levels too much!)

Additionally, keep your cardio to High Intensity Interval Training. It is shown to burn more calories and doing extended traditional cardio can lead to burning off muscle and protein rather than your fuel sources and fat. If you need help working out some HIIT routines you can PM or just look around there are tons on the net.

Finally, watch supplementing. You need to supplement appropriately but don't get carried away with it. Most importantly make sure that you track your supplements nutritional value!

Hit me up if you have an questions or if you want to talk about your goals.

why on earth would a 178 pound male need 240 grams of protein??????????????

supplements are not necessary for anything...

cwolfman13

if you're truly at 19-20% BF, you don't want to bulk...generally you want to be pretty lean when starting a bulk...for males, 10% BF is a pretty good starting point...i wouldn't start at more than about 12%. when you bulk, you are going to add muscle, but you're also going to put on fat. also, when you're leaner, your hormonal responses to over feeding are going to be different than if you're at a higher BF%

19-20% BF is at the high end of a healthy BF% for men...it is too much fat though to do an effective bulk

jemhh

How are you coming up with 19-20% as your body fat level?