How to know when to bulk ?

weedspot

Hi!

I started cutting last September. So far I lost a little under 25lbs, so around 1lbs a week.

I wanna start bulking but I’m not sure that my body fat is low enough for it.

I’m 5’7 and 152lbs. I tried several methods to determine my body fat. The impedance scale says I’m at 21%. The navy method says 14% and calipers say 11-12%.

The general consensus seems to be that you should preferably be under 15% body fat before bulking.

Is there any way to determine your body fat percentage that actually works or is closest to reality ?

kshama2001

Post a picture. There's at least one PT on here who is very good at estimating BF by eye. @ninerbuff

cwolfman13

weedspot wrote: »

Hi!

I started cutting last September. So far I lost a little under 25lbs, so around 1lbs a week.

I wanna start bulking but I’m not sure that my body fat is low enough for it.

I’m 5’7 and 152lbs. I tried several methods to determine my body fat. The impedance scale says I’m at 21%. The navy method says 14% and calipers say 11-12%.

The general consensus seems to be that you should preferably be under 15% body fat before bulking.

Is there any way to determine your body fat percentage that actually works or is closest to reality ?

I'd say 15% is still to high...namely because you're just not going to be able to run a surplus for all that long before you get too fat again. I don't do bulk/cut cycles, but pretty much everything I've read and heard is sub 10%. There are also hormonal things going on sub 10% vs 15%+ where you effectively put on more muscle starting leaner whereas you put on fat faster starting at a higher BF%.