Cutting and bulking - who needs it?

emmab0902

For the average person who wants to drop fat and gain some muscle and definition, is it necessary to do these cycles, or can most people achieve a decent physique and body fat percentage through the garden variety form of diet and exercise?

AntWrig

For the average person who wants to drop fat and gain some muscle and definition, is it necessary to do these cycles, or can most people achieve a decent physique and body fat percentage through the garden variety form of diet and exercise?

These are bodybuilder terms. However, most people want to "cut" or lean out anyway.

Oh and by the way cutting and bulking is not some magical technique. When your goal is to gain mass you're bulking. When you want to drop bodyfat, you're cutting.

taso42

You can simply eat well and exercise regularly, and your body composition and fitness will certainly improve over time.

chris1816

For the average person who wants to drop fat and gain some muscle and definition, is it necessary to do these cycles, or can most people achieve a decent physique and body fat percentage through the garden variety form of diet and exercise?

These are not strictly body builder terms.

Barring extremely obese people or people new to lifting completely, it is very hard to gain substantial lean mass while on a caloric deficit. This is why this is typically broken down into a cut or bulking cycle. Your body needs to have surplus calories to regrow lean mass into a net gain above what was previously there.

Muscle definition is mostly dependent on body fat %, kind of how you don't get abs by doing a million crunches. Everyone has a natural six pack, it is there for every single human being. The difference is the layer of body fat that covers it. Yes you can strengthen these muscles and build mass, but they are a muscle group that functions in such a way as to not become overly bulky (outside of roid users where you see things like roid gut).

Now I mention obese people because yes, they have an advantage (yes an advantage) in that they can build substantial strength and muscle mass while on a caloric deficit but a high protein intake. In most cases however, and for people that have a low, or average amount of body fat, this is not easy/possible.

Just read this, top to bottom: http://4chanfit.wikia.com/wiki/Harsh's_Worksheet_(WIP)

uglyhobo

Yeah, I'm bulking right now, but it's because I need to. Bulking will help me gain strength and muscle much faster than I would if I just tried to lift and become stronger. And for wrestling season, I'm going to have to drop down to about 10% body fat and bulking and cutting would help me achieve this much faster.
Also for someone who is too skinny and needs to gain weight (I'm only 5'9" 150lbs) bulking is necessary, because eventually it become very, very difficult to stay the same body weight while building muscle and have your body fat drop down.
It is definitely possible to maintain your weight and replace your body fat with muscle, but again it's difficult and cutting/bulking is faster.

Also, for a weight class athlete who needs to move up a weight class, it's important to bulk then cut so that they will build enough muscle to be in that weight class, then cut to be able to make that weight class. Most wrestlers I know will bulk during the offseason from march until late summer.
I also want to be 10% body fat, but if I were to cut down now, I'd be very skinny.

Glucocorticoid

For the average person who wants to drop fat and gain some muscle and definition, is it necessary to do these cycles, or can most people achieve a decent physique and body fat percentage through the garden variety form of diet and exercise?

What do you mean by "garden variety"? It's generally recommended to pick a goal in the short term, or you'll likely end up just spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. One alternative would be a weekly or biweekly cyclical sort of program. Still cycling, but just much shorter cycles.
Of course, if you're a complete beginner, you'll see drastic results doing pretty much anything that's not completely moronic.

wackyfunster

The reason people talk about bulking/cutting is because it is basically (without getting into esoteric diet/workout regimens) impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, and impossible to gain muscle and lose fat. Typically, when losing fat, some muscle is lost as well, and when gaining muscle, some fat is gained. Depending on what level of fitness you are going for, there can be some pretty stupidly complex ways of going about this to decrease fat gain while bulking to an absolute minimum, and muscle loss while cutting to an absolute minimum.

For most people trying to get in shape, eating a calorie restricted diet high in protein (1.5g/pound lean body mass) and weight training will yield the best results. Cardio facilitates loss of muscle mass (light cardio like walking etc. is ok). Weight training helps preserve it. High protein+weight training+caloric deficit = lose body fat with minimal loss of muscle.

If you get to your goal weight and decide you want to look more 'toned', then you start eating at a slight caloric surplus (for a woman probably start at 100-150ish calories/day, as you are unlikely to be able to gain more than around 1 pound of muscle/month, unless you are completely untrained), and continue with the weights.

That's it in a nutshell.