Bulking for a woman. When is it time to cut?

That's personal preference. I prefer to bulk for two months and cut for no longer than two months. No matter how much I gain. I don't like letting myself get too chunky lol

GREAT work! eight weeks is generally what i've seen for bulking/cutting phases. I can't wait until I am to the point I want to bulk!!

IMO it really depends on what your goals are. Do you aspire to powerlift? Do you want to get hella strong, or just strike a balance between strength and aesthetics? Generally speaking, cutting is only necessary for aesthetic reasons. Why not split the difference and take your surplus percentage down to 10%. See if your strength gains start to plateau there (they oughtn't; if your bf% is increasing right now, it means you don't really need your full surplus in order to keep building muscle). Eventually, if you are patient, you can strike a "recomp" balance where you are trading fat for muscle, but on a high volume/intensity program like Stronglifts, it's a bit harder to do.

According to Lyle Mcodnald
"Let me summarize the above a little more briefly: trainees should set a bottom and top-end for acceptable body fat levels. For males, 10-15% is a good range, for females 19-27% or so works. Diet down until you hit the low end, stabilize for two weeks, gain until you hit the high end, stabilize for two weeks, then diet back down while keeping the muscle. Over many months or a year of training, you should end up with more muscle than you started with which is the whole goal."


And read this - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html

I (male) like to bulk a little longer, 3-4 months, but I bulk very clean (3:1 M:F+).

In general, when the fat starts getting noticable, its time to cut. I like to stay well within the can see abs when flexed band.

That and bulking gets old after a while. Cutting tends to be a lot more interesting (at first at least) as the changes happen so much faster.

Cutting for you might be different after bulking. Bulking fixes all the screwed up metabolism issues that come from dieting, which some people, especially women, get strongly. I find (again, male) the first month of cutting the weight just drops off easy. Losing fat when relatively lean is sooo much easier when you haven't been cutting for several months/years.

Fair question. I've wondered the same thing. I say continue bulking! LOL. Ok no, I agree with LiftHuff, it depends on your goals. I started bulking at 30% bf! Crazy I know. But the truth is I'm skinny fat and even when I went down to the weight the scales say I should be, I was not pleased with my appearance. Yes, I looked really good in clothes but naked...not so much. And when people start to say "don't lose anymore weight" even though you know your body fat is still high, it probably means you don't have enough muscle. Hence, I started bulking. I'm on my 10th week now and I'm up to 31% bf and I've gained 6 lbs. It freaks me out some times but then I look at my behind in the mirror and it looks so much better now than before and it cheers me up. I want the thick sexy look (like Beyonce I guess) so I'm going to keep bulking for another 4 months and then cut.

Sorry, I haven't answered your question, was just rambling on there. Anyhow, on days where I feel like a fat pig I just head on over to bodybuilding.com where they have a great forum for women bulking. Reading those posts really motivate me to keep going. It would really be a shame to start cutting now only to realize that you didn't gain that much muscle and it was all for nothing. Here is the link: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=128051673

Yeah, that's my concern. The clothes are getting tight & I'm normally someone who has a hard time losing & gaining (I stay the sam weight whether I eat 1400 calories or 2000) so I don'twant too dig myself in a hole too deep. I'm a belly-gainer too

The longer you bulk, the longer you have to cut afterwards, right? So aside from determining your goals by personal preference, figure out how long you would be willing to cut and work backwards from there. If bulking for Z months puts on X amount of lean mass and Y fat (estimated of course), how long to reach your BF% goal by cutting after your bulking cycle?

I have yet to start my first bulking cycle, I've been lifting and getting the cutting part taken care of first (about 10 weeks now, I'm over it lol). But this way I can stay healthy and look better while bulking.

I think I'm going to be doing 8 Weeks bulking, then 2 weeks cutting at a loss of 1.5 Lbs per week. According to my estimates and what I've read, that would leave me at 13% body fat.

Bump for later

b u m p

For alot of people bulking and cutting becomes a revolving thing. They eat extra calories bulk-up to X amount of weight and realize they gained too much fat, so they reduce the calories to get rid of the extra fat and find out they only gained a little bit of muscle.

I stopped at 10lbs. Anything more would have meant moving up a size in clothing and I hadn't kept any of the next size up.

I stopped at 10lbs. Anything more would have meant moving up a size in clothing and I hadn't kept any of the next size up.

I stopped at 14 pounds...it was quite enough, and I couldnt button my top jacket button.

So your boobs got bigger? Bite.