Who has it easier? Bulkers or cutters?

Depends how much you're cutting in my case. Getting from being obese to being in a reasonably decent shape was easy and straightforward. Getting from being 'decent' to cutting off the last bit of BF and ripping is seemingly nigh on impossible. So for me cutting is easier to a point, but once it's down to the end stages then bulking's much easier than the last cut.

- Eating at bulking levels sounds fun or easy until you do it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY for months and months.

I run into this same situation even though I'm just really looking to maintain at this point. My size and activity level leave me with a maintenance goal of 3200-4200 a day, depending on how active I am. On one hand, you might say how wonderful it is to have so much room for various kinds of foods and to not worry about an occasional treat.

But then I have some days where I may end up occupied doing something that keeps me from eating or, to be perfectly honest, I may take a long nap. In either case, I can end up having to decide between "cramming" before going to bed or accepting a big defecit. I have often wound up with accidental defecits that can be as high as 1000 calories. While that's not going to hurt me, it would be a challenge if I was specifically looking to bulk.

It sounds like an ectomorph vs endomorph. IMO ectomorphs have it easeir since they can damn near eat whatever they want when they're bluking. Endos still need to keep the diet relatively clean or risk putting on excess fat while bulking. But I'm an endo so it could just be "grass is greener" thinking.

I will admit, I do like the fact that putting on muscle isn't that difficult which would cause some ectomorphs to give up.

I have to agree with this. Bulking is FAR easier. You have to do less (relatively speaking) than those cutting. I have to watch what I eat and do two hours of cardio a day, 3 on Saturdays to just maintain my weight, never mind lose any. I could eat myself silly on any given day and put 15 pounds on eating clean without even trying if I wanted. That would simply entail, more food, less cardio and more sleep. Sounds like win/win to me.

You do realize that NO cardio is necessary to lose weight.
If you have to do that much cardio just to maintain then look at your
Food intake. Thats the controlling factor in weight loss or weight gain.

Yup, very common. I call it accidental bulking, and it's common in our society for anyone who accidently eats too much but still works out. People not only gain fat but muscle too and become chubby over time. The skinny people simply don't eat enough to build anything--muscle or fat. Then when it comes time to lift hard, they have no energy because they're calorie-deprived, and no raw materials to build with. Been there, done that when I first started lifting before I discovered "bulking" or "surplus-eating" and how essential it is.

That said, I'm apparently the total opposite of "skinny-fat". Always have definition and muscle tone no matter my weight. And just this past week, I had to stop lifting for over a week. I kept eating a surplus. But guess what...I lost a pound (feels like some of that was water and glycogen and some was fat, but I feel like I kept the 2-3 lbs of muscle I've added over the past few weeks). I have the feeling cutting is going to be such a breeze for me.

I was the "skinny fat" type. It was tough getting out of that. Since I had no strength I had to bulk up a bit while carrying around a gut for a while. Who wants to overeat if they have a gut? Then went on a cut got nice and lean before starting a real a bulk cycle. It's been almost two years since I started lifting and I'm really pleased with the results. It just took me longer than I thought it would.

I was under the impression that cutting happens more reliably and at a faster pace than bulking.

Whichever one I'm in the process of doing haha

Speaking from experience on both ends of the spectrum, I would say trying to gain weight is much more difficult than trying to lose weight. I was on weight gaining diets all throughout my junior high and high school years. When I graduated high school, I weighed 105 pounds and was 5'2" tall. During my weight gaining years, my doctors wanted me to eat 3000 calories per day. I would do my best but it really stunk -- you always had that I overate at Thanksgiving dinner type of feeling and didn't want to eat anything more, feeling as if you were going to throw up or burst if you ate another bite (I never did throw up or burst from eating that many calories, but I do remember crying every 6 months when the doctors would tell me to eat more, that I had only gained one or two pounds and that was not enough). My problem with gaining weight back then was that I loved to be active AND I had a high metabolism rate -- bicycling was my favorite activity and I would bike 16 miles per day, everyday.

Now, 20 plus years later, I am on the opposite end of the spectrum. I need to lose 34 pounds in order to be healthy again. Where I once biked 16 miles per day, now I can barely motivate myself to exercise for 20 minutes 3 or 4 days per week. Rather than being stuffed all the time, I am now hungry until my body adjusts to the lower calorie levels and then I balance off. While I don't believe either type of diet is easy, I would definitely say that I would rather have to be on a weight loss diet than a weight gaining diet just because of how you feel. When you are losing weight, you feel more energetic, revitalized and proud of yourself when the weight comes off, gaining confidence and self-esteem along the way as you realize how much better you look. When you are on a weight gaining diet and the pounds don't want to come on, there is nothing you can do but eat more and you feel so stuffed you lose all motivation and feel so lousy you want to bite everyone's heads off.