Time to Bulk ?

If you're happy with your belly fat increasing during a bulk, then bulk.

If you want to be leaner, but are sick of cutting, take a break and eat at maintenance for a few weeks. Then continue cutting.

Either way works.

Do not bulk at your bodyfat! Diet down to nearer 12% and reassess.

Bulking when fat will make you even fatter

Not a bad idea. Ease up to maintenance for two weeks to a month, see how things feel, and if all is going well, drop back to a deficit for a bit.

Joseph94x wrote: »

Thnx guys .. guess i was only looking for an excuse to eat more

You're only human. Unfortunately everyone is fatter than they think and wants to achieve unrealistic targets in unrealistic time frames.

Take 2-4 weeks at maintenance, don't use it as an excuse to binge and then get back on track feeling refreshed and with a healthy metabolism.

Joseph94x wrote: »

Makes sense .. but im really feeling the effects of long period of cutting , guess im gonna go up to maintan for a few weeks n see what will happen

Yeah, I'd do this too. A long cut like you've done has a greater chance of losing muscle mass than a short cut. Maintain for a month or so, see how you feel.

Mike Israetel likes to recommend that when you need to lose a lot of BF, that you do it in stages, then maintain, then cut again. He says there is evidence that over a long period of time the body develops "set-points", that are difficult to go beyond, either cutting or bulking, and using a staged approach is a good plan if #1 you don't want to balloon back up to your original weight, and #2, maybe you want to grow back up to one of your set-points.

I'm finding this right now. I spent 11 months dropping from 175 to 130, then bulked since Apr and am sitting at 145, but am finding I need to increase my calories much more, I've even lost a lb or two in the past two weeks. I look back at my last year and I find that on the way down (losing weight), I spent about 6 months hovering around 145, while losing 0.25 lbs per week or less. I don't think it's any coincidence that my body is wanting to stay at this weight at the moment. It's all due to hormones, but Mike says there's some evidence that these "set points" develop over months and years. Anyway I got side tracked.

Maintain until you're ready to cut again

Joseph94x wrote: »

Hi there guys

I have been in a losing weight period "cutting" for the last 10 months

However starting up with that i dont feel like i have enough of muscle foundation.

Stats .. 166cm 63kg approx 16to20Bf (depending on which formula)

Im not gaining any strengh if any im losing some .. but the fact that i will gain fat as well is making me reculcant

If I were you I would maintain or even go 100 cal above maintenance but nothing more. You're bf might be on the high range bc you still need to build more muscle and a slight surplus will help build that muscle and hopefully not go too much over your current bf % if that makes sense. Just keep an eye on your weight and bf while you do this.

IMO the three most important factors in building muscle are 1) resistance training 2) protein intake 3) carbohydrate intake. When you were cutting you should have had a protein intake of around 150g-160g of protein. For maintenance and bulking it can be a little lower. You can maintain muscle with resistance training and low protein but it is hard to build unless you bump the protein up.

This is what happens when you cut for too long/large deficit or don't cut the 'right way' IMO. You have to work in reverse. IMO you shouldn't be cutting any longer, time to seriously put on some muscle mass. Once you have a good foundation you can cut back down again.