Bulking Vs Cutting

The Decision…The process of bulking and cutting has been around for many years and was developed by old school style body-builders in order to gain a lot of muscle then shred fat and lean down to show all their muscle definition (usually for physic, body-building or fitness competitions.) A lot of the competitions around today consist of more ‘bikini’ and ‘fitness’ style contests, but the body-building world is so vast and is growing more and more every year. With fitness now becoming a Trend every girl seems to want a ‘small waist and big bum’ and all the boys want that V-tapered shaped back and big biceps. But the question is for us all?

Where do we start?

 

First, of all when it comes to the decision of cutting or bulking I like to think it depends on three main factors: your style of training, Body-type and overall body-fat percentage or weight. When I say style of training I mean what you do in the gym (if you’re already training) or even what your best at. For example, some people like strength training, so I would suggest a bulk where as some people prefer endurance training and steady state cardio, so I would then suggest a cut. But really this decision all comes down to one thing…

Yourself!

So, when you look at yourself in the mirror do you see yourself as ‘flat’, still skinny but with no muscle definition or shape? Then I would bulk! But if you feel that you have already got some shape (my gals with that hourglass figure) and don’t really feel comfortable in your own skin or even want to shed that bit of body fat then I would start cutting!

I love when I feel good in my own skin and when I have them body-confident days. That’s the thing about why I love about the gym. You are literally shaping and transforming your own body and I think as humans that’s amazing that we can sculpt it like art.

So now you’ve made your decision and your thinking…Where do I even start?

‘Bulking VS cutting’

Bulking is the process of growing muscle and increasing in overall body mass whether that’s muscle or body-fat it’s basically an increase in the overall percentage of size and this is done by eating in a caloric surplus. But it’s important not to lose sight of the bigger picture while in this process just because you can consume a lot of calories this doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want and go to McDonalds every day!

 

The best way to bulk is by ‘lean bulking’ which means you are still eating in a caloric surplus but you’re eating all clean unprocessed foods and trying to keep your fats low but your carbs and proteins high! Most people start lean bulking at first but it’s important to still have cheat meals just like when you’re on a cut as they can boost your overall mood, motivation and metabolism. I love the idea of cheat meals as it allows me to have my treat and something I want but as soon as I’ve had my sweet/fatty fix I’m straight back into my training especially on or after cheat days (to put all them cals to good work) and then forget about it / not punish yourself and move on with more clean/healthy eating for the next meal.

Bulking is a very common for fitness lifestyle/goal for men to follow as they want to become bigger and stronger. But this has also become very useful and popular for women if they want to grow their glutes legs or even back and shoulders (which are my favourite muscles to train!) I used to think that when women would lift weights or say they were growing muscles they would literally look like this……(no offence to Iris Kyle – she’s still amazing and has an insane strength!)

But let’s be honest this is not what the average girl wants to look like

The lifestyle of bulking and cutting is not for everyone, but I must admit if you’re like me and love food (especially carbs – ps. pasta is life <3) and also like to lift heavy and feel strong and empowered then the lifestyle of bulking and cutting might be for you and it  can produce amazing results. It gives you time to eat what you want and gain that muscle over the winter months and then shred your excess fat you’ve put on from all them extra calories and lean down for summer.

Cutting

The process of cutting is simply eating in a caloric deficit which basically means your consuming less calories than your body needs to maintain. This is often put into place with a clean/healthy diet and a training programme involving cardio: This burns extra calories therefore putting you further into a caloric deficit. When cutting for long periods of time: which is the safest and most effective way to do it!

 

-I say this because it’s important for us to try and maintain as much muscle as we can whilst cutting as you are losing weight you don’t want to lose all that muscle.

So, most people don’t like to start out with loads of cardio at first, they just start to cut down there calories slowly but steadily and this will then prevent plateaus and then allow you to introduce cardio when needed to burn extra fat. Also, this helps you decrease your bodyfat percentage levels at a steady rate and boost your metabolism. HIIT training is a big favourite for people who want to lose fat but keep muscle as its short bursts of high intensity exercises often involving body-weight/ resistance or even free weights which enables you to burn more calories in shorter amounts of time whilst keeping your body conditioned/toned with weight training.

 

It’s also very important to make sure you’r post and pre-workout meals are right in terms of nutrition to fuel your workout and then support your body’s recovery

Pre-workout meals

These are designed to give your body what it needs to perform to its best and prepare your muscles for your workout and essentially just get you through the start of the day! A good pre-workout meal should increase glycogen levels and prevent the body going into catabolism.

Glycogen – (a large molecule in the body produced in the liver and stored mainly in the liver and muscle cells its practically the main way the body stores energy for later use)

Catabolism – (catabolic state – basically where your muscle tissue starts to break down L)

So, try and include a slow-digesting carb and protein to prevent hunger cravings and support muscle growth!