Bulking & Cutting: Is it Necessary?

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:20 Energy Balance & Muscle Growth
04:25 Body Fat
05:21 Energy Balance & Time
06:44 Other Variables
08:54 Potential Issues
10:57 When to Bulk & Cut?
13:00 Practical Recommendations

STUDIES & REFERENCES

ONLINE COACHING & CONSULTING

BOOKS & TRAINING TEMPLATES

COURSES

SOCIAL MEDIA

[DrLeute]

Excellent summary for any beginner. This covers pretty much everything you need to know. Well done.
Always remember: Consistency is king!

[Give_Me_Rent]

This channel is a goldmine of information!

[RingsOfSolace]

Bro this is literally the video I've been looking for. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

[evanhughes]

Top notch content! Came out shortly after I had a conversation about this with a friend.

[GodlessPhilosopher]

TLDR: If you're overweight, go into deficit. If you're skinny, go into surplus. If you're in the middle, maintain.

[turninghealth]

From one coach to another this channel is full of quality information well done! I would love to see a video on Vo2max. 'what is vo2max and how to improve it'.

[AdityaKadamMechanical]

So nicely presented data. Thanks a lot buddy 😊

[kiddfamilyfarmllc]

No fluff, always appreciate your content. Thank you.

[hunter__]

Super-useful image you put at 4:09.

I've always been skeptical of traditional bulking + cutting yearly cycles. Going too far in either direction, IMO, can be counter-productive. In too aggressive of a bulk, your relative lean mass begins to lag (body fat percentage goes up), and in too aggressive of a cut, your absolute lean mass begins to lag (you have less absolute body weight to be composed of lean mass). Kind of a double-whammy, IMO.

I'd rather slowly gain 10 pounds over a year than gain 20 + lose 10 over two 6-month blocks.

[Fried]

Thais Chanel os PERFECT! Thank you always!!

[microondasletal]

What many people against maingaining don't usually consider is that, when main-gaining, your nitrogen balance oscilates during the day. We say that you need a positive nitrogen balance to gain weight and a negative one to lose it. If you main-gain, you're necessarily spending about half the time in a positive one and the other half in a negative one. Main-gaining is like doing a bulk and a cut on a daily basis, but the changes are so micro that we don't usually notice them as much.

[KurokamiNajimi]

The real point of bulking is that it gives you extra energy. You build more muscle with that extra energy then you do a cut that’s shorter than the time you bulked so it ends up being a net positive if you built more muscle than you would have without the surplus. Example bulk for 6 months cut for 3. So even if you are at a high body enough body fat to maintain there’s still benefit to bulking and cutting. I didn’t understand this until Alex Leonidas randomly mentioned it in one video I have no idea which one, ironically not in any of his videos about bulking those seem to be made with the intent you already know this

[jakemaxwell]

Bulking is to maximise muscle growth, useful perhaps if you are a professional bodybuilder but for the average lifter, it isnt necessary in my experience and if you don't cut properly or dirty bulk then eating at maintenance will be more beneficial

[chimes]

Might flight surgeon recommended your channel to me, and he was a prior body builder; great content

[harryHensum]

I think it's WAY MORE tedious to "maingain" year round than to do a dedicated bulk/cut. When I'm bulking(end of Juli till end of April), I'm just making sure I get my Protein in. Eating in a surplus is a non issue with my appetite. I also like and look forward doing both. Bulking speaks for it self and with the last weeks f my cut, it feels like Christmas seeing all the new gains. I love that. I can't even imagine how annoyed I would be macromanaging my calories just SO I eat enough but not too much ALL YEAR ROUND. That sounds much more like a huge hassle to me. Anyway sorry for my bad english

[peterretep]

For the training time aspect at around 11:30, couldn't you interpret that differently? A beginner can build more muscle easily, so for them, sticking with maintenance will still result in good gains. Whereas for an advanced lifter, bulk/cut cycles might be needed to get decent gains.

[Leo-ynfx]

Being in between like Maintanence/small deficit you can still make great body composition while having Great performance in the gym. I think if no ones looking to be contest shredded or gallon of milk peak strong then its def the way to go! You can still be between 10-12 bf too which looks amazing tbh and sustainable if you're very active.

[TileBitan]

even if it were more productive, i find this bulking and cutting very mentally draining. I want to follow a very well balanced diet that gives me all the nutrients my body needs so I'm as healthy as possible to live well and long, and that is a hard task already. Managing it on two different caloric intakes and constantly adjusting and checking my weight and fat % is too much. I'd rather stay at maintenance with high protein and train. 6 months doing this and the gains are awesome, I don't need to speed run it.

As for results, I gained in these 6 months 5kg/11 pounds (i was very skinny), none of it sitting on my belly. In fact I see abs now when before I didn't

[gauss]

LEARN to track your calories. Totally worth it!

[Cookiekeks]

If I'm already spending 6x a week at the gym, I might as well get the most out of it by bulking. That's how I see it.