Yo yo,
I hope your workouts have been great my friend. Not even just your workouts tho, I hope you’ve working to make yourself better each and everyday. It’s your responsibility to take yourself to the next level, remember that.
Alright, should I cut before bulking? A question I faced, and almost every person who starts the gym will face. It’s inevitable really.
You learn about lifting, then what it takes to build muscle and what it takes to reveal the muscle (fat loss). But then, what actually comes first?
This is dependent on your circumstances, and NOT other people’s circumstances. Of course, you might be staring at that sentence thinking “Well of course it’s dependent on my own situation. What would anyone else’s have to do with mine?”
Social media.
Yes, social media.
Everyone uses it, most likely more than you’d like to admit. With this, comes exposure to the ‘ideal’ bodies and unrealistic standards.
Some people will have abs that are slightly faded and consider that fat. They’ll then proceed to cut and may indirectly advise their own viewers to cut, even though they absolutely should not.
They have their own body dysmorphia problems and can influence other people. This is what I mean by the decision to cut and/or bulk is dependant on your own circumstances, and that you shouldn’t pay much mind to what other ‘influencers’ and ‘models’ are doing. You can learn from them but have some discretion.
That being said, we’ll go through the four situations that almost everyone is in. We’ll then describe and analyse what you should do from there.
Oh boy, this will be interesting.
Situation 1: Skinny Fat
It’s January of 2020.
A 15 year old boy looks at himself in the mirror. The gym is finally a reality.
Imagining the sculpted muscles around his body. The defined shoulders that cling to his sleeves. The bicep vein running all across his arm. The abs that shape themselves through the shirt.
It’s there.
All in his mind. Only in his mind.
He needs to take a step. A critical step.
Does he build? Or destroy?
It’s the first year, and he wants to make the right step.
But, looking at himself, he doesn’t know what to do. It looks like he should destroy. But he most defintely needs to build though.
Decisions.
Decisions.
Decisions.
…
This was me. I was unsure of what I should do.
I know it sounds dramatic, but it certainly seemed that way to me. By ‘build’, I was referring to bulking and prioritising mass gaining. By ‘destroy’, I simply meant fat loss.
I had heard of newbie gains and really wanted to make the most of them, but I was also hesitant because of my physique.
I was underweight. I was 48kg at around 5″8.
“So bulk” is what your probably thinking. True, it sounds simple. However there was another problem for me.
I didn’t have any abs. I was skinny, had barely any muscle, yet I had no abs. I didn’t have a “belly” at all, but my abs were completely invisible. This is what you’d call the “skinny fat” physique.
Absolutely dreadful to me. So, I was debating if I should first cut, to get the abs, and then straight bulk. However, this didn’t make any sense. I was already underweight and no muscle. Moreover, it’s not like I had a crazy belly, it’s just that my abs were invisible and my chest had very poor definition.
*Below is an example of the skinny fat physique*
(notice how although there is no abs and an undefined chest, there is barely any muscles. There is minimal in the arms and shoulders)
But, by bulking, I was afraid that I would grow a belly and gain an undesirable amount of fat. Add in social media and their own standards, I was lost.
I made a decision though, with the help of a friend. Before you read on, consider the circumstances I just described, what do you think the best decision is. What do you think I should’ve done? Bulk, or cut.
I bulked.
“Should I cut before bulking?” We decided on “absolutely not” in these circumstances.
The reasons were because, I didn’t have much fat to lose anyway. Sure, by social media standards and my own perceptions, I had too much fat. I was in love with the idea of abs (if you’ve never seen your abs before, then you know what I mean. I watched the “how to get abs in 8 minutes” video all the time when I was younger) so I thought like that, but I had to make a decision.
Another reason was because I was skinny and underweight. Aside from potentially losing the little muscle I had, it likely would not have been good for my overall health and hormones.
The next reason is because I needed to build muscle. I needed to make the most of my noobie gains and actually build muscle. I needed to change my outlook on what I was doing.
Quite frankly, looking back, it would’ve been stupid for me to cut. Who cares about some fat gain, you have to stick to the bulk and trust it. If you don’t like seeing the fat gain, avoid looking at yourself in the mirror and other reflective surfaces. Unfollow the shredded social media influencers. It’ll just do you unnecessary harm.
If you’re skinny fat, I highly recommend bulking. Yes, there is ‘fat’ in ‘skinny fat’. But honestly, there is more of an emphasis on the ‘skinny’ part (no muscle). You’ll just be bones man. Avoid cutting.
Even if you’re not underweight, but have a skinny fat physique, I still suggest bulking man. Trust it. Then, you can cut. The point of cutting is to reveal the muscle. If you cut, you’re not going to happy with how you look anyway (no muscle to reveal, just skin, bones and abs), which will push you to bulk, and then finally cut.
So, bulk bulk bulk if you’re skinny fat. I do not mean dirty bulking, I mean an appropriate bulk. We will cover this in the future.
But bulk. Yes yes, I know you’re afraid of some fat gain, but it’s only temporary. Short term pain, for long term success.
I’m also aware of the fact that some people will recommend that you cut first. Sure, you can go do that if you want.
I’m just telling you from my first-hand experience. I don’t have these elite genetics like many of these guys on social media have, I had a less than average physique, so I’ll recommend based off my own journey.
Situation 2: Skinny
Let’s first define what skinny is.
A skinny physique is one in which you have clear (or relatively clear) abs, but have minimal muscle. Similar to skinny fat, but you have abs and a lower body fat percentage.
In this situation, the answer to the question “should I cut before bulking” should be straightforward.
What is the purpose of cutting?
To lose fat. Make sense yeah?
Okay, but if you’re skinny, you already have a low body fat percentage. You don’t have any undesirable fat across the body. Therefore, what would be the point of cutting?
You’ve already achieved what cutting would do for you. It’s like you have a head start. You have a nice clean canvas to build.
So bulk. Plain and simple my friend. Add that mass bro.
Situation 3: Overweight or “fat”
The answer to our overlying question will be different here.
Now, what people consider fat and overweight is very subjective. The metrics seem to be changing.
Generally, I feel like most people would genuinely know if they needed to lose weight, but this does not happen all the time.
Let’s create a standard then.
One factor is that this physique has no abs. And not just invisible abs, but a little bit a belly. It’s visible through shirts and they might even have man boobs.
Another important part is that they are not underweight. We’re making a difference between the physique here and our previously described ‘skinny fat’ physique. Here, not only will there be no abs, but they won’t be having twig arms.
Moreover, these people would have some muscle.
“What? But they’re fat”. Then they would be skinny fat.
These people do have some muscle, but the definition is so poor because of the fat covering it, making it seem that they have no muscle.
Moreover, it’s gonna take some muscle to move all that weight around man.
Another factor is that their weight is high. Obviously, this depends on height as well, but the weight must be relative. I don’t want to give you a specific set of weights, as it’s dependent on each factor. Although it’s likely that you’ll know if your weight is actually high.
In this situation, I would recommend cutting. If you’re bulking at this time, your body weight
Situation 4: Standard composition.
Alright, this answer might come as a surprise.
So, the standard composition. This standard physique is, as the name suggests, standard.
No abs, or VERY slight definition (even a tiny tiny belly). This physique also has some muscle. Not a lot, but they’re far from being skinny. They’re also not overweight.
A general physique. You probably understand.
So we then consider the question, “Should I cut before bulking?”.
Here, I’d say it’s up to you. You could do either. You’re not overweight, but you also do have some muscle. You also don’t have abs but at any extreme.
If I were in this position, personally, I would bulk. I’d do this to maximise muscle growth, then just cut and maintain.
If you cut, you’d then need to bulk again, and then cut again. This isn’t a problem, but I’d rather do just do one bulk, then one cut.
However, you could also just cut, and you might find that you’re satisfied with that physique and may continue to maintain it.
You’re in a flexible place here so cutting or bulking is fine.
More often than not, I think that bulking may be the best decision for most people in this position, but then again, either is fine here.
At the end of the day
You must understand what your goal is and what position you are in.
Having faded abs does not mean that you are overweight or ‘fat’. Don’t be fooled. Don’t let your mind trick you.
If you do decide to bulk, stick to it. Maximise the muscle and trust the process. Truuuust it.
Alright alright. That brings us to a close. I hope you were able to learn something today and came to a decision about if you’d cut or not.
Most likely, you already know the answer.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.
Good luck kings and queens.
