

You can gain some body fat along with the muscle you’re building and still look fairly decent throughout the process because you never end up getting “too fat” along the way. the ratio of how much muscle and fat you gain while in a surplus), it also means you’re going to look like crap throughout the entire muscle building process, because going from “fat” to “fatter” isn’t exactly a pretty transformation.īut when you’re “lean enough” before you start? Now you have some room to work with. In addition to potentially being detrimental to your health and worsening your calorie partitioning (i.e.

You Need To Be “Lean Enough” To Bulkįor this reason, you don’t want to begin bulking until you are “lean enough” to do so, as attempting to bulk when you’re “too fat” means you’re just going to end up getting even fatter. (Note: my Superior Muscle Growth program is built entirely around making these adjustments.)īut even when doing everything perfectly, you should still expect to gain some fat along with the muscle. Of course, there’s a huge difference between gaining a ton of excess body fat because you’re doing things incorrectly (like many people do when bulking), and gaining a small amount of body fat because you’ve adjusted your diet/workout to keep gains in body fat to a bare minimum. That’s just the nature of being in a caloric surplus. You see, bulking will almost always result in at least some body fat being gained along with the muscle you’re building. The simple answer? Those who are “ lean enough” to do so. The only question is, which option is best for you right now? In the case of a recomp, you’d either stick with that approach until your long-term goal has has been achieved, or until a short-term goal has been reached at which point you may switch to bulking or cutting instead. In the case of bulking and cutting, you’d typically alternate between phases of each until your long-term goal has been achieved (additional details here: A Guide To Bulking And Cutting). The goal here is to stay around the same body weight while making small changes to your body composition (more muscle, less fat) over time. This entails eating at your maintenance level each day, or perhaps being in a deficit on certain days and a surplus on others so that you break even in the end. Recomp, short for recomposition, is a term used to describe losing fat and building muscle at the same time. The goal during this time is to lose body fat while maintaining as much muscle mass as possible. This entails eating an amount of calories that causes a caloric deficit to exist so that a moderate and sustainable rate of weight loss occurs. The goal here is to gain muscle mass while keeping gains in body fat to a bare minimum.Ĭutting is a term used to describe a fat loss phase. This entails eating an amount of calories that causes a small caloric surplus to exist so that a slow rate of weight gain occurs.

If you want to build muscle and lose fat, there are 3 options for you to choose from:īulking is a term used to describe a muscle building phase. In this article, we’ll determine whether you should bulk or cut first, and we’ll also figure out if losing fat and building muscle at the same time (aka doing a “recomp”) is something you should try instead. In cases like these, knowing what to do first is pretty easy.īut what if you want to do both? Which goal are you supposed to start with? Others just want to lose fat (aka “cut”). Some people just want to build muscle (aka “bulk”).
