Written by Rebecca
Often you’ll hear gym-going folks say that they’re bulking or cutting, but what does that mean? Bulking is when you eat excess calories in order to put on a lot of muscle in a span of time. Cutting typically comes after a bulking cycle and is when you eat in a calorie deficit to lose fat and become more lean. There is a major debate on whether you can do both at the same time, and speaking from experience, you can. But you will get more gains quicker doing a bulking and cutting cycle vs not. For maximum effectiveness, your bulking cycle should last at least four months, while your cutting cycle should last no more than two. Let’s look at bulking first:
A lot of people are scared of bulking, because you will eventually gain some extra fat in a bulk cycle, and that can be really hard for some. Others, who participate in dirty bulking, don’t really care. If you read our high protein fast food options article, then you know that as a general rule, you want to look for 1 gram of protein for every 10 calories, loosely. A true bulking cycle is a lot more calculated (feel free to make use of a calorie tracker)– a blog called blog.workoutwithbolt.com breaks down the math for us:
“A starting point for a bulking diet might look something like this: Total Calories = 4 calories per gram of protein (with an intake of 1 gram protein per pound of body weight) + 9 calories per gram of fat (with an intake of 0.25 grams of fat per pound of body weight) + 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate.”
The numbers for carbs are not all listed, but according to issaonline.com, your bulking diet should hold about 40-60% carbs. The numbers below are at 50%. At 165lbs, your macros would look like this:
- Protein: 165g (660cal)
- Carbs: 257g (1,029cal)
- Fat: 41g (369cal)
- Total Calories: 2,058
For cutting, you need to reduce your carbs to about 1g per pound of body weight, according to jackedfactory.com. Using the numbers above would bring your total caloric intake to 1,689 with 165g of carbs. Your lifting routine also needs to take a change during a cutting cycle. You’ll want to increase cardio and focus on higher rep, lower weight exercises