Should You BULK or CUT First (SKINNY FAT FIX)



Should you bulk or cut first if you’re skinny fat or a beginner? This cutting vs bulking will teach you which one to do first and how to do it. You’ll learn best way to structure your diet and workout to optimally burn fat while cutting and build the most muscle when bulking.

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If you want to pack on some solid muscle, but you also want to lower your body fat percentage you’re probably wondering which one you should do first. Is it better to bulk before cutting or is it better to cut before bulking. Does doing one before the other or doing them in a certain order speed up your progress? Well that’s exactly what I’m gonna go over today…bulking vs cutting, and by the end of this video you’ll know exactly which one to do first based on your goals. The decision of which one to do first is especially difficult on two groups of people beginners & people that would refer to themselves as skinny fat. As a totally new beginner the really amazing factor that you have on your side is a little something that we call newbie gains. Meaning it doesn’t matter all that much what you do even if you’re doing the wrong thing you’ll probably lose a little bit of fat & add a little bit of muscle at the same time. Unfortunately this only applies to absolute beginners. Once you’re no longer brand new you’re going to have to pick one that you want to seriously focus & work on. If you’ve been working out for some time & you’re skinny fat this choice can be tough because you don’t have much muscle mass so you very quickly identify building muscle as a main goal. But, you have another problem, if you’re skinny fat you have some body fat that you can’t get rid of in those stubborn problem areas like your belly, your love handles, your chest, and your arms. Even though you may look completely fine in your clothes under those clothes you have stubborn fat that you want to reduce & probably eliminate altogether. So someone that’s skinny fat will definitely have to decide whether they’re going to bulk or cut first. When your goal is to bulk you’re trying to build as much muscle as possible. On the other hand cutting is trying to burn as much fat as you can while sparring as much muscle mass as possible in the proccess. To differentiate further there are two opposite ways to bulk. You can do a clean bulk & a dirty bulk. Regardless of which way you choose to bulk, clean, or dirty they both require you to create a calorie surplus. When you put yourself into a calories surplus not only can you build muscle, but you can also gain fat. With a clean bulk your primary aim is to build muscle, but you want to do it in a way that minimizes the amount of body fat you gain in the process. So you’ll typically be eating lean sources of protein like chicken breast & white fish, complex carbohydrates like brown rice & yams, & good sources of fats like avocados. Also your overall calorie surplus won’t be too crazy high because that will also increase the chances of you putting on more fat. With a dirty bulk you pretty much don’t care how much fat you gain in the process of bulking. Your main mission is to just build muscle. The fat you’ll take care of after bulking up. Dirty bulks are very effective at building muscle, in fact they’re probably one of the most effective things you can do to build muscle faster, but when you eat this way you can become much fatter throughout the process, which may not be a viable option if your skinny fat & you don’t feel comfortable gaining any more body fat. I very rarely recommend that you do a dirty bulk at all, the only people that I recommend doing a dirty bulk to are people that are extreme hard gainers. These guys need to do everything they can to eat more & gain weight. A clean bulk is usually the best way to go & by cycling between enough proper clean bulks & enough cutting phases back & forth you should be able to get as lean & muscular as you want. So which do you do first. Well since you’re looking to do both we should start with your body fat percentage to see which one you need more. The reason we focus on body fat is because the higher your body fat percentage is when you start the higher your body fat percentage will be when your done. Also with a higher body fat percentage in the beginning you’ll have higher chances of storing more calories as fat throughout the process of bulking than someone that’s much leaner. You’ll store more if you start off at a higher body fat percentage because as body fat levels rise insulin sensitivity drops leading to insulin Resistance. Insulin is a hormone that you need to cooperate with your body in order to be effective at building muscle & to

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25 Comments

  1. So if you’re 30% body fat, cut for 6 weeks down to 25% and then clean bulk for the next 6 weeks. Would that not undo what you’ve just done? Confusing.

  2. I often hear that being muscular or having a muscle mass will not increase weight…and actually will result in.lesser body weight… If that's true, why should someone bulk and add weight to increase muscle? Are they not increasing only fat??

    Can a skinny person straightaway start building muscle mass, without increasing weight or bulk ??

  3. I know it's not exactly rocket science but, i would like a video explaining what happens to your body if you dont eat for a certain period, Lets say you quickly eat 600kcal in the morning and 50-70Grams of Protein, Before leaving home, you expect to be home within couple hours for next meal, but something delays you that day so you dont eat another meal for next 8-10 hours, how much would it affect your body, and your gains, when will your body start to break down muscles and how much in X amount of time. ( Of Course you will over eat to make up for missing Kcal that day when you get home.)

  4. If you are over 50, and skinny-fat, I wouldn’t recommend cutting first. I did it, following the standard advice about 200-300 cals deficit. Strength training, keeping protein high etc. The result, yep I eventually went from 20% BF to 15%, but lost what muscle mass I had at the same time!! About 2.5-3kg lost! I fully tracked all this with digital scales. And now, being over 50, it’s incredibly hard to put that muscle back. (I’ve since learned about anabolic resistance, which I didn’t know about in June 23).
    So if you are over 50, be very very careful of following the standard BS of 200-500 calorie deficit. Maybe drop the calories slowly week by week, in low amounts. Be very careful about how much deficit if you go into. Monitor your muscle mass, and if it’s starts dropping significantly. STOP.
    That’s my advice, because it’s hard to put that muscle back. Harder than a lot of these YouTubers make out. Also you gain fat easier than muscle, much easier.

  5. Tell you what:

    I was 165kg with more than 45% fat.
    I went to the gym 4 or 5 days a week and trained real hard and ate very well.
    Now I am 120kg with 25% fat and have gained in total 7.5kg muscle in around 5 months.

    Done with a calorie deficit…..

  6. Clean Bulk first and then cut, your muscle gains will stay whilst you burn fat and because you would have gained weight from your bulk which you can lose without it losing too much weight

  7. Obviously you want some size before cutting
    But my personal experience, after going on a 12 week cut and my bf was down below 7, o started bulking and it seems the sensitivity to calories really forced my body to respond
    I gained muscle like i was doing half a cycle of anabolics. And although i gained 15vpounds my pants never got tighter

  8. I'm a woman with a body fat percentage of around 22-23% (according to the pictures), so I'd fall into the bulking range. I'm also a complete beginner in the gym. my goals are building bicep, back and leg muscles, as well as abs. i was confused bcs abs= cutting and the other muscles= bulking…
    I thought i could maybe cut/eat maintenance cals and still gain muscle bcs of newbie gains, but idk if this is possible.

    do y'all think i should start with a bulk and then cut to see my abs, too?
    What should i do then?

  9. TLDR: If you’re a guy and you’re OVER 15% Body Fat / CUT FIRST; If you’re UNDER 15% Body Fat BULK FIRST. For the Ladies if you’re OVER 25% Body Fat / CUT FIRST; If you’re UNDER that % then BULK FIRST. You should do a CLEAN BULK if you’re an easy gainer. A DIRTY BULK if you’re a hard gainer.

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