Bulk Cut or Maintain? Diet Mistakes Most Beginners Make

Should you bulk, cut, or maintain when dieting for body transformation? This video is about the diet mistakes most beginners make when trying to get in shape. I define what it means to bulk, cut or maintain, along with the pros and cons of each dieting strategy.

Bulking is eating at a calorie surplus over a period of time for the purpose of gaining muscle. The difference between bulking and gaining weight is that bulking is done with the intent of gaining muscle, but weight gain includes everything from muscle, fat, water, and glycogen. When consuming more calories, you can train heavier and lift more sets and reps during workouts. Assuming you’re not dirty bulking and eating a bunch of processed food, your hormones are optimized from eating a good amount of healthy fats. Muscle glycogen is full from the extra carbohydrates you consume. Bulking means you probably eat more often, which is better for muscle protein synthesis and recovery. You fill out your clothes better. Seeing these noticeable results gives you motivation to keep progressing.

Cutting means you're in a calorie deficit for an extended time to lose body fat. This is different than simply losing weight because cutting is done with the intent of losing fat but weight loss includes everything from fat, muscle, water, and glycogen. Benefits of cutting include having a leaner physique, more muscle definition and separation. Losing excess body fat improves your overall shape and aesthetics which can positively impact self confidence. Beyond appearances, losing body fat is good for overall health. If you’re overweight, going on a cut will reduce the load on your joints and tendons and increases mobility. It lowers cholesterol, blood pressure, and improves heart health.

In terms of energy requirements, muscle tissue is very expensive to maintain. This means that during a prolonged calorie deficit, your body naturally wants to get rid of muscle and hold onto body fat. Past a certain point, your body believes that you won’t get enough calories coming in, so it will get rid of muscle tissue and convert it to energy, while at the same time holding onto fat for energy reserves.

Maintaining is to eat at maintenance calories over an extended period of time. Maintenance is your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. Since calories in equals calories out, your body weight does not change, however your body composition does. You can actually build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Therefore you could argue that maintenance is the best long term solution to reach your body composition goal. When maintaining, you don’t have to deal with the rebound of gaining too much fat on a bulk and losing too much muscle on a cut. Repeatedly bulking and cutting to deal with the rebound of gaining fat and losing muscle is known as yo-yo dieting.

If you’re new to bodybuilding diets, you’re better off sticking close to maintenance calories. Bulking and cutting are often short term solutions to see quicker results. If your long term goal is to achieve a certain physique, you can slowly work towards that goal by keeping calories close to maintenance levels.

If you need help with your workout routine, check out my other training videos here:    • Training Tips  

For practical nutrition tips, view my diet and nutrition playlist:    • Nutrition Tips  

mindbodyprime@gmail.com
IG: @mindbodyprime
mindbodyprime.com