Is Bulking or Cutting Easier for You?

Training Bodybuilding
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I’m hesitant to post because I know I’ll be ripped on for two pages, but whatever…

Cutting is, at its most basic level, easier than bulking because to lose weight, you need to do LESS. It’s easier to not eat than to eat. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be hungry, but eating is work no natter how you look at it.

Now, mentally, cutting is harder for some and easier for some. It depends how your will power is. Some people make a huge fucking deal over not eating certain foods like they have a physical addiction to refined carbohydrates.

Personally, it’s not hard at all because I just don’t care that much about food. The end result will feel much better than the temporary satisfaction of eating something you may crave. If you look at it logically and not through an emotional lens, it’s a lot easier.

Then, there’s the coping with “getting smaller” aspect that Professor X discussed. It’s common to lose strength on a cut and that is a mental blow, as well.

Physically, it’s harder on certain levels and easier on some.

Personally, I feel great on my cutting diet. Anything I write is very biased because I fucked up my bulk, so anything compared to that will seem great. But I started supplementing with a multivitamin and essential fatty acids when I started cutting, and I feel great. Force feeding yourself feels shitty, and I wish I had never done that.

Cutting puts more stress on your nervous and endocrine systems for sure, especially if you’re using cutting supplements. It’s harder for your body to repair itself after workouts when on a caloric deficit.

Cardio every day burns you out physically and mentally. Eating a very limited diet, as in cutting, CAN end unfavorably; hasn’t happened to me curing my cut, but I don’t eat dairy anymore after my bulk.

Many drink more tea and coffee when cutting. Extra caffeine puts more stress on your endocrine system, especially if in ketosis. And finally, as I said before, fat burners in conjunction with caffeine, will stress out the endocrine system. And you’ll get diminishing returns from fat burners and caffeine, so you need to cycle that shit.

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[quote]Arms Afire wrote:
I don’t have a preference for bulking or cutting, it’s just something that you must do to reach the goals you have set out for yourself. If you just want to eat and lift and have trouble dieting, you become a power lifter.

[/quote]

I don’t think that’s what constitutes being a powerlifter.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:

That equals one year. Hit us back about how easy it is in 4 more years and tell us how you lifted through deaths in the family, finals, mid terms, bad break ups, long hours at work and other life crisis. Let us know how you kept lifting during periods where gains decreased and how you figured out how to keep growing after that.[/quote]

Have you ever done a serious cut or any cut?

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Not to jack the thread, but don’t the fat cells you are born with stay with you forever?

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[quote]younggully wrote:
Not to jack the thread, but don’t the fat cells you are born with stay with you forever?[/quote]

Barring lipo, yes.

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As for the discussion: I’m going to have to go with cutting on this one. While building a significant amount of muscle mass takes years and years, I’ve found the ride (so far) to be highly enjoyable and addictive. Shit, it feels good slipping into a T-shirt and finding it more snug in the shoulders than it was last time. It feels great hitting PR’s. I happen to love pounding food, too.

I did a small cut over the summer - a little damage control. Fucking hated it. Cardio is boring as hell, switching to chicken breasts got old fast, and it sucks working your ass off but still leaving the gym with no big changes in the log book. I can’t imagine how much it must suck doing a contest prep.

My 2 cents.

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Another point I’d like to add, now that I thought about it, is that when cutting, you can see results a lot quicker; you see your body change by the week. Could feel both good and bad, possibly at the same time.

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for me, bulking. i like eating and lifting, so gaining is fun, while limiting the food and handling the psychology of getting smaller/lighter requires more discipline for me at least.

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I actually find bulking easier. For the simple reason that I absolutely despise any form of cardio.

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[quote]e55ex_b0y wrote:
I actually find bulking easier. For the simple reason that I absolutely despise any form of cardio.[/quote]

Question…all of those stating this have actually “bulked” their way into actually being large, right?

No one gives a shit if some 160lbs newbie thinks “bulking” is easier. You haven’t built shit yet so of course it is “easier”.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
e55ex_b0y wrote:
I actually find bulking easier. For the simple reason that I absolutely despise any form of cardio.

Question…all of those stating this have actually “bulked” their way into actually being large, right?

No one gives a shit if some 160lbs newbie thinks “bulking” is easier. You haven’t built shit yet so of course it is “easier”.[/quote]

We should then also only include the opinions of those who have done drastic (contest or thereabouts) cuts, correct?

So, where is Stu when you need him??

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[quote]anonym wrote:
Professor X wrote:
e55ex_b0y wrote:
I actually find bulking easier. For the simple reason that I absolutely despise any form of cardio.

Question…all of those stating this have actually “bulked” their way into actually being large, right?

No one gives a shit if some 160lbs newbie thinks “bulking” is easier. You haven’t built shit yet so of course it is “easier”.

We should then also only include the opinions of those who have done drastic (contest or thereabouts) cuts, correct?

So, where is Stu when you need him??[/quote]

That depends, most of the people commenting haven’t done “drastic cuts” either and aren’t discussing such when talking about cutting down.

They are talking about dieting, period…because how many people on this site have actually entered a contest? 5? Maybe 8? Shit, at least 5 of those don’t even post regularly.

Everyone bodybuilding needs to put on size from a beginner…so tell me why we are even listening to the opinions of people who aren’t impressively built at all?

If we are discussing CONTEST DIETING, then those with experience should be the ones commenting…but we aren’t judging from these responses and neither was I.

I have dieted down many times in the past, but not to extremely ripped levels and I make this known in every possible description of my training.

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I lost 70 lbs after I started hitting the gym regularly at a fat ass 242 lbs after about a 10 year hiatus. It took approximately 100 days to drop the first 50 lbs and another 10 weeks to drop the last twenty. I held that for a bit then decided I wanted the words “big” and “strong” on my resume.

I’m about 16 months into ‘gain size/strength’ mode. Back at 240 with a much different composition and metabolism and finally at the point where I really have to think about eating (ie making myself eat) or I will lose weight— the real work is just beginning.

I think ‘bulking’ is harder (for lack of a better word) because it involves forcing your body to bigger (ie more muscular) than it wants to be. It’s (energetically) expensive to carry lots of lean mass and as your body adapts to the stress you’re hopefully putting on it by lifting progressively heavier weights, it accepts that adaptation so long as you feed it the energy it needs (now more than before). Then, you have to do it again.

It’s an uphill battle… and a long, slow one at that.

As if fighting against nature isn’t enough, you must do it over long periods of time… consistently… with more effort… consistently… and fight the mental battle because you’re not exploding in size on the order of say ‘weeks’ versus losing weight where, unless you’re in contest condition, it’s pretty easy to see a size change in weeks when dieting.

Generally, I think it’s fair to say if we’re talking losing 20 pounds to ‘lean up’ versus gaining 20 pounds of pure unadulterated muscle, dieting is a cakewalk in the park – just put down the fork, fatass.

I think dieting works on the scale weeks, where building muscle (I mean really building muscles) works on the scale of years.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
e55ex_b0y wrote:
I actually find bulking easier. For the simple reason that I absolutely despise any form of cardio.

Question…all of those stating this have actually “bulked” their way into actually being large, right?

No one gives a shit if some 160lbs newbie thinks “bulking” is easier. You haven’t built shit yet so of course it is “easier”.[/quote]

lol I went from 140lbs to around 220, so yeah I know a thing or two about bulking for sure…was by no means all lean weight, but I didnt turn into a fat mess either.

Another thing bulking has going for it over cutting is ‘muscle memory.’ If you fall off the wagon and lose some progress it can be regained retardedly fast via MM. The same can’t be said about losing fat, unless you’re good friends with a lipo suction surgeon.

Cutting just sucks. Especially when you come to realise that theres ~3500kcal in a lb of fat then look at how much various forms of cardio burns. Which once your body is adapted to a drop in calories is the only way to keep it comming off IME. I hate the fact that each gym session you are lifting the same damn weight or sometimes less, due to the calorie deficeit. With that and the low level energy/mood from calorie restrictions plus all the cardio you’re doing draining you even more… each lifting session starts becoming a total chore.

I don’t think anyone should ‘bulk’ personally, of course some fat has to be gained…npbody can be in an surplus thats so precise nothings being stored as excess) but keeping BF in check, which honestly I think alot of people fail to do…avoids the whole prolonged shittynness of what I described above.

I have seen your pictures and no doubt you are a huge man and clearly have a wealth of experience and knowledge about getting large, but if its so much easier getting to low level bf% why have you never gone past the ‘dieting down and leaning out a bit’ stage?

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[quote]e55ex_b0y wrote:

I have seen your pictures and no doubt you are a huge man and clearly have a wealth of experience and knowledge about getting large, but if its so much easier getting to low level bf% why have you never gone past the ‘dieting down and leaning out a bit’ stage?
[/quote]

Because my overall goal was to gain more size. If I had listened to guys like you I would still be under 220lbs. You don’t gain well over 100lbs by worrying that much about cutting down to competition level body fat percentages. If you think gaining that much was easy while doing everything else I was involved in over the years, then you are very mistaken.

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This guy seems to be packing on size well enough, it’s easy!!! 2006-2009 this three year transformation is about the average gains most can expect.

shit i’ve gained 70lbs since 2006…i owe pics soon, i’m lazy about the picture, upload picture thing. granted my gains from 145lbs 215lb are easier to make than say 215lbs to say 285lbs, aren’t they X? 70lbs while maintaining some muscularity and visible abs is tougher than just getting fat.

intelligent bulking, controlling insulin spikes by mixing foods wisely, e.g. if i’m going to eat something fun i’ll always add protein to slow it the fuck down. to emphasis the point of gaining muscle being more difficult, i could return to 6-pack in 2-3 months easy, it took three years to add the weight, and my first three year gains are the easy ones!

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
Because my overall goal was to gain more size. If I had listened to guys like you I would still be under 220lbs. You don’t gain well over 100lbs by worrying that much about cutting down to competition level body fat percentages. If you think gaining that much was easy while doing everything else I was involved in over the years, then you are very mistaken.[/quote]

Hey I never said putting on muscle is easy, the question was which do you find easier/harder …and for me cutting is both physically and mentally alot more demanding.

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My 2 cents is that for me, bulking is easier than cutting.
For cutting, I got up to 265, then down to 189 when I had a 6 pack, but found that I had dieted away too much muscle. Obviously I was a fat fuck, but hated 2+hours of working out daily. It took about a year.

For bulking, I guess I am ecto/meso mix so gain pretty easily I think. I am at about 225 now and 20%BF or so. I don’t think I have honestly “bulked” and gone on a 6 or 8 week program and crushed my bones and ate 8000kcal a day, so PX, I am probably not qualified to say I ever bulked, I just eat more on a regular basis and the gains keep coming. when they stop, I usually back down on the volume a bit and add more rest days and it is jump started again. also taking periodic breaks for a week help too (although they are not always planned).

I am not the smartest cookie, but did keep a workout/diet log and that helped a lot. Planning how many calories you need in a day and making meals to match is critical, but I find I usually just eat the same kinds of foods and adjust quantities upwards. eating more eggs and oatmeal, more chicken breast etc. I usually eat clean anyway, just too much and gain bodyfat easy. Actually, since I started taking the Surge workout fuel and recovery about 3 months ago, I put on 10lbs, all my lifts have gone up, but my waist size has definitely gone up too. I calculated about 500 cals in pre/during/post workout carbs/protein, about the size of an extra meal anyway. I enjoy the size gains, and definitely have experienced the feeling smaller syndrome when cutting and don’t like it.

One comment by PX I wanted to answer:
" tell us how you lifted through deaths in the family, finals, midterms, bad break ups, long hours at work and other life crisis. Let us know how you kept lifting during periods where gains decreased and how you figured out how to keep growing after that."
been there and done that and it is not easy. lifting is and has been the only constant in my life and when other people get mad that I put the gym before them, they get mad a lot, and I try to be polite, but they never really get it so I don’t try too hard. I brought weights on my ships on deployment, I have been through a hell of a lot, and the weights are always there, like that Henry Rollins quote. I will admit, I am not as disciplined to figure out calories/diet and workout routine to match goals, but always keep at it and just keep getting smarter along the way.

So many good posts and psychology here thanks all and just my 2cents and limited experience.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
SSC wrote:

I think most will agree with that…but you always have some guys who make an issue of this as if dieting is the hardest thing in the world. [/quote]

I disagree. Not everyone is the same and its easy to make loose comments like that.

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[quote]Josh Rider wrote:
Professor X wrote:
SSC wrote:

I think most will agree with that…but you always have some guys who make an issue of this as if dieting is the hardest thing in the world.

I disagree. Not everyone is the same and its easy to make loose comments like that.[/quote]

it would be better if most of you guys just close your mouth and learn from him.