Is Bulking or Cutting Easier for You?

[quote]Tumbles wrote:
dan.desroches wrote:
Im currently trying to bulk up, and I can definitely say that it’s harder than cutting, in my opinion of course. I guess it’s different for other people both because of the type of person, and if they’ve chosen to eat clean while bulking or if they’re going all out. The latter makes no sense to me, so I’m getting my surplus from the same clean foods I eat all year round no matter what my goals are. It’s also really fuckin expensive! What about you guys? When you bulk, do you continue to eat clean?

I go by “no total crap.” I’ll eat fast food if it’s going to be the only way to get my meal in for whatever reason, but there are plenty of things to order with reasonable amounts of protein per calorie.

I’m starving all the time even as scale weight and gym lifts are going up - maybe means I should get more fiber or something but I am having fruits or veggies with my meals.[/quote]

That’s how I do it too. I do not eat “pure shit”…and by that, I mean donuts, cookies and candy…or ice cream floats with M&M’s in them…or triple cheeseburgers with a ton of mayo and grease dripping off. I’ll eat hamburgers all day long but I either drain the grease off or go somewhere where the burgers aren’t wet.

Fattening up is the easiest (over 66% of the population of the U.S. succeeded - thus no need to post body weight), with no regard to muscle gains.
Fat loss is second easiest, I am still eating ice cream and candy while doing it (slowly).
Properly bulking up to actually gain muscle, I have no idea since I have never had success with it (thus hardest by far).

i think bulking is easier for me. cutting isnt that hard though. i dont cut to the extreme because i dont compete

I’m going to replace the word “easy” with “pleasant”. I find bulking and cutting to both be a lot of work, but cutting is usually very unpleasant, especially towards the end of a cut.

Dieting is hard for the mentally weak, and your success depends in the knowledge you have on yourself metabolically and psychologically. I personally have a hard time with cravings, but when I control them I can see results by the week. The same goes with muscle building: I would say I have no issues doing both, as long as I stick with the parameters for succeeding on them.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

I really don’t think that changes much at all. In fact, the “fat kids” always seemed to be the ones making even faster gains in muscle mass once they started training regularly.[/quote]

tell me about it, I was the chubby guy in elementary and people always thought I had a genetic predisposition to be fat, when in fact my dietary habits and physical activity (ok lack of) lead to that. Now I have realized in all these years that I can either loose fat or build muscle optimally.

lets consolidate with some #s.

if you think bulking is easier, post how much lbm you gained over how much time.
if you think cutting is easier, post how much fat you lost over how much time.

will definitely improve discussion.

[quote]kickureface wrote:
lets consolidate with some #s.

if you think bulking is easier, post how much lbm you gained over how much time.
if you think cutting is easier, post how much fat you lost over how much time.

will definitely improve discussion.[/quote]

I have gained up to 26 pounds of lean body mass (that means subtracting the fat gain of the total weight gain) in 6 months, and lost basically the same amount of bodyfat (26lbs of fat/water) this last cutting after a layoff and eating shit (mere coincidence I think).

Even as an ectomorph, Bulking is much easier for me. On the other hand, Cutting while trying to preserve muscle tissue, I find that very difficult. Losing weight comes very easily for me, but losing it and keeping my gains is another story and takes a long process. Eating all day long and working out hard in the gym comes easy for me.

This is interesting because i had been wondering the same thing myself with my present situation. Up until a few weeks ago, i would have said bulking is much tougher due to the fact i spend so much time feeling sick from jamming food down. I made things tougher by eating very clean off season sometimes not having a cheat meal for weeks. Once these last 4 weeks are done however, my off season will be alot more enjoyable because i simply have to incorporate more tasty meals to make over 7000kcal which i estimate ill need in order to gain.

However, my point is im currently maintaining contest condition for another in 4 weeks and i have to say the cravings are near unbearable at times. I mean near depressing as stupid as it sounds. Of course they do pass but in the 8 years ive been training, this feeling is completely new and probably the toughest obstacle ive come across to date. I think it was mentioned early that dieting is mental and bulking/force feeding is physical so they are different.

Bottom line is i still feel bulking is tougher in general than a simple cut but specifically maintaining very low bf% and fighting cravings is just brutal.

To answer he above post, i weighed 240pd onstage 2 weeks ago and dieted from 256. Cut was a piece of cake until the last 2.5 weeks. Couldnt say what weight i started out at but was a fat little fucker

For me, bulking is easier because I enjoy seeing my lifts go up and eating what I want. Dieting just sucks.

[quote]hawaiilifterMike wrote:
Fattening up is the easiest (over 66% of the population of the U.S. succeeded - thus no need to post body weight), with no regard to muscle gains.
Fat loss is second easiest, I am still eating ice cream and candy while doing it (slowly).
Properly bulking up to actually gain muscle, I have no idea since I have never had success with it (thus hardest by far).
[/quote]

HAHAHAHA I love this guy.

[quote]kickureface wrote:
lets consolidate with some #s.

if you think bulking is easier, post how much lbm you gained over how much time.
if you think cutting is easier, post how much fat you lost over how much time.

will definitely improve discussion.[/quote]

Bulking:
I’ve gained >15 lbs lbm in the last month. I started bulking this summer, but did not get fat tested until a month ago, and then again today.

Cutting:
I lost over 50 lbs while doing cardio and lifting in less than 6 months–about 40 lbs within the first 3 months. I ended up at 7% body fat.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
SSC wrote:
I have the slowest metabolism in the world, and it’s still easy as shit to lose fat. All it takes is a LITTLE bit of mental discipline and disregard of hunger pangs.

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. Dieting is not that hard. However, it is taxing and requires a complete mental shift where you go from thinking about getting bigger and stronger…to suddenly working on getting smaller essentially. That “smaller” aspect alone is why some larger guys don’t even bother with it.

It takes about 5-10 years for most people to go from “untrained” to “extremely developed” if not more time than that. There are so few people walking around who can even train consistently for 5 years straight with no long lay offs that I am not sure how anyone can claim that is EASIER than dieting for 3 months.

Hell, most of the people here train “off and on” which means they can’t even do it for a short period of time.

It takes way more dedication and drive to stick with this for half a decade or more with serious intent.

Any fat housewife can diet for 2 or 3 months before they return back to eating cake for breakfast.[/quote]

Precisely, it seems that a lot of guys worry too much about the “cutting” an “bulking”, going back and forth as opposed as spending the time building up the base and most importantly, modifying eating habits, then adjusting according to goals.

Good post.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Any fat housewife can diet for 2 or 3 months before they return back to eating cake for breakfast.[/quote]

Damn you, I had some cake for breakfast! lol

Which is more difficult depends on what one means by “difficult.” Physically and mentally, cutting is harder, IMO. You are taking in a caloric deficit, making you more tired. You begin losing muscle mass, strength, and you can be hungry all the time. Bulking, on the other hand, just involves lifting and eating big and intelligently. Now in terms of pure success or rate of success, I think it’s bulking that takes the cake on this area. There are plenty of 150 lb guys on this website who are below 8% BF, but there definitely isn’t an overabundance of 250 lb mass monsters on this site. Why? I don’t need to explain why.

Regardless, it’s all dependent on the person. I find both fairly easy, but if I had to choose between the two concerning which one is more difficult, I would have to choose cutting. So, cutting = harder mentally and physically, bulking = harder in terms of just being successful. Hey, I think I just thought of an even better way to put it.

For cutting it is the journey that is the hard part, but for bulking, it is reaching the destination that is the hard part.

For me, bulking is easier than cutting. I was able to put on 30 lbs in 6 months, then another 10 in 6 months (too lazy with the calorie intake here).

However, my waist line measurement exceeded what I was comfortable with, and while I had lost weight through cutting, most of that, if not all, was muscle. I know this because I got a little weaker in my lifts though my waist line stayed more or less the same.

I gain muscle pretty easily,i even may say Im a bit gifted,but my fatloss is painfully difficult and stressing.:frowning:

[quote]kardon wrote:
For me, bulking is easier than cutting. I was able to put on 30 lbs in 6 months, then another 10 in 6 months (too lazy with the calorie intake here).

However, my waist line measurement exceeded what I was comfortable with, and while I had lost weight through cutting, most of that, if not all, was muscle. I know this because I got a little weaker in my lifts though my waist line stayed more or less the same.[/quote]

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.

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.