Saw you tagged me, so here’s my take.
I’ve never counted a calorie or a macro in my life. I honestly just can’t see myself going through life like that. I have a few basic tenants of nutrition I follow (stay away from processed food, eat lots of meat and veggies, no direct carb sources, lots of fats), and eat more food to gain weight and less food to lose it.
“Bulking and cutting” is going about it totally backwards. Eat to support your training; not the other way around. Your training will necessitate phases of higher volume (accumulation phases). During these phases of training, you eat a greater amount to support your increased workload. This results in increased muscular gain. Eventually, you will reach a point where you can no longer sustain the increased volume. When this happens, you will need to reduce volume, which means needing less food. When the volume reduces, the intensity will naturally increase, resulting in an intensification phase.
I think if you approach your training this way, you will see the results you want. If all you do is manipulate food, you simply will get fatter and thinner depending on intake.