 Hello and welcome back to another video. Before we start this video, if you're new to this channel, please subscribe and hit the notification button before we continue. Here we go. Should I bulk or cut first? That's the question of today's video and I'm really excited about this because I've been there. I think the lowest weight was 65 kilos for me and I bulked myself up to 95 kilos and yeah, up and down, up and down I was like somewhere in the middle with like 75, super shredded, then a little, I don't wanna say chubby but like a little, you know, on the higher body fat percentage. I made a lot of mistakes but I also did a lot of things right and now I wanna share this with you and wanna make sure that you guys know exactly what to do. If you wanna, you know, should you start first with a bulk or should you cut first? So to answer this question in one sentence, it's impossible because it really depends on your starting point and your end goal. Everybody has different goals and everybody starts at a different level. So here are a couple examples. If you currently have excess body fat, you wanna get rid of, but at the same time build muscle mass, I would suggest a cut. Simply because if you start your training regime with a caloric deficit but still have enough protein and carbs in there for your body to build muscle mass, you attack your body fat from two angles. Number one, a caloric deficit. That means you consume less calories than you actually burn. So you burn that many, only consume this, what happens, you lose weight. Number two, you will build muscle mass which will help you burn more fat while you sleep. Yeah, while you sleep. The reason behind this is that increased lean muscle mass increases your metabolism throughout the entire day. One pound of fat burns two calories a day and one pound of muscle mass burns six calories a day. So if you convert one pound of body fat into one pound of muscle mass, you burn four more calories. It doesn't sound like it's a lot of calories, but over time it adds up. This is option number one. You have body fat, you wanna lose and you wanna gain muscle mass, do a cut. If you currently have a lot of body fat you wanna get rid of that, but you don't care about muscle mass, I would recommend a cut with a high emphasis on cardio. If all you want to do is lose body fat, it's very important that your workout routine has a high emphasis on HIIT or LIST training. If you wanna learn more about HIIT and LIST, click up here I think. I made a video about HIIT or LIST training so you can decide for yourself which one suits you better and helps you achieve your goal faster. Again, this is just an assumption we made up or I made up this person who has body fat, doesn't care about muscle mass, but wants to get rid of body fat. So that's why I said for this type of person I would suggest a cut with a high emphasis on cardio elements in the workout routine. If you currently have body fat, but you don't care about it because all you want is gain muscle mass, obviously I would suggest a bulk. A clean bulk. When I say clean bulk, I'm talking about a calculated surplus to ensure growth while simultaneously keeping the body fat percentage really low. I know the temptation of eating pizza and burgers is there if you want a bulk because you're like, yeah, I need more calories, but those are wrong calories and they will just add more body fat to your physique than actual muscle mass. And if you stick to a clean bulk, you will make your life way easier when it's time to cut again. Trust me, I've been there. I just want to throw that in because that was one of my experiences, that's what I did. And it was not wrong, but it was hard for me to get rid of body fat later on. So I started, I wanted to gain muscle mass. I think I was at 72 kilos and I wanted to be 80, 85. I think 85 was my goal. So it was a long way, hard way to go. And I started with a clean bulk and I had like a 350, 500 calorie surplus every single day. And the first two, three weeks, I was like, whoa, I feel so strong. I have so much energy. My lifts, my presses, everything skyrocketed. And I was like, yeah, I feel great. And after, I think four weeks, I was like, okay, four or five weeks. I was like, I don't feel the gain anymore, you know? I think I need to eat more. The first couple of weeks I gained a lot of weight and it looked amazing because all the carbs were in my muscles and it looked very lean still. So I was like, you know what? I just need to increase my calorie intake. But at the same time, I didn't want to eat more rice and like whatever I ate. So I was like, I cannot eat like so much food clean. You know what? I'm just going to throw in there a pizza, 1500 calories, super easy or a couple burgers. You know, like two or three burgers, maybe like 2000 calories on top of that. So at some point I went up to an unhealthy way of like bulking to 6000 calories a day. And I was like, yeah, I'm gaining weight now. Perfect. So that was my main goal. And I gained weight so fast that I totally forgot about my body fat because I was like getting wider and bigger and bigger. And I was like, that's awesome. And then when it was time to cut down, I was like, fuck. The moral of the story is you can gain weight fast in an unhealthy way, but then you will have to pay for that later on when it's time to cut down the body fat because you just have a lot of fat on your body. So my recommendation, clean bulk, it takes a little longer, but it looks better, you will feel better and super easy when you're there. You're like, okay, I have my whatever, 80 kilos, 90 kilos, whatever your goal is. And now I want to cut down and then you'll probably lose like two kilos and then you're good to go. The next person, I've seen that person a lot. If you currently have a low body fat percentage and all you want to do is gain muscle mass, obviously I'd recommend a bulk. Although it would make sense to allow that person to be on a dirty bulk, I still recommend a clean bulk over a dirty bulk because it's easier to track macros. Let me explain that. So let's just say you have a cheat day. On a cheat day, you usually don't look for macros, right? You're just like, I want that pizza, I want that burger, I want that ice cream and that pie looks delicious. Problem with that is, yeah, you eat a lot of food, but what about your macros? In a pie, for example, how many grams of protein do you have in an entire pie? Nobody knows unless you really look at the recipe or you buy it from somewhere and you ask them, but still it won't be a lot. So it's like, I don't know, a thousand calories with two grams of protein, not really helping you with your end goal of adding more weight to your physique. So let's dive into this. When you're a hard gainer and you're on your clean diet, on your clean bulk for five to six days a week and you get all your macros, you get your protein, your carb, your carbs and your fats, you get all the nutrients that you need to build more muscle mass. And if you throw in one or two cheat days, make sure that you also get your protein and your carbs. So instead of indulging in sugary items on your cheat day, make sure you get your proteins, your carbs and your fats in. Now I wanna share one more story from my personal experience, what I did, how I bulked up and how I got rid of all the fat again. So like I mentioned earlier, I really wanted to gain muscle mass and I was very aggressive with my diet. I started a clean bulk, 350 to 500 calories surplus every single day. Then I got greedy, I wanted to speed up the process and I think I had 1,000 calories more than I actually needed for like a week. And then my body got used to it and then I bought, what was it? A weight gainer, I bought a weight gainer with a friend and just for breakfast, I had one shake, 1,500 calories. Then I went to the gym, came back, had breakfast. I was like a regular breakfast, like 400, 500 calories. Then lunch, another 1,500 calories. A shake, no the shake, yeah that was just a protein shake so that was like 300 calories. Where am I at right now, 3,000? That was like, I had a heavy, heavy dinner as well. Yeah, I can remember it's years ago but I ended up between 4,000 and 6,000 calories every single day and I was gaining lots of weight, lots of weight but also body fat. At that point I was so focused on my performance at the gym that I really, I didn't really care about looks but after a while I couldn't sleep properly cause like I'm five foot 10. Come in. Sorry baby. All good. So I'm five foot 10, right? And 6,000 calories for me. Okay. So yeah, what was that? Yeah, so 6,000 calories for my height wasn't really like the most healthiest way for me to gain muscle mass. Anyway, so that was just something I wanted to share with you. And then this was my bulking mistake. A clean bulk would have been way easier and way healthier for my body. But now that I made that mistake you don't have to make that mistake. Then for the cut, the cut down was also very, how do I say that? The best way, dramatic. Cause I wanna have things happen quickly. So when I started and when I did my cut I immediately cut down like 700, 750 calories that I actually needed to just like keep my muscle mass. As you can imagine, I lost way too much muscle mass and my body fat was still there. So I was frustrated. I had no idea how to change it. Did more research. And when I finally got back to my normal, you know, me I was like, okay, you know what? I only have a deficit of between 250 to 300 calories. And when I started doing that, obviously it's gonna take way longer, but my body fat reduced way faster and I kept my muscle mass. The moral of this entire story why I'm telling you this is either way, if you wanna reduce body fat or if you wanna gain muscle mass, it takes time. So don't get frustrated if you don't lose, you know, your five, six, seven pounds in a week. It's not gonna happen that fast. Or the other way, if you wanna gain muscle mass it takes time. All right guys, this is it for today. I hope this video answered your question and helped you with your fitness journey. If it did, please subscribe to this channel, hit the notification button and I'll see you next time.