So as a rule of thumb, if youвЂ™re between 8вЂ“12% body fat, getting even leaner wonвЂ™t improve your health or appearance, and it wonвЂ™t allow you to gain much muscle or strength. ItвЂ™s much easier and faster to build muscle when youвЂ™re eating in at least a small calorie surplus. If you want to prioritize building muscle, bulking is how you do that.And since youвЂ™re still so far away from your genetic muscular potential, you can build muscle quite quickly and leanly-your so-called вЂњ newbie gains.вЂќ Bulking is how youвЂ™ll become bigger, stronger, and more muscular. If youвЂ™re skinny, thin, or underweight, bulking is the best place to start.YouвЂ™ve never gotten close to that 20% threshold where you start to look chubby. For example, if you start your bulk at 12% body fat and switch to a cut at 16% body fat, youвЂ™re lean in both cases. The good news is, if we start our bulks fairly lean, then even if we gain a bit of fat, we can stop our bulks while weвЂ™re still fairly lean. ThereвЂ™s all of this extra energy weвЂ™re eating, and what isnвЂ™t invested in muscle growth inevitably gets stored as body fat. The problem is, when weвЂ™re bulking, we do tend to gain at least a little bit of fat. That way, most (or all) of the weight we gain is muscle.ДЄnother Johnny, bulking with a minimal amount of fat gain. To do that, we do hypertrophy training, we eat enough protein and carbs, and we gain weight at a pace that matches how fast we can build muscle. What makes bulking different from how most people gain weight is that thereвЂ™s a heavy emphasis on gaining weight leanly-on building muscle. If youвЂ™re 150 pounds and dreaming of being 200 pounds, bulking is the only way there. Plus, the only way to get heavier is to gain weight. And itвЂ™s true, gaining weight radically increases how much muscle we can build ( study). The idea is that when we eat more calories than we need, then we have extra energy that we can invest in muscle growth. When Should You Bulk?Д«ulking is when we gain weight to build muscle, becoming bigger and stronger. Just keep in mind that it wonвЂ™t improve your health, it might not improve your appearance, and your chances of building muscle are basically nil. If youвЂ™re under 10вЂ“12% body fat, cutting doesnвЂ™t make much sense unless youвЂ™re a bodybuilder, fitness model, or you want to get impressively lean. If you want to be bigger and stronger, keep bulking. ThatвЂ™s a healthy body-fat percentage and itвЂ™s a perfectly good place to bulk from. ThereвЂ™s nothing wrong with being, say, 17% body fat. If youвЂ™re between 15вЂ“20% body fat, you might be a bit fatter than youвЂ™d like, and so cutting is certainly an option. Plus, if you switch to bulking afterwards, youвЂ™ll likely regain a disproportionate amount of fat until youвЂ™re back over 10вЂ“12%.Д®veryone is a bit different, so itвЂ™s hard to be precise, but as a general rule of thumb, if youвЂ™re over 20% body fat, you can improve your health and appearance by cutting down to a lower body-fat percentage. Just keep in mind that itвЂ™s difficult to build muscle while getting under 10вЂ“12% body fat. If you want to get impressively lean, cutting is how you do that, and you can do it at any time.Since you arenвЂ™t very muscular yet, and since your body is still holding onto excess fat, you can probably gain a bit of muscle even while cutting. If youвЂ™re skinny-fat, you can bulk or cut.As a result, you can likely build a significant amount of muscle even while losing fat.

The more fat you have on your frame, the more energy you have to invest into muscle growth.

If youвЂ™re overweight, cutting is the best place to start.Cutting is designed for fat loss, not muscle gain. ItвЂ™s possible to gain a bit of muscle and strength, but the results are often fairly underwhelming. ThereвЂ™s no extra energy to invest in muscle growth. The problem is, when weвЂ™re cutting, we arenвЂ™t able to gain muscle very quickly or efficiently. Johnny was able to gain strength while cutting.

Bulking and cutting guide