When it comes to tracking your nutrition, you can have three goals but should do one at a time. Many people, including myself, spend many years in a perpetual state of bouncing back and forth between short stints of bulking and cutting. This will kill your progress. Focus on one goal at a time.

Bulking involves eating in a caloric surplus. You are eating more calories than you are burning. If your main goal is to put on muscle but you are okay with putting on some body fat, you will want to be in a bulking phase. You’ll want to be eating 10-20% more calories than you are burning while bulking. You should not overeat when in a bulking phase. Being in a bulk does not give you permission to eat whatever you want. You just need to be eating a little bit more than you are burning each day to ensure you are putting on muscle and size.

When to bulk:

• Your goal is to maximize muscle gain but you are also okay with putting on some body fat.
• Your body fat is at or below 12% for men and at or below 20% for women
• The ultimate goal is to hover between 10-20% body fat for men and 15-30% for women. You should bulk when you are on the lower end of that spectrum and cut when you are on the higher end. This will allow you to spend more time in the bulking phase without putting on too much body fat. The ultimate goal is to spend the majority of the year in a bulk or maintenance.

What to expect in a bulking phase:

• Build the most muscle
• Gain some fat
• More energy in the gym
• Increases in strength
• More flexibility with your diet due to additional calories

Tips for a proper bulk:

• Continue to eat mostly healthy unprocessed foods. Don’t “dirty bulk”.
• Continue to hit your protein target of .7 – 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight
• Don’t set your calories too high. Start with 10-20% over your TDEE and adjust from there. Otherwise you will put on more body fat than you intend to.
• Really focus on strength gains in the gym
• Continue to do your preferred cardio to prevent excessive fat gain.

Cutting involves eating in a caloric deficit. You are eating less calories than you are burning. If you do not like the way your body looks at its current body fat percentage, you should likely be in a cutting phase. You’ll want to be eating 20-25% less calories than you are burning each day.

When to cut:

• Your goal is to maximize fat loss but you are okay with not gaining a significant amount of muscle.
• Your body fat is more than 15% as a male and 25% as a female.

What to expect in a cutting phase:

• Lose body fat
• Minimal muscle gain and possibly some muscle loss
• Less energy
• Strength plateaus near the end of your cut
• Less flexibility with your food choices than when you are on a bulk

Tips for a proper cut:

• Hit your protein target of .7g – 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight to prevent muscle loss. Your goal is to lose as much body fat as possible while maintaining as much muscle as possible.
• Be in a 20-25% caloric deficit to lose body fat as quickly as possible. Don’t lower your calories too drastically, otherwise you are at a risk of losing muscle.
• Weigh yourself every day and take an average once per week. Aim to lose 0.5-1% of bodyweight per week. If progress stalls for multiple weeks, you may need to move more or drop your calories a bit.
• Continue to do your preferred cardio but don’t overdo it. Walking is recommended but do what you enjoy.

Maintenance phase involves eating around the same amount of calories that you burn every day. If you get to a point where you really like the way you look and you don’t want to gain muscle or lose body fat, a maintenance phase is right for you. Perhaps you bulked all winter and cut in time for summer. A maintenance phase might get you through the summer until you are ready to bulk again.

Recap on when to cut and when to bulk and why:

Bulking allows your body to build as much muscle as possible, while putting on some body fat. Once the bulk is over, it’s time to cut and strip the fat away, while trying to keep all of the hard-earned muscle you built during the bulk. It’s a back and forth battle of gaining muscle and some fat on a bulk and then losing fat and maintaining muscle on a cut. This is the best way to develop your physique. Unless you are very overweight, you should ideally be spending the majority of the year on a bulk and a couple of months cutting.

Here is my current plan. It works for me because I live in Canada where the climate is cold for the majority of the year. There are about 7-8 months of the year where my shirt is rarely off in public, due to the cold weather. Come up with your plan based on your lifestyle and how lean you like to stay during the year. I like to be lean in the summer months. Once the weather starts to cool down in September, I start my bulk. Remember, I’m not shoving endless cheeseburgers down my gullet to bulk up. I’m in a slight 10-20% calorie surplus. I will start my bulk in September and go until about February, depending on how much body fat I’ve put on over the winter. I give myself plenty of time to lean down for summer. I will start my cut in February, knowing that it will likely take me 3 months to cut down to 10-12% body fat. I will cut for 3-4 months, depending on how well the cut went. This takes me to about May when the weather starts to warm up. My goal is to be as lean as possible from June to August. I’ll enter a maintenance phase in May or June and maintain my physique throughout summer. The extra calories I get from switching to maintenance allows me to enjoy the summer a little bit more. I am simply maintaining during this time. Once the summer is over and the weather cools off, I transition back into the bulk.

• Bulk – September to February (6 months)
• Cut – March to May (3 months)
• Maintenance – June to August (3 months)

Much More Than Just a Physical Transformation

This is just an example and it varies depending on my body fat levels. It took me many years to figure out what works for me, but this is my current plan. This does not need to be your plan. We all have different goals and are at different phases of our fitness journey. The “secret” is to actually have a plan. What most people do is eat whatever they want during the winter months. Then they realize that it’s April or May and the weather is warming up and it will soon be pool/beach season and they start trying to lose weight by “eating healthier”. What they don’t realize is that it takes time to properly lose fat to be ready for beach season. They start too late. Come up with a plan based on your body and your life.

The 8 Rules of Nutrition