Hypertrophy — or muscle growth — requires a caloric surplus, meaning that your energy intake must exceed your energy expenditure. Some fat gain is inevitable when bulking up. If you’re a newbie, though, you may be able to gain mass and strength without increasing your calorie intake (until your body adapts to the new movement pattern).
Fat loss, by contrast, requires a caloric deficit, so you need to burn more energy than you take in. Athletes go through cutting phases to shed fat and improve muscle definition. At this point, it’s important to reduce your calorie intake, adjust your macros and engage in higher intensity workouts. When cutting, you want to lose fat and preserve as much lean mass as possible.
Cutting After Bulking Up
Bulking and shredding require planning. You can’t simply eat a lot of less nutritious foods in an attempt to gain weight and then starve yourself to get back in shape. That’s a recipe for failure.
The cutting phase isn’t about fad diets or skipping meals. This would lead to muscle loss and poor overall health. According to a 2018 study presented at CMR 2018, crash diets may impair heart function and damage the heart muscle in people with cardiovascular problems. These slimming plans do promote fat loss and have potential health benefits, but they may also lead to arrhythmias and exacerbate heart failure symptoms.
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