So should I bulk or cut? Please need genuine answers?

Question

So on dec 2021 after almost 1.5 years of inactivity i went to the gym. On that particular day i was skinny fat almost (20 percent body fat) so i opted for cutting and thought to get my abs fast without losing much muscle mass. Now it's almost 2022 feb , I have 15-16 percent body fat and further calorie deficit seems to make me a lot thinner. I promised myself to get clean strong abs in few months when i began with it but rn i think it's tough as i look very thin and obviously can't make more muscle mass. So should I cut for a month more to complete what i aimed for or start to bulk straight away so i can grow bigger?
Any genuine help is welcomed. :). The pic below is what i look right now.

Cut

Bulk

Select age and gender to cast your vote:

GirlGuy

Updates:

3 mo

Thank u everyone!!

Answer 1

SenileOldMan

Xper 6

Bulk bulk bulk, but not too dirty. Do it reasonably clean. And include strength component and progress and training including triples, doubles, singles. As hard as it is to cut when older, it's harder to bulk. You wanna bulk naturally then you do the most of it when you're young.

React

2 People

aloha77

3 mo
Thank u soo much sir!! But can't i cut for just one more month?
SenileOldMan

3 mo
You can cut as long as you want and there's also inter/intramuscular strength if you shift your focus away from body aesthetics to strength. But this is your time to grow big. You will get bigger in your 30s if you don't let go of everything, and that will typically be your prime aesthetically. But the chance to grow the most is when we are young. Grow grow grow. But don't grow too fat.
aloha77

3 mo
Thank u sir
Show All Show Less
SenileOldMan

3 mo
Cheers! This is a controversial opinion but I think you can also sorta bulk and cut sorta at the same time without dedicating seasons to cutting and seasons to bulking. That suited me better because I hate having a gut even if my bis, chest, lats are growing. I don't like my belly growing with them. It makes me feel heavy and sluggish and burping up my last dinner. I don't like that feeling.

So what I did when I was younger is alternate calorie deficit days with maintenance/mild surplus days. I eat in a constant way. My macro intake is constant. But I might do sprint intervals and just loads of cardio one day putting me on definite deficient without eating any different that day followed by strength and hypertrophy on alternating days. Probably that's nowhere near as efficient as bodybuilders who dedicate seasons to cut and bulk but you can still bulk quite a bit that way.
aloha77

3 mo
That's some good knowledge.. thank u sir!
SenileOldMan

3 mo
Cheers! I got this sort of thing when I was younger, in the teens (I am not actually 80, but in my 40s, but I prefer navigating the site without girls hitting on me and with people thinking I'm a dumb old guy). I never did dedicated bulk or cut seasons back in my teens. I just ate constantly and my training was such that I alternated heavy HIIT days with resistance days, and I seemed to grow well enough. I might have grown more if I did it like bodybuilders but I just want to challenge the idea that we can't grow and cut at the same time. It's possible to do both, sorta, with daily alterations.

Apologies for the crap quality. We barely had webcams when I was in my teens. And it is kinda arm-centric. I got some others like for chest and stuff:

I am still so far from bodybuilder but I just wanna make a point that we can at least somewhat bulk and cut at same time.
SenileOldMan

3 mo
Used to run a fitness channel when I was 16 in the early days of the internet. I think I was trying to show off too much and I got humbled by much bigger guys very quickly. But I had some size and mass without dedicating cutting and bulk seasons.
aloha77

3 mo
Will subscribe it if it's there! Share the channel!!
aloha77

3 mo
Early days of internet.. ooo what year is that?
SenileOldMan

3 mo
The mid-latter 1990s -- like CompuServe and AOL era! There was also this private chat/gaming network I used a lot called TSN/ImagiNation. It was awesome:

But horribly expensive. They charged by the hour. My parents got pissed because I once ran a $200 bill in a single month.
SenileOldMan

3 mo
Probably hardly anyone knows what IRC is now but I used to run an IRC channel on Efnet called #fitness. Was one of the mods. But I was only like 15 and the other mods were mostly 20s, 30s, 40s. So I was the runt in the group but I was learning a lot from the older guys back then on how to eat and lift properly. There was a lot of bro-science stuff back then, and even more than now, because this was in the 90s. But lots of good stuff also in between.
aloha77

3 mo
How old are you by the way. If you don't mind
SenileOldMan

3 mo
I'm in my 40s in actuality.
aloha77

3 mo
Ohk!

Answer 2

aloha77

Thank u soo much sir!! But can't i cut for just one more month?

Answer 3

SenileOldMan

You can cut as long as you want and there's also inter/intramuscular strength if you shift your focus away from body aesthetics to strength. But this is your time to grow big. You will get bigger in your 30s if you don't let go of everything, and that will typically be your prime aesthetically. But the chance to grow the most is when we are young. Grow grow grow. But don't grow too fat.

Answer 4

aloha77

Thank u sir

Answer 5

SenileOldMan

Cheers! This is a controversial opinion but I think you can also sorta bulk and cut sorta at the same time without dedicating seasons to cutting and seasons to bulking. That suited me better because I hate having a gut even if my bis, chest, lats are growing. I don't like my belly growing with them. It makes me feel heavy and sluggish and burping up my last dinner. I don't like that feeling.

So what I did when I was younger is alternate calorie deficit days with maintenance/mild surplus days. I eat in a constant way. My macro intake is constant. But I might do sprint intervals and just loads of cardio one day putting me on definite deficient without eating any different that day followed by strength and hypertrophy on alternating days. Probably that's nowhere near as efficient as bodybuilders who dedicate seasons to cut and bulk but you can still bulk quite a bit that way.

Answer 6

aloha77

That's some good knowledge.. thank u sir!

Answer 7

SenileOldMan

Cheers! I got this sort of thing when I was younger, in the teens (I am not actually 80, but in my 40s, but I prefer navigating the site without girls hitting on me and with people thinking I'm a dumb old guy). I never did dedicated bulk or cut seasons back in my teens. I just ate constantly and my training was such that I alternated heavy HIIT days with resistance days, and I seemed to grow well enough. I might have grown more if I did it like bodybuilders but I just want to challenge the idea that we can't grow and cut at the same time. It's possible to do both, sorta, with daily alterations.
So should I bulk or cut? Please need genuine answers?

Apologies for the crap quality. We barely had webcams when I was in my teens. And it is kinda arm-centric. I got some others like for chest and stuff:

I am still so far from bodybuilder but I just wanna make a point that we can at least somewhat bulk and cut at same time.

Answer 8

SenileOldMan

Used to run a fitness channel when I was 16 in the early days of the internet. I think I was trying to show off too much and I got humbled by much bigger guys very quickly. But I had some size and mass without dedicating cutting and bulk seasons.

Answer 9

aloha77

Will subscribe it if it's there! Share the channel!!

Answer 10

aloha77

Early days of internet.. ooo what year is that?

Answer 11

SenileOldMan

The mid-latter 1990s -- like CompuServe and AOL era! There was also this private chat/gaming network I used a lot called TSN/ImagiNation. It was awesome:
So should I bulk or cut? Please need genuine answers?

But horribly expensive. They charged by the hour. My parents got pissed because I once ran a $200 bill in a single month.

Answer 12

SenileOldMan

Probably hardly anyone knows what IRC is now but I used to run an IRC channel on Efnet called #fitness. Was one of the mods. But I was only like 15 and the other mods were mostly 20s, 30s, 40s. So I was the runt in the group but I was learning a lot from the older guys back then on how to eat and lift properly. There was a lot of bro-science stuff back then, and even more than now, because this was in the 90s. But lots of good stuff also in between.

Answer 13

aloha77

How old are you by the way. If you don't mind

Answer 14

SenileOldMan

I'm in my 40s in actuality.

Answer 15

aloha77

Ohk!

Answer 16

Sonorous | 362 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic.

Guru

Do both:https://www.youtube.com/embed/8BKbu_s8p1QAlso, I recommend targeting your chest, lats, & abdomen muscles more.

React

1 Person

aloha77

3 mo
Thank u so much

Answer 17

aloha77

Thank u so much

Answer 18

Flower7 | 742 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic.

Master

Bulk to get more muscle, especially in chest and arms.

React

1 Person

aloha77

3 mo
Roger that

Answer 19

aloha77

Roger that

Answer 20

exitseven | 2.1K opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic.

Master

bulk. Your arms look good but pec and delts could use some work.

React

1 Person

aloha77

3 mo
Thank u sir!

Answer 21

aloha77

Thank u sir!

Answer 22

VikingWarLord | 138 opinions shared on Health & Fitness topic.

Explorer

Maintenance calories for the next 4 to 6 months and workout every day

React

2 People

aloha77

3 mo
Will workout at maintaince build muscle and get me abs?
VikingWarLord

3 mo
Ya just keep working out and do one set of each body part per day.
But workout EVERY DAY
aloha77

3 mo
Ok thanks