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

[Anonymous]

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

Updates

+1 y

Thank u everyone!!

[SenileOldMan]

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.

[Asker]

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

[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.

[Asker]

Thank u sir

[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.

[Asker]

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

[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.



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]

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.

[Asker]

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

[Asker]

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

[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:


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

[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.

[Asker]

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

[SenileOldMan]

I'm in my 40s in actuality.

[Asker]

Ohk!

[Sonorous]

Do both:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8BKbu_s8p1Q

Also, I recommend targeting your chest, lats, & abdomen muscles more.

[Asker]

Thank u so much

[Flower7]

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

[Asker]

Roger that

[exitseven]

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

[Asker]

Thank u sir!

[VikingWarLord]

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

[Asker]

Will workout at maintaince build muscle and get me abs?

[VikingWarLord]

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

[Asker]

Ok thanks

[bamesjond0069]

Bulk. Your chest and abs are underdeveloped. At that bf% you should be able to see muscle under there.

[Asker]

Gotit sir

[MrBadd]

Without much muscle mass cutting will only make you look even skinnier. Keep bulking and leave cutting until next year.

[Asker]

Gotit