Bulk or cut

[dfirst]

Hi im a boy that is 15 year old, u weight 123 ish pounds and my height is 5 feet 9. I am at around 18% body fat and i dont know if i should bulk or cut. Ive been lifting seriously for aboit 3 months and one year ago i weighted 180 pounds so i do have some excess skin. Know i dont know if i should cut or lean bulk. I do look kind of skinny but i have some muscle and a little of belly fat. Thx for your help!

 

[elshae]

@dfirst Lift weights and eat!

You’re 15, take advantage of those crazy testosterone levels and ability to quickly recover.

 

[dinafrancis]

@dfirst Congrats on the weight loss... but you definitely over corrected.

I do look kind of skinny but i have some muscle and a little of belly fat

If you've only been lifting for 3 months, you're very likely skinny fat.

So your focus should be on eating healthy and slowly bulking. I would honestly keep it pretty slow too so you don't really have to cut again for another year or two at least. Gain some weight to get you to a healthier weight first (get to like 140lbs at least) and then slow it down and maintain/slight gain from there to the 150-160lb range. All while continuing to lift and be active.

But focus on eating healthy and building good eating habits. Focus on high protein intake. And try and learn your body's true hunger cues and allow yourself to eat if you're actually hungry and allow your body to grow, as you may still grow in height.

 

[dfirst]

@dinafrancis I already eat pretty good, fruit vegetables and meat and like once a week something like a cheat meal so on that im good, i also eat about 130+ grams of protein a day

 

[dinafrancis]

@dfirst Then just keep that up, work out hard, and go from there.

 

[dfirst]

@dinafrancis And also how should i détermine how much calories i should eat? I workout 5-6 times a week

 

[dinafrancis]

@dfirst Honestly, try your best and just listen to your hunger cues instead. Build those habits.

Otherwise, pull up a TDEE calculator and put in sedentary if you only lift, lightly active if you have some short cardio in there, moderately active if you're doing lots of cardio (ie, like 3+hrs a week). Track for 2 weeks and adjust from there

 

[dfirst]

@dinafrancis Alr thx man you are helping me a lot!

 

[skilletgirlepic]

@dfirst You're way under muscled at that weight. There is only one answer.

(it's bulk)

 

[dfirst]

@skilletgirlepic How much of a calorie surplus tho? Ive been eating 1600-1900 calories for a while now…

 

[graveapology]

@dfirst "bulk" or "cut" are unnecessary terms IMO - just eat 200 cals below your maintenance, if you don't know what that is, there are online calculators, and while not terribly accurate, apps like myfitnesspal and chronometer may give you a decent starting point. I do this for free for clients because I have the software for it since I am a nutrition coach and it's really not that hard.

One thing you need to be mindful of is eating enough protein - research says .8 g/lbs of body weight AT LEAST, this is also what I have my clients at, sometimes a bit more or less depending on preference.

Do this for months, play the long game. You've already lost a significant amount of weight, which is awesome, so now it is about building muscle (hypertrophy) across time with training. Muscle costs a lot in terms of metabolic demand, so when you build muscle, your RMR (resting metabolic rate) actually increases which means your maintenance calories will go up with the more lean tissue you build!

Get on a decent hypertrophy program (chat GPT that shizz) and be super consistent with it. You'll get there my man.