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hi guys my name is chris and welcome to
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another my pro team masterclass video in
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this video we're going to talk about
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whether you should bulk or cut first
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this is one of the most commonly asked
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questions in the gym but the answer is
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not so straightforward it's a little bit
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more complicated it depends on the
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context the reason why it's not so
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straightforward is because each person
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has a different calorie requirement a
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different amount of exercise they do per
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day different lifestyle and different
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goals and most importantly different
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perceptions so for example one person's
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lean is not necessarily another person's
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lean so one person may have to get down
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to five percent body fat to be happy
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someone else might be really happy at 12
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or above so it's establishing all these
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different variables that makes that
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decision of when we should bulk or cut
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when periodized correctly one phase
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leads to another so ideally you come
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and you're looking forward to eating
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food and then you come up to a point of
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high food you're looking forward to diet
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so the whole process becomes very easy
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and you almost zigzag between the two
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gaining the most progress possible one
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aspect that most people find confusing
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is defining the difference between a
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bulk or a cut if we start by defining a
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bulk that would be usually when
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someone's in a calorie surplus pushing
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training hard and trying to gain a
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substantial amount of muscle but if they
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go too far into a surplus and start
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gaining fat too fast they'll only be
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able to stay there for a very limited
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time before having to diet again this
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often means they struggle to gain much
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muscle because they're only there for a
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short space of time so ideally if we get
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the calculation correct we're in a
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slight surplus pushing training hard and
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gaining body fat very slowly whilst also
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gaining muscle and trying to keep that
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percentage of body fat gain to a minimum
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realistically if we are in a surplus we
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are going to see some body fat getting
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because we've gotten a surplus of energy
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we've got an excess so the idea of lean
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bulking and not getting any body fat
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whilst gaining muscle is very very
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challenging if we're looking to gain a
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really good amount of muscle and make
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good progress we need to be putting
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ourselves into a calorie surplus and
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staying there for a certain amount of
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time the point in which we continue this
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too is different for every single person
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and this is why i say it's not very
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straightforward to answer this question
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because one person's idea of being out
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of shape is different to another
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person's but that would mean we have to
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push the calories up which a lot of
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people struggle with because they're so
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scared of gaining excess body fat but
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this when it comes into gaining
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professional help and really having that
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nice controlled structure that's perfect
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for you as a unique individual so if we
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structured the bulk in a really good way
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it will then prime was perfectly to go
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into a dieting phase we continue it down
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to again a point that we're happy with
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it could be that one person at 10 is the
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leanest they've ever been and they are
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super happy at that point someone else
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might want to continue well past that
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point and as unique individuals some
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people are able to drop to a lower level
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of body fat and their body will be happy
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there this often comes from where
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they've been previously so for example i
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was someone who was very overweight in
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the past my body is not that happy being
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very lean i have to really ball it to
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and it really wants to fight against me
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to get back up however if someone's
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never really had a high amount of body
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fat they'll often be able to drop to a
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low level of body fat quite easily and
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the body's not really resisting them
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that much and they'll be able to find
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homeostasis quite easily down there
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somewhere whereas someone else might
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bounce back up to a higher level and
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their body is not functioning properly
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well it's even at that low level of body
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fat one of the best examples of this is
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bodybuilders so if we see how low they
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go in terms of body fat some people can
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get quite close to stage quite easily
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the bodies are not really resisting them
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some people are killing themselves with
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so much cardio and so low food just
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trying to get there but their health is
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being really compromised in the process
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so this is why we have to be careful
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that we're only able to go to a point
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that's healthy for us if we drop our
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calories too low our expenditure too
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high the stress that causes the body is
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massive and it can even start to bring
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down things like your hormonal function
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and your body just starts to slow down
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and all its processes and that's
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something we don't want because then
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that's not priming us back to the growth
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phase we then need a recovery phase
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to restore all the damage we've caused
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by the excessive dieting before we can
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think about trying to gain muscle or be
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back in a surplus another example of the
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damage we can see from excessive dieting
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is with people with eating disorders
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we've seen a lot of examples of females
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even in their teenage years getting
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perimenopausal symptoms because they've
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been in such a low calorie state for so
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long and this can cause such a
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disruption to their hormone production
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in such a vital time but can also take
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years and years to try and recover from
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so we have to be very very mindful when
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dieting to the extremes to understand
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where the point of becoming unhealthy
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starts and that is often where we start
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to transition back out of the dieting
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phase and go up through the maintenance
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phase or trying to go back into a
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surplus to progress forwards so in
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summary the decision whether to bulk or
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cut first is completely depend on you
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depending on your goals your start point
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and where you want to be hopefully let's
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give you some more clarity on whether
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you should bulk or cut first don't
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forget if you've got any questions put
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them in the comments box below like the
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video and make sure you subscribe to the
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my protein youtube channel
