how low should my body fat % be before i start a building muscle stage?
I’m 23 male 5’8 I was on a losing weight program for 8 months and went from 198 to 151 from 25% body fat to 6% body fat. I am wondering when i should start building muscle without gaining too much fat and at what body fat % should i stop. please no links and only people who know what there talking about.
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You’re at 6% now? Hell, you can probably see your abs. If so, I would go ahead and start bulking. It seems like a lot of people continually cycle cutting and bulking because it keeps their body in shock and the body is more responsive; it doesn’t get into a “routine”. I’m personally still cutting from when I was 223, now I’m about 195. I’m 6′. To sum it up, I’d say use your abs as an indicator, when you think they are starting to get a little soft, start cutting again.
Doesn’t matter. You can change phase at any time.
Muscle can be built regardless of your bodyfat percentage. The idea that adding muscle also adds fat IS A MYTH. (Eating for a bulking phase is easier if you’re not worried about cutting fat. But this can mean that you accidentally gain some, because of looser discipline)
Cutting first has recently become popular because it can help with motivation, not because it works better. Most people prefer to cut and build in smaller steps or ‘rotations’ than yours, because losing fat becomes harder as your stores reduce. Losing 3% per step allows you to adapt your regime for extra discipline at each rotation. So going from 6% to 3% may be more tricky for you, because of getting so used to your current strategy.
After a major bodyfat reduction, you may also find it difficult to ‘kick start’ your building phase. Fat is the fuel that muscles use ‘off duty’, so recovery can be a traumatic process for them if they feel under-supplied. This means that you might not grow well unless your diet includes more fat than you’d like to be eating.
Starting onto a ‘consolidation phase’ with long light (ish) sets before trying to stimulate growth might be a good idea. During this phase, your strength and bodyweight should not change, but your endurance should increase by about 10%, and your measurements should DECREASE by the same amount, over about 3 months.
id start right away, the more muscle the happier you WILL be trust me