Seeking advice on Bulking and Cutting

[manits]

Hi,

I fairly new at this, so any advice is greatly appericated.

I started lifting about a year ago. Before I started, I weight 190 lbs and have a estimated bodyfat of 28%. After 9 months of hard work, lifting 4 times a week and 5 times morning cardio sessions per week... I was down to 164 lbs and 11% body fat. By the way, I'm 6 foot 1.

About 3 month ago, I started my first bulking cycle. I started eating and eating.... In fact,I have been eating so much that my wife is starting to complain about our food bill. I also reduced my cardio session down to 2 times per week. However, it seems to work. I know weight 175 lbs and has a body fat of 15%.

My question is that how long should I keep up with this bulking cycle? How long do most "bulking" cycle last? I am never going to be anything close to a professional bodybuilder, so the "on" or "off" session does not really apply to me.

So if my goal is to build mass and stay lean at the same time, how long should my bulking and cutting cycles last?

Once again, thank you for any input that you can provide.

Mantis

[bradley]

It really all boils down to personal preference. Some people cut for the summer while others start cutting when they hit a certain weight or bf%. There are no set rules on when you should cut or bulk, but dieting for long periods of time to cut a high bf% is not very fun.

[YatesNightBlade]

Bradley is right.

Alot of people get cause up in cutting when they haven't built enough muscle in the first place.

Healthy eating with some cardio is the best kinda bulking you can do.

When it comes to cutting going on Holiday is a good time to get in shape. Nothing major just something like a 6 week diet of no junk and some good cardio sessions so you look good on the beach. ;)

[Davy]

Nice work manits !!!

I hope i will reach that weight also in about 2 months , for the moment i am 179 lbs and 21.5% BF -> measured this with an electronical device so i suppose this is way not the % i have (hope so)

Still loosing 1.5 lbs/week , ive been taking 200 mcg Chromium eacht day and noticed this aids in fatloss/weightloss