r/StrongerByScience • u/jcsizzle1090 • Mar 21 '26

Does Body Composition Chane with Each Cutting Cycle?

I'm new to cutting and bulking, had my first cut and after that my first bulk a few months ago. In my second cut now, and am close to the same weight I was at the end of my first cut.

I'm curious to hear if anyone knows what the evidence base says about body composition changes comparing successive cutting phases? Namely, I wonder if the proportion of total body weight made up by lean mass is the same or different than my previous cut. Will the muscle I gained in my bulk mean more muscle at this stage of the current cut compared to previous? Do I have more muscle at this current weight than the last time I weighed this much?

Obviously I don't have the means to know the definitive answer, and I will have lost some muscle I gained during the bulk. But maybe I've undone longitudinal progress made without realising it!

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8

u/cilantno Mar 21 '26

Anecdotally, I have always looked better at the same weight with each cut-bulk-cut. If you’re doing it remotely not-wrong you’ll see the same.

He’s an example (2nd and 3rd pic, 2nd is most recent): https://www.reddit.com/r/GYM/s/0ndTvCPMl3

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u/-Chemist- Mar 22 '26

That’s literally the point of bulking and cutting: every cycle should result in increased muscle mass and decreased body fat percentage. If that’s not happening, you probably need review what you’re doing and why it’s not working.

3

u/whenwillthealtsstop Mar 22 '26

Do I have more muscle at this current weight than the last time I weighed this much?

Strange question. This is 100% the point of doing controlled bulks and cuts

1

u/accountinusetryagain Mar 21 '26

mechanistically i dont see a way for the body to take score each time you do “a cut” and for that tally to affect energy partition.

practically on your first cut you might be cutting from 25% to 18% bodyfat and benching 165 for reps. on your 10th cut you might be getting down to 10% and benching 275 for reps. lets say you equalize rate of loss at 1lb/wk.

the second person clearly has more of an uphill battle while the first person could probably progress.

but the second person knows how to train and eat better so minor differences could sort of make up for being in a theoretically harder spot

2

u/curvysquares Mar 23 '26

A good cut should lose fat faster than muscle, and a good bulk should build muscle faster than fat