At what point should I decide to start bulking?

[SebChiasson7]

5'8" 157 13-15% BF. I was thinking about getting to 150 ~1 more month of cutting, although some of my lifts are starting to stall making me less motivated to go to the gym. (SL 5x5 Routine ATM) Do I grind out the cut and make it as close to 10% bf as possible or should I start ramping up my calories? Your opinion and reasoning would be much appreciated! Thanks.

[GSXRMax]

personal goals and decision

is your point to build strength? then start bulking

aesthetics? cut down to 10% and bulk to 13% to avoid an out of shape look while increasing mass.

up to you

[SebChiasson7]

personal goals and decision

is your point to build strength? then start bulking

aesthetics? cut down to 10% and bulk to 13% to avoid an out of shape look while increasing mass.

up to you

Hmm, thanks for the insight. I think at this point I would prefer getting more aesthetic. I understand it is counter intuitive to be doing SL 5x5 when looking to get aesthetic but I did it as a way to retain muscle and get stronger while cutting. Started around 180lbs+ 20% BF. Once I complete my cutting phase to ~10% I think I would like to switch to a lifting program focused more on isolations with 5 days of weights a week versus's focusing compounds for 3 days a week. Do you have and recommendations or outlines I could use to build my own program once I reach that point? Also from 150lbs ~10% body fat does a slow bulk of 10 months to ~170lbs make sense? Thanks.

[GSXRMax]

oh i would definitely stick to 5x5 SL when you start bulking too. aside from retaining during your cut, it's building your foundation to do more isolation on top of. continue strength training into your bulk until your gains start to slow down, then incorporate more isolation.

[phoenixr2]

much easier to cut fat then it is to build that LBM. Take the time and build a good solid base otherwise it wont matter how low of BF you reach, it wont look very good.