Do women need to bulk to build muscle?

On Ep. 152, Nikkiey calls maintenance the place where the magic happens. Eating enough food lets your body build muscle while it decreases body fat, and as you add muscle you raise your BMR. She adds that many women don't need to start their journey with a cut at all, because they aren't eating enough to begin with. On Ep. 33 she points out that building muscle needs food, and maintenance gives you that food. It just won't happen as fast.

A building phase is the faster route. It means eating in a small calorie surplus so your body has more to recover and grow with. Nikkiey prefers the word building to bulking because, for a lot of women, bulking sounds like getting fat. In her video on the topic, she says a build is for women who want to focus solely on building lean muscle. The cutoffs vary a little between episodes: on Ep. 33 she says it isn't for women with 20 or more pounds to lose, and in the video she says 30 or more. Either way, lose that weight first, then think about a recomp.

She recommends three to six months, sometimes a year if you need to put on a lot of muscle, and says a focused build can save you years of cycling between cuts and maintenance. Her bottom line on Ep. 33: you can get what you want in maintenance without the softer phase. A build accelerates it. Which one you choose comes down to what you want and what you can handle mentally.