For the average person getting into fitness, both, losing fat and gaining muscle is important to achieve their goal physique. Now, achieving both these goals simultaneously is only possible in the earlier stages of training, and that’s exactly why you, as a beginner, should focus on losing any excess fat first. Now while this doesn’t mean that this is the only way to go, if your end goal is aesthetics, I’d recommend you to start with a cut first.

But this often brings up the confusion. You see, aesthetics by themselves are very subjective. While some people find purely size to be aesthetic, there’s a group of people who find leanness as a sign of attractiveness. How you can determine which category you fall in is simply by asking yourself what you would prefer to look like in the next 2 years out of the two choices;

1. Lean and ripped, but pretty much skinny with clothes on?

2. Big with clothes on but holding onto some excess fat beneath?

There is no right answer. It purely depends on what your goals are. Eventually, everyone’s goal is to get bigger muscle and be lean. But as a natural, this will take time. While this process goes on, what look do you prefer to maintain from the two mentioned above? If you’re not inclined towards either one specifically, then my advice of cutting first applies for you.

So why do I say that cutting first is the better option? Well, firstly, it is possible to experience body recomposition as a beginner. This means you can build muscle while you're losing fat. No, your fat can’t turn into muscle. Let’s leave that myth to the 90s. What will happen is that, as you get stronger on your big lifts, you will make adaptations and put on some muscle, while the calorie deficit will be the reason behind your fat loss. While recomping alone is a very good reason to start with a cut first, the other motive to cut first is the illusion of cut.

This is purely a visual reason to cut first. If you wish to bring about a visual change in your physique in the shortest time possible, cutting is the answer. First, losing fat is a much easier and faster process than building muscle. It is possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat a week, but in a week's time, you can only build 0.5 pounds of muscle as a natural who’s starting out. That too, you build this amount of muscle if everything is ‘optimal’. You see, this is a big difference if you’re trying to bring a change in the shortest time possible.

To read more about how much muscle can you gain in a year as a natural, click here

So what exactly is the illusion of cut?

You will look a lot bigger when you're shirtless, given that you’re holding lesser fat. What? That doesn’t make sense right. So you mean to say, the same person would look bigger when shirtless at 65kgs than at 80kgs, if the difference in that weight was just body fat?

Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. This is one of the biggest illusions in bodybuilding. In fact, people take advantage of this. Think movie stars and models, who often look big in certain scenes or shoots. In reality, you see they might not look big when they get papped. This is exactly because of the illusion of cut.

When you're holding lesser fat, your muscles tend to pop out more. When light falls on these muscles, it reflects off in a way that creates an illusion of making them look bigger than they actually are. This is exactly why a bodybuilder’s physique might look bigger on stage when compared to his offseason despite him weighing lighter. Moreover, the illusion of cut is maximized with tanning and the correct lighting. And this is exactly what most people don’t talk about.

Hence, if your goal is to look as aesthetic as you can in the shortest time possible, the illusion of cut will be your savior. Knowing that losing fat is a relatively fast process, along with the fact that you can build muscle during this process, it makes absolutely no sense to leave this opportunity on the table. The downside? You will look skinny with clothes on.

If that bothers you, then this isn’t for you. You will be better off going into a gaining phase for 1-2 years and then cut down later. If you don’t think you have the patience to wait that long, or feel that you won’t be happy with carrying extra fat, go for the cut first. Do it right, and you will definitely be at a much better body composition than you are at now. Despite being smaller in size, you’ll look a lot bigger because of the illusion of cut. And if your training is right, you will be able to build muscle in the right proportion, and this along with the illusion of cut is what aesthetics are all about.

Find the content informational? Share it with your friends and pin the image below on Pinterest!