You often see people in fitness mention going through a cut/bulk cycle, or mention one, with plans to follow up with the other. Why is it that cutting and bulking so often happen in cycles, rather than said person just doing both at once, until they hit their desired weight?
Building muscle requires an excess of calories, but unless your diet is supernaturally fine-tuned, you’re gonna put on some fat at the same time.
Burning fat requires a deficit of calories, but you’ll also lose a little bit of muscle mass along the way.
If you eat at maintenence, you won’t have the excess nutrients needed to build new muscle, and you won’t need to burn fat to survive either.