You set the rules for bulk, cut, and peak week
Coaches disagree about the details of bulking, cutting and peak week. MuscleBuddy gives you the structure, switches phases on schedule, and proposes parameters from your own numbers, and you or your coach can change any of them.
Phases that switch on schedule
Set up a phase with a start date, an end date, and calorie and macro targets. When it ends, MuscleBuddy moves your targets to the next phase. You set the rate of change per phase, so a slow cut and an aggressive cut are two settings of the same thing.
Each phase you have run stays in your history, with its dates and what happened during it, so you can look back at how a bulk or cut went.
Carb cycling, refeeds, and reverse dieting, off by default
The evidence on all three is mixed, so all three start off and you or your coach turn them on.
Carb cycling assigns high, medium and low carb targets across the week, mapped to days of the week or to training and rest days, with ratios you set. The meal plan follows your mapping. Refeed days, one-off or recurring, raise calorie and carb targets for a day; you set how often, how long and how big, and they appear on your phase timeline. Reverse dieting raises calories by up to one step a week (100 kcal unless you set another size) toward maintenance, shrinks or holds the step while your weight is climbing, and charts your progress toward the endpoint.
Contest prep, timed backward from your show date
Enter a show date and MuscleBuddy builds the phase timeline backward from it: off-season, early prep, peak week and show day. A stage weight estimate comes from your current weight and body fat, and a show-date countdown sits on your dashboard.
Peak week is a day-by-day protocol for carbohydrate, water and sodium. MuscleBuddy proposes it from your own prep and shows where each number came from. Water and sodium stay at your normal intake unless you or your coach choose otherwise, and you can change any parameter. Posing practice reminders run at whatever frequency you set, working from the pose library, and you can share a contest prep update, such as your countdown or a phase change, to the social feed.
How phases connect to the rest of the app
A phase's rate of change is checked against the same weigh-in trend that drives Nutrition's adjustments, and reverse dieting and carb cycling pass their daily targets to the meal planner, so a phase change reshapes your week without a rebuild.
A hard cut often shows up in your lifts: miss a lift's rep floor three sessions running and, under most progression methods, its load drops 10%, and on Pro a run of low-recovery days can bring a deload forward. Health's recovery data, from vitals and HRV if you log them, shows what the phase is costing you. When a week's numbers look wrong, Upkeep's medication and appointment records (a missed dose, a flare, an appointment that cost you a session) sit alongside the phase.
Frequently asked
- Are carb cycling and refeeds on by default?
No. Both start off, along with reverse dieting. You or your coach turn each one on.
- Does MuscleBuddy tell me what my macros should be during a cut?
It proposes starting targets from your numbers, and you set the rate of change and targets per phase. Carb cycling, refeeds and reverse dieting are there if you want them. What a phase should target is for you and your coach to decide.
- How does contest prep build the timeline?
From your show date backward: off-season, early prep, peak week, and show day. The peak week protocol is proposed from your prep numbers and stored once you approve it.
- What happens when a phase ends?
Your targets switch to the next phase on the end date you set, and the phase you finished stays in your history.
- Can I run reverse dieting after a cut?
Yes. Set a weekly step size and a maintenance endpoint, and take a step each week. MuscleBuddy shrinks or holds the step if your weight climbs quickly, and charts your progress toward the endpoint.
Phases on your rules, on schedule
Bulk, cut, maintenance, recomp and contest prep, each set up your way, switching on the dates you choose. Free: cut, bulk, maintenance and recomp. Pro ($9.99/mo) adds carb cycling, refeeds, reverse dieting and contest prep.