So here’s the deal. Im 18 years old, graduated high school in June. I walked into freshman year 104lbs and I walk around ~180 lbs at 5 foot 9. I have been the same height the last 5 years. So, I am a little tubbier than I would prefer to be, ~33.5 inches around my belly button and ~41 inches around my chest inside my arms. My total is 355/205/365. I would prefer to dedicate a little bit of time to cutting to get down to a better body composition followed by a longer period in a moderate surplus, but I am not sure if that would be the best course of action to take or if I should take another route. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!
If your priority is an aesthetic look and you think would be achieved with a smaller waist then do that (focusing on maintaining as much LBM as you can while cutting).
f your priority is to add lean body mass and you can tolerate your current waist size plus a bit more then do that.
There isn’t a right or wrong answer. You’re well within the healthy range for waist size (assuming you’re Caucasian).
Just as you should have a training plan, I do recommend you make nutrition plans that support that training plan, and see how your body responds to each to come up with your own preferences on what you want your waist/body to look like.
I’m 5’8" and I have similar stats to you. I’ve gone up to 36" in waist and I’ve cut down to 32" Having experienced both, it has become my personal preference to never bulk past 34" as beyond that I find aesthetically unpleasing, and cutting past 32" doesn’t really work for me either. These are preferences that were hard won through a lot of experience with what works for me and how I want to live. You may be fortunate enough to be more athletic than me (especially considering you’re more than 2 decades my junior) and thus cutting below 32" might be a simple matter for you, or might involve strength and LBM loss sacrifices that you are more willing to make than I am.
My point is, make goals, live through them, experience what those different states for your nutrition and body composition mean for you, and from that experience develop your own preferences for your body.
However, the journey through those experiences can be better with good information on how to best work towards those nutrition goals. The link in my signature has a nutrition section full of information that you may find beneficial.