Bodybuilding help needed

mtabor80

I'm a 37 year old guy who was challenged in June to dress like Thor at a comic book convention next June. I don't care about Thor, but I needed some motivation to try. I started at 268 and am down to around 220 lbs. I believe I'm hovering around the 20% bf mark based on past measurements and scales. My family believes I'm getting too skinny and I need to start building more muscle. I was originally going to keep going until I got to 12 which now seems stupid. I'm on week 4 of a 6 week shred. What can I do to turn my weight gains into muscle gains by raising my lean body mass therefore losing more bf? Suggestions welcome.

usmcmp

Gaining appreciable muscle requires a calorie surplus. You cannot gain only lean mass and with your body fat percent estimation your lean gains are going to not be the greatest.

What you are essentially asking for is recomposition, maintaining weight while gaining muscle and losing fat. It's a slow process. Men can only gain 2 pounds of muscle per month under ideal conditions. Eating at maintenance is not ideal conditions.

The best thing you can do is to drop the cardio program you are doing and follow a progressive lifting program. You are not too skinny, you'll look bigger if you get much leaner. I'd keep cutting if I were you. Also, since Thor isn't shirtless you can find an awesome vest to wear and you'll be just fine.

mtabor80

So drop the cardio or just keep going til I knock out some more fat?

trigden1991

At 20% you’re still overweight and not in an ideal position to gain lean tissue. Diet down to 10-12% (which I assure you will take much much longer than you anticipate) then slowly increase calories until you are in a surplus.

Hopefully you don’t take my advice as negative: I’m just being a realist for you. Congrats on the 50lbs weight loss this far.

EDIT - I didn’t see the picture. You’re definitely higher than 20%.

mtabor80

You looked at the whole pic? The after?

rfrenkel77

First, congrats on losing 48 lb, now you look 10years younger. 2nd, keep loosing fat...you have significant muscle tone obscured by fat, you just never seen it. Switching to a ketogenic diet helped me, its muscle sparing during cutting , and reduced my hunger. It’s still a significant process I went from 205 to 155 in 5 years, now I’m working on 150, just to see what effort is needed and what will it look like, if I want to make 150 my baseline. You relatives will freak, especially if they are overweight like mine and consider under-eating a crime, a torture worse than death. Tune them out. I’m 5’9”, 40, 155# see pic, the leaner you get the more muscular you will appear. And you don’t need cardio to cut, keep lifting as you were, it’s all about the diet.

misnomer1

rfrenkel77 wrote: »

Switching to a ketogenic diet helped me, its muscle sparing during cutting , and reduced my hunger.

Nope. Blatantly untrue.

mtabor80

So you're saying switching to a keto diet didn't help rfrenkel77 , no muscle sparing during cutting, and didn't reduce his hunger misnomer 1?

rfrenkel77

I accept his challenge to an abb-off contest. I need 2 months or so to drop 5lb to 150. If his abs are better looking then mine, will both follow his diet.. I’m off to the gym...
Ps. You don’t lose muscle on any diet. Body eats muscle if you run out of fat. And there is no chance of that any time soon.

psuLemon

misnomer1 wrote: »

rfrenkel77 wrote: »

Switching to a ketogenic diet helped me, its muscle sparing during cutting , and reduced my hunger.

Nope. Blatantly untrue.

Keto, like any diet can definitely be muscle sparring if protein levels are adequate. And much of the woek that vokey and phinney demonstrate that. Often their studies were done with participants at 25 to 30% (~.8 to 1.2g/lbm) of total calories. The question is, do those who keto diet follow that level of protein.

In the end, whether or not a person sustained muscle is mainly going to be conjecture because most people don't get dexa scans throughout the process. And honestly, it doesnt matter too much of you enjoy the result.

psuLemon

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you#latest

Op, id agree with keep cutting. 20% is high for a male and that is considering its an accurate measurement. If you want, you can keep cardio but a focus should be following a progressive overload lifting program like in the above link. Keep protein above 150g and carbs/fats are up to you. Some do well with low carbs others high carb and others in between. I do lower fat (50 to 70g) because fats dont satiate me..i also incorporate 2 refeed days a week since i am fairly lean (16%).

mtabor80

On my shred I've been above 300g protein a day. Low carbs for last couple weeks(110) with equal fats. 6 days a week on this plan with one more to go. Refeed on Sunday. Will prob take a week off the next week and find a new plan to get me through winter. Any feedback or advice appreciated. The attached pic is over the 5 weeks

psuLemon

mtabor80 wrote: »

On my shred I've been above 300g protein a day. Low carbs for last couple weeks(110) with equal fats. 6 days a week on this plan with one more to go. Refeed on Sunday. Will prob take a week off the next week and find a new plan to get me through winter. Any feedback or advice appreciated. The attached pic is over the 5 weeks

While nothing wrong with it, that is an excessive amount of protein. You could add some replace some with carbs unless you like that style for cutting.

And are you refeeding for personal satiety or addressed adjustments in hormonal changes? If the latter, youd need two consecutive days.

mtabor80

I'm just following jim stopannis diet plan. He said go 1.5 of body weight for protein and refeed carbs at 2 per body weight on sundays. I'm just following as closely as I can to give an honest review of the program. It is a lot of protein. So many different opinions out there. I've just been trying something and seeing what works and what doesn't and move on to something else

jseams1234

rfrenkel77 wrote: »

I accept his challenge to an abb-off contest. I need 2 months or so to drop 5lb to 150. If his abs are better looking then mine, will both follow his diet.. I’m off to the gym...
Ps. You don’t lose muscle on any diet. Body eats muscle if you run out of fat. And there is no chance of that any time soon.

Is that your only concern? Abs? Do you train at all to get bigger or increase your lifts? I'm always befuddled by guys who look DYEL with clothes on and are ok with it. You aren't one of those guys at the gym who finishes a set of curls and then lifts his shirt to check his abs are you?





Just pokin' at ya - you look great.

mtabor80

No I don't do that. I'm trying to develop my body so I have something to maintain when I get older. I let myself go for too many years. Just trying to get to a good spot. Plus I have a bet to make that involves me dressing up like Thor next June that I don't think I'll be able to make. Lol

jseams1234

mtabor80 wrote: »

No I don't do that. I'm trying to develop my body so I have something to maintain when I get older. I let myself go for too many years. Just trying to get to a good spot. Plus I have a bet to make that involves me dressing up like Thor next June that I don't think I'll be able to make. Lol

I wasn't poking fun at you but at the other guys challenge to an "ab off"

You look great and you have made outstanding progress... dunno, looks like you actually have some mass to work with. I think you will look great by June. Don't give up on Thor yet!

mtabor80

Thanks, any suggestions on where to go from here?
And my abs are going to take a while, even after I get rid of the fat, there is a layer of skin after the quick loss.