Recomp: How to avoid or fix "Skinny Fat"

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  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    I hope this isn't derailing. But can I get away from skinny-fat by using dumbbells and resistance bands? The lift heavy talk and dead lifting = Greek to me (and, truth be told, frightening to me.) I do not belong to a gym and don't foresee belonging to one, ever.

    I like the idea of reducing length of cardio workouts and now I am adding push ups, dumbbell reps, etc. and starting to see some minor results...

    Can it be done without the oft-mentioned dead-lifting and heavy lifting??? :'(

    You could add in weighted squats (using hand weights, a bag of potatoes or whatever), weighted step-ups, etc.
  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,650 Member
    @arditarose Research = good idea. I shy away from the lift heavy talk because of several past back injuries (not from weight lifting, from running.)

    @blankiefinder I do squats, will add hand weights. Thanks.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    @arditarose Research = good idea. I shy away from the lift heavy talk because of several past back injuries (not from weight lifting, from running.)

    @blankiefinder I do squats, will add hand weights. Thanks.

    Ah, okay. Always good to be cautious when it comes to injuries.
  • ExRelaySprinter
    ExRelaySprinter Posts: 874 Member
    jim180155 wrote: »
    Thought I'd follow up to clarify what seems to be a common misconception, maybe because some people didn't take time to read the article.

    The article is not saying that cardio makes you skinny. It doesn't. You can live on the treadmill and gain weight if you eat too much.

    The article is not saying that cardio makes you fat. It doesn't. Cardio burns calories and will help you lose weight, provided that you eat fewer calories than you burn.

    And the article is not saying that cardio makes you skinny fat. It doesn't. Skinny fat is a combination of low muscle mass and high body fat percentage. If you fit those criteria and your overall weight is low, you are skinny fat. You can get there with cardio or without cardio.

    The article is saying that too much cardio interferes with strength and muscle growth and that the longer your individual cardio sessions are, the greater these effects are. The article also links to the research to support that statement.

    If your goal is to get stronger and add muscle mass, you should lift heavy and focus on compound lifts. Too much cardio can impede your progress, so you should limit cardio. And HIIT is preferable to steady state cardio.

    Yes, this does make sense.
    It''ll be hard for me (as i love Cardio), but i know i'm going to have to cut down on it (and continue to lift) if i want to get stronger and build more muscle.
  • sabrinacrandall
    sabrinacrandall Posts: 74 Member
    That was a good article. I'm glad to hear that I'm doing just about the right amount of cardio, and just this weekend started a heavy weight lifting program to start to get rid of this skinny fatness. :) Thank you for posting this!
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    I find the whole "skinny fat" phenomenon a bit meh really. It has become a marketing term used to drive looking a certain way rather than a health based perspective or performance based perspective. NWO is of concern but it seems that skinny fat is only loosely used in that sense.

    It needs to be confined to Grazie magazine or something...
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    So I read the article and more importantly the link the author provides for HIIT article where he discloses he went from 11% BF to 9% BF(body fat) over 11 weeks eating a deficit, doing HIIT, lifting, and some cardio. I think the lifting was 3.5 to 5 hours and cardio 1.5 to 2 hours. The kick in the proverbial dangly bits is the deficit he was using. 25% deficit over the course of the 11 weeks. You need to ask yourself just how healthy do you want to appear and what makes sense. Personally, a 25% deficit and working out 7 hours a week seems excessive. Then again I'm not blogging for people to 'use my services'. As for skinny fat, the author defined it as too little muscle mass and too much body fat. Makes sense.
  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,650 Member
    msf74 wrote: »
    I find the whole "skinny fat" phenomenon a bit meh really. It has become a marketing term used to drive looking a certain way rather than a health based perspective or performance based perspective. NWO is of concern but it seems that skinny fat is only loosely used in that sense.

    It needs to be confined to Grazie magazine or something...

    Yes, I see this view. It's like ANOTHER way of saying: Nope, you still don't look right.

  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    msf74 wrote: »
    I find the whole "skinny fat" phenomenon a bit meh really. It has become a marketing term used to drive looking a certain way rather than a health based perspective or performance based perspective. NWO is of concern but it seems that skinny fat is only loosely used in that sense.

    It needs to be confined to Grazie magazine or something...

    Yes, I see this view. It's like ANOTHER way of saying: Nope, you still don't look right.

    Yes there's that, but there ARE also health risks associated with a high body fat %, no matter what your weight is.
  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,650 Member
    tomatoey wrote: »
    Yes there's that, but there ARE also health risks associated with a high body fat %, no matter what your weight is.

    I agree. Especially the old belly fat - it's bad all around (pardon the pun). So it's a split of knowing that it's unhealthy and knowing there's always, always, always more work to do.

    Hey - that's life, right? :)

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