Skinny fat

sarahdesands

How many calories should a thin person w low muscle aim for? I’m 4’11 and a half, 115 lbs. Goal is to build muscle, emphasis on leg and glutes, maybe a nice little bicep and capped shoulders. Also should I be bulking or shredding? What is the point of bulking and shredding? When do you know when to stop bulking? Is it a good idea to be doing cardio like stairmaster or biking post workout? (1 year beginner strength training but not seeing the results I’d hoped for)

Tedebearduff

You should hire someone

Keep_on_cardio

I quickly typed in difference between bulking and shredding, found

Bulking- must consume more calories

Shredding- taking in fewer calories

I’d start with typing in your questions and read what you find. Also google workouts on areas you’d like to work on, exercises will pop up.

Also stair master will do so much. You’ll need to add strength exercises whether you decide to use personal body weight VS. weights will be up to you, your goals.

sardelsa

Are your goals to lean down or to build? Or are you happy with your size and just want to work on improving your body composition?

If it's the latter, with your stats you could look into recomp... so maintaining your weight and losing fat and gaining muscle over time (making sure to add progressive resistance training and adequate protein).

Bulk/cut cycles are a little more advanced, usually utilized by people with more specific or bodybuilding goals to put on muscle over time and build their physiques. Or people that are fairly low weight/size and want to put on mass. I have run 3 bulk/cut cycles... I ended up about 10-12lbs heavier than I started with better body composition.

You could cut a bit if you wanted to lean out then run a bulk. But I would recommend you do spend some time at maintenance and take advantage of "newb gains" basically many beginners can make great progress when starting out.

You can definitely incorporate cardio, as long as you are fueling adequately and it doesn't impact your lifting (which it shouldn't unless you are doing a lot and going really hard everyday).

Oh and to add... what kind of lifting programming are you following? Make sure it is a proven progressive program for best results.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

mom23mangos

It depends on your frame and current amount of muscle mass. What do you look like now? To Sardelsa's point, is your goal only to add muscle (size)? Without knowing where are currently body composition wise, it's difficult to offer advice. One year of strength training is a long time to not be seeing results when you are already relatively thin. Were you following a program?

GaryRuns

In addition to the questions others have raised, what do you mean when you say you've done a year of strength training? If you were following a well structured, progressive strength program then if you had never done any resistance training before you should see some really solid gains.

If you were a beginner I'd recommend getting your diet on point by insuring that you're eating 0.8-1g of protein per pound of body weight. Next pick a good starting weight training program. Here's a thread with a lot of info on programs:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

If you really have been lifting for a year and didn't see any gains, or only minor gains, then there are a few possibilities: 1) You didn't follow a good, structured, progressive lifting program. Either the program wasn't good or you didn't follow it. 2) You didn't eat sufficient protein to support muscle growth. The rule of thumb is 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. 3) You were in a big calorie deficit (since your weight is pretty reasonable for your height that doesn't seem to be the case). 4) A combination of 1-3.