Build muscle and shift my belly?

Project40s

I like to think I have a decent lifestyle, I eat well (could be better) and I go to the gym 5 times a week.

My goal is to increase muscle strength and size. However, my gut is protruding like a strong man, of which I am not.

Is it possible to shift the belly fat, but maintain my goal at the same time?

All advice welcome

TIA

tomcustombuilder

Usually best to choose muscle gain or fat loss and concentrate on one or the other. Some people try to do a recomp which is both at the same time however most are unsuccesful.

What is you height and weight?

Hobartlemagne

They say- Abs are made in the kitchen.
Refine the eating choices with that in mind.
Its VERY hard to lose fat/build muscle at the same time. Macros must be calculated with much precision.

AnnPT77

Tom's right that "gain muscle" (add mass) and "lose fat" (reduce mass) are goals in tension with each other.

You can focus fully on one or the other, as he says.

Assuming you're not very overweight, it were me I'd go with a very small calorie deficit (250 or fewer calories below maintenance), faithfully keep up a well-designed progressive lifting program, get good overall nutrition (especially but not exclusively sufficient protein), and be patient.

Worst case, maintain existing muscle, maybe add strength if still new to lifting, lose fat slowly and pretty painlessly while keeping energy level decent. Best case, maybe gain a little muscle slowly, but low odds of much (if any).

These days, a lot of us have sub-ideal posture. Common things are rounded shoulders with forward chin (a.k.a. "nerd neck" or kyphotic posture (not the same thing as skeletal health condition kyphosis)), anterior pelvic tilt (top of pelvic bone tilted forward of lower edge of pelvic bone), and/or locked knees.

Any of those can push residual central fat and maybe even internal organs forward/down, making belly area appear more prominent. Correcting them lets that stuff settle back more inside the body cavity, loosely speaking.

There are exercises for those, and if present that can be a quick-ish appearance improvement (plus spare us some future back problems, maybe).

As usual, just my opinions as a random idiot on the internet.

Best wishes!

tomcustombuilder

What I tell people is stand in front of a mirror naked. Would fat loss or mucle gain make you happier then do that. This is provided you don't have any underlying body dismorphia issues.

gntr73

Hello I am 69 in July and been into health and fitness my whole life. However, gained 20 lbs due to Covid and moving etc. I am tracking my food and lifting weights and walking. Dropped 3 lbs first week and working at keeping my muscle mass also. I sure could use some knowledge on this. I also weigh myself on A body composition scale daily that tells 13 areas of body composition. I would like to learn more about macros for my age. Currently weigh 158 and 5'4". Glad to meet you!

PAV8888

Do NOT let "perfection" arguments stop you from doing the "basics".

While it may be technically absolutely correct that increasing the mass of muscle fibers in your body while losing total mass are antithetical goals.... this doesn't mean that you can't feel and look and BE effectively stronger than you are today while losing weight--depending on your starting position, of course.

In fact, getting into shape used to be a concept even before cut and bulk cycles.

I'm also fairly sure that the physical component of any army's basic training does not concern itself too much as to whether the recruits are cutting or bulking while going through basic training. Yet they all appear to end up in better shape after a few months if they do not wash out.

Doesn't mean that basic training methods are good methods to follow for long term weight management--I happen to think that they are NOT. But it does show that "getting in shape" is quite possible.

So yes. Definitions (as to whether you're adding muscle or mass or changing your power ratio) matter.

And knowing your starting point ALSO matters. Because one guy's beer gut could be 5lbs and another guy's beer gut could be 50lbs. And we don't know which of the two applies to you from where we're sitting!

BUT, generally speaking, eating a bit less and moving a bit more works wonders! And hitting a well structured program at the gym instead of winging it can optimize things too!

Project40s

Thanks all for the input so far, most appreciated.

I like that suggestion of standing looking at myself in the mirror and deciding on what would make me happier 👍🏻

For the record I'm 6'5" and currently floating at 100kg, give or take.

My initial thoughts are for weight loss off the gut. Then once off, I can rebuild any muscle lost, and keep adding for size and strength, assuming I maintain a healthy diet etc.

Macros analysis will be my next step I think.

AnnPT77

gntr73 wrote: »

Hello I am 69 in July and been into health and fitness my whole life. However, gained 20 lbs due to Covid and moving etc. I am tracking my food and lifting weights and walking. Dropped 3 lbs first week and working at keeping my muscle mass also. I sure could use some knowledge on this. I also weigh myself on A body composition scale daily that tells 13 areas of body composition. I would like to learn more about macros for my age. Currently weigh 158 and 5'4". Glad to meet you!

Hi, @gntr73. You might get more personalized advice by starting your own thread, since you're in a very different demographic than the OP here. He might find some (not all) of the links below helpful, not sure though, so I'm answering at some length.

Overall nutritional needs for people our age (I'm 68, female) aren't significantly different than for other ages.

What can be different is that we metabolize certain nutrients less efficiently with age than we did when younger. One of those is protein.

There was an international expert study group that looked at protein needs when aging. (I'll link it below.)

The gist was that we don't necessarily need more protein than otherwise similar people, but we should make it a point to spread it through the day, across all our meals/snacks, rather than concentrating it all in one meal.

Here's the link:

https://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(13)00326-5/fulltext

The fulltext is available for free. If that link doesn't bring it up automatically, look for the box below "Free Text Links" near the upper right of the Abstract page.

Beyond that, the USDA has a "calculator" that will suggest somewhat personalized reference values for a range of important nutrients. You can find that here:

https://www.nal.usda.gov/human-nutrition-and-food-safety/dri-calculator

IMO, that lowballs protein needs severely, I think basically specifying the minimum to avoid malnutrition, rather than an optimal value for all cases. The study group link above differs. The USDA calculator may lowball some other nutrients, too, but it's one of the more comprehensive sources I've found as a starting point.

Also, this is an evidence-based personized protein needs calculator and guide, from a site generally regarded as neutral, and that takes recent research into consideration:

https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/
https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/

Note that the guide portion mentions that one can use goal weight in the calculator if currently materially overweight.

If it matters, I'm not only female and age 68, quite active, but also 5'5" and 132 pounds now (8-ish years past major weight loss).

I feel some caution about the body composition scales . . . they are doing an indirect estimate using a weak electric current sent through the body, and statistics from research. They can be . . . approximate. I do have one, though not a super-fancy model. IMO, they can be useful to see a trend (as long as one ignores any outlier readings), but I don't trust the absolute values. YMMV.

Best wishes!

nossmf

Project40s wrote: »

For the record I'm 6'5" and currently floating at 100kg, give or take.

My initial thoughts are for weight loss off the gut. Then once off, I can rebuild any muscle lost, and keep adding for size and strength, assuming I maintain a healthy diet etc.

Macros analysis will be my next step I think.

Losing fat has a double-whammy effect, in that not only do you lose the fat itself, but your muscles appear bigger simply because they are no longer hiding beneath a layer of fat.

At your height and weight, you are probably not obese by most standards, so any fat loss will be readily apparent almost immediately.

Macro analysis is HIGHLY individual, and within a single individual it is HIGHLY attuned to "right now" as a person can migrate through a variety of different ratios over the course of their life.

tomcustombuilder

At your height and weight you may want to add muscle and lose the fat later. Hard to tell whithout a pic.

You would eat at a very small calorie surplus and train hard with a proven weight training program that emphasizes compound movements. Once you've built a decent amount of muscle you'd contine the same training program but drop calories slightly below maintenance calories and always get in enough protein

Project40s

Thank you all for the input and advice 👍🏻

Chelle8070

Project40s wrote: »

Thanks all for the input so far, most appreciated.



My initial thoughts are for weight loss off the gut. Then once off, I can rebuild any muscle lost, and keep adding for size and strength, assuming I maintain a healthy diet etc.

Just remember you can't spot train fat loss. It's going to come off of the areas that it wants to. You can surely build up the muscles underneath - but targeted exercises for fat loss don't work.

So just keep doin' your thang and it'll get there!

My gut is always the last to start falling away. It's ridiculous really lol