(M18, 123LBS/55KG, 5'8) Need Help Building Muscle

jkoxe

Last year I went from 162 lbs to 123 lbs. I lost the weight through a calorie deficit and walking about 5000 - 8000 steps daily.
For a while, I wasn't comfortable around 123 Ibs. I didn't like how I still had loose skin and loose nipples, so I tried dropping as low as 113 lbs thinking it would give me some definition and make me look more defined. But at that lower weight, though, I still had no muscle definition and the loose skin was still there.Eventually, I went back to my normal eating habits and returned to hovering around 120-123 lbs. Right now, my body proportions look somewhat similar to some physiques I admire, but I have no muscle or definition at all and feel lost about how to change that.

I live in an extremely small town in the midwest and don’t have a gym nearby (nearest gym is 3h away). But I’m open to buying weights and working out at home if that’s what I need to build muscle.

My dream is to have a more muscular physique, I just really want to finally have some hard muscle on my body and a bit of definition so I don’t feel so small and soft anymore, but I’m not sure where to start. Should I focus on home workouts? What should my training look like, how long per day should I be working out? I'll take all the advice I can get.

sollyn23l2

I think weight lifting might be helpful to fill you out a bit. I bought dumbells with weights that could be added or taken away. I can do just about whatever I want with them.

nossmf

You sound primed to add strength training. Note I said "strength" training not "weightlifting", since you can gain strength and muscle with or without weights.

This thread includes a large number of pre-built exercise programs, many of which include no equipment at all, merely you vs gravity:

which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you

This link explores one member's search for the right set of resistance bands to use for travel, but shows how bands can be used in place of weights to perform exercises. Bands are cheap, easy to transport, and perfect for a starting home gym:

looking-for-bands-recommendations

This thread gives suggestions for what to do when your current program and/or equipment start to become too easy. You can always go buy more/heavier equipment, or you can get creative and make small adjustments to what you're already doing to extend the life of what you got yet keep making improvements:

30-tips-to-increase-strength-training-intensity

Retroguy2000

You need to hit the weights, young man. You should have been doing that during weight loss too, but better late than never. And get into a calorie surplus. With progressive lifting, you could add as much as 500 calories daily surplus, but maybe 250 would be better. That's probably at least 10% more calories than you're currently on, I would guess. You can't add muscle to a thin frame without fuel.

Check out some of the following on YouTube:

Renaissance Periodization (especially the playlist about hypertrophy)

Jeff Nippard

Jeremy Ethier

Mitchell Hooper (more strength/strongman focused than muscle building)

Johnni Shreve (form guides)

Garage Gym Reviews

Here's a recent post I made talking about different options for buying dumbbells:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48652029#Comment_48652029