Should I start Huge or lean?

coachpolyak

Ok , so currently I am 5'5 129lbs. I am a guy and I have a 15% body fat. I have recently purchased Body Beast and was wondering if I should do Lean Beast or Huge Beast. I only weigh 129 and need to gain but just don't want a lot of fat. So should I do lean or huge? Thanks.

JustT1m

There is not too much difference between lean or huge except that lean has a few more days where you do Beast Cardio.

coachpolyak

Ok , so if I do Huge beast will I see my body fat go really high? Or will it lower?

sarahkatara

Have you been lifting weights already? If so, are you lifting heavy? BodyBeast is a crazy intense program so if you're just starting off with weightlifting, it might not be the best thing to do right away. Assuming you HAVE been lifting, it sounds like you can go with "Huge Beast". Your goal is basically to gain as much muscle as you can and try and drop fat too. That is seriously hard to do. As you gain muscle you may gain a little fat but that's ok. You can always adjust your calorie intake after you're done with BodyBeast to cut the fat. Perhaps this could be a semi-bulking phase for you- you DO need to gain mass, so do some research (bodybuilding.com is awesome) to see how to do that. I'm pretty sure the program comes with a meal plan.

JustT1m

Well that depends on how much food you eat. Use the TDEE calculators that you can find all over the web and figure out about 15-20% less than TDEE and you should be fine.

sarahkatara

Ok , so if I do Huge beast will I see my body fat go really high? Or will it lower?

It's not going to shoot your body fat %age up just because. It depends on your diet. Since you want muscle mass, you should be eating at a bit of a surplus. You WILL gain body fat because that's just how our bodies work. You can, however, take the fat off AFTER finishing BB. You can change your diet to both gain muscle/fat or cut fat.

coachpolyak

Ok , thanks everyone. Yeah I have been doing some lifting. My doctor said that I need to start gaining weight so I found body beast. I think I will try Huge and if I decide I don't like it ill try lean. Thanks everyone!

JustT1m

The way Body Beat is setup at the end of the Bulk phase you have the Beast phase that you remove the fat in that phase. Take a look at the guide that came with the program.

coachpolyak

Yeah I saw it. I was just wondering if my current body fat was too high to start gaining weight.

richardheath

No idea what those programs are. Have you looked at Starting Strength or Stronglifts instead? Both great programs for increasing strength and gaining muscle mass. You need to be lifting progressively heavier each session in order to maximise muscle growth.

Thing is though - if you want to gain muscle, you have to eat at a surplus (above TDEE) with sufficient protein (>1 g/lb LBM). Which means the body will store some of that excess as fat. Typically, I've seen people on here gaining about 1 lb of fat for every lb of muscle. You might be able to optimize that slightly, but you should be prepared to be in that sort of ballpark. Its a psychological issue for sure!

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html

richardheath

How did you determine your body fat, by the way? If you used one of those scale combo thingies, be aware that they can be very inaccurate. But if your Doc has told you to gain weight, I'd start bulking now, and worry about the fat later.

coachpolyak

Yeah , the doctor used a scale for the measurement. I recently finished insanity and lost a lot of weight about 50 pounds and he said it was very unhealthy. So he said to do strength , lifting , and gain as much weight as I can over the next months.

mathjulz

Well that depends on how much food you eat. Use the TDEE calculators that you can find all over the web and figure out about 15-20% less than TDEE and you should be fine.

He wants to gain weight & muscle. He should be eating ABOVE TDEE, not below.

OP, other than that one detail, it's going to depend on what you eat. Go for a slight surplus and eat lots of protein. In addition to a good strength training program, this should help you build muscle without putting on a lot of fat (it is almost inevitable to put on some fat when bulking, but if you gain a good amount of muscle as well, your body fat % shouldn't go up, and that's the important thing.)

I would go to the scoobyworkshop TDEE calculator. It allows you to customize your goals, and you can put in slow bulk. It will guide you to how many calories you need to gain that muscle.

JoRocka

Ok , so if I do Huge beast will I see my body fat go really high? Or will it lower?

only if you eat above maintance.

I think you don't understand how bulking/cutting works.

it's not the program- it's the food.

Yes hypertrophy winds up under certain rep ranges and loads- but you can do those rep ranges without the diet and not get the same results.

Diet drives body fat % and growth- work out needs to support it and your goals- but the diet makes the difference.

b3st

Eat at surplus and lift heavy.

richardheath

Yeah , the doctor used a scale for the measurement. I recently finished insanity and lost a lot of weight about 50 pounds and he said it was very unhealthy. So he said to do strength , lifting , and gain as much weight as I can over the next months.

Well to put on weight, you MUST eat more than your TDEE. It's math!

To ensure that the most possible amount of that weight is muscle and not fat, lift heavy weights.

Your BMI puts you in the "normal" range though, and your %BF (if correct) is in the healthy range too, so I'm not 100% sure why the doctor is worried. BUT he is the one seeing you, so I'd follow his recommendation. I would assume that the estimated %BF is too high, and you are fairly scrawny?

coachpolyak

Yeah , thanks for the help. I have figured out what I am going to do.