I'm "skinny fat" how can i gain muscle but lose fat?

stephaniejmnz

Alright, so I am a 20-year old female. I'm 5'4" and I currently weigh 115(first thing in the morning) I am pretty healthy, and have recently started exercising 4x a week. My goals are to flatten out my belly and build lean muscle. I don't really have any set workouts.

I run for about 15 minutes on the treadmill and alternate working on my upper and lower body on different days. i am trying to build up my strength (im not one of those girls who are terrified to lift weights). I've noticed I have gotten more muscle tone in my arms and legs, but my belly is a WHOLE different srory. I'm what you call "skinny fat". My stomach is very soft and my lower and upper abdomen sticks out a LOT. I have never understood why. Is there anything I can do about this? Workout/diet?

Please help!:/

garygivan5

Check out Super Hero body members on Facebook. They have the solution you're looking for or www.nerdfitness.com

ashnikmac

You should check out toneitup.com. They have a nutrition plan and workouts that would likely help you get the results you want. Check them out on instagram- lots of before and after pictures of girls who tightened up and loss weight in their target areas. Good luck!

R4z3rsPar4d0x

As a guy, I have similar goals as you. Lifting can define areas but nothing is really happening to the stomach.

The advice I've been given and have been trying to use is to limit sugars as it can cause the body to limit fat burning.

Also, I was told the focus to lose the stomach area is:
DCBA:
Diet
Cardio
Building Muscle
Abdominal Exercises

You can do it and I definitely will be watching to see the advice. Keep up the great work!

alaskamatteson

We have the exact same stats (except for age) and I would love to hear answers, too.

Capt_Apollo

strength train, with a concentration on barbell exercises.

Capt_Apollo

As a guy, I have similar goals as you. Lifting can define areas but nothing is really happening to the stomach.

The advice I've been given and have been trying to use is to limit sugars as it can cause the body to limit fat burning.

Also, I was told the focus to lose the stomach area is:
DCBA:
Diet
Cardio
Building Muscle
Abdominal Exercises

You can do it and I definitely will be watching to see the advice. Keep up the great work!

diet is key.

cardio can help to keep your calorie deficit, but i know plenty of people that don't do any traditional cardio and have a rocking six pack.

strength training is usually the key for many people to lose body fat and show off the abs.

abdominal exercises will do nothing to lose stomach fat.

acogg

Dead lifts, weighted squats and Swiss ball crunches are my ab moves. Planks for as you can hold the form are also good, though boring. My carpet is only interesting for a couple of seconds.

skytoads

Look into the Stronglifts program and clean up your diet!

Alassonde

I have the same stats too except for age. My abs are rock hard....under the fat. I need to get rid of the layer of fat, I guess. I'm one of those people who seems to gain all my weight on the stomach. The rest of me is thin (like, my arms and legs are actually bony). Trying to lose a few pounds (like only 3 or 4) to see if that helps, just hoping it all comes off the belly.

AngelAura777

Heavy deadlifts are amazing using the stronglifts 5x5 program

attacoug

This is my issues as well. I carry most of my fat over my stomach. It is possible to build muscle and lose weight, but it's difficult. The research I have seen suggests the following:

1) Keep the protein - you need that to keep the muscle you have.
2) Watch the carb/fat ratio intake - you need to "trick" your body into going for the stored fat. There's a lot of good material out there that describes how to do this. Example: Low Carbs 4 Days of the Week (Higher Fat), and then do Med/Med ratio two days, and then end on a High Carb/Low Fat ratio the last day. Your body won't think your are "starving" yourself and will minimize fat storage (converting carbs to fat).
3) When doing cardio - always do it in the morning BEFORE you eat. Your body naturally uses carbs first for energy, then uses fat after carbs are low or depleted. If you do cardio in the morning, your body will have used a lot of the carbs in your system to maintain your body while you sleep. With low carbs in your system, your body will then go for the fat deposits for energy.

There's a lot more... but those are three that I am doing to keep growing but watching my body fat percentage.

Work Well. Eat Well. Be Well.

Bryan

1princesswarrior

Look into the Stronglifts program and clean up your diet!

Haven't seen your diet but Stronglifts or New Rules of Lifting for Women also is a good one to look into.

aarondnguyen

You cannot gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously.

Choose one.

The best you can do while losing fat is preserving as much muscle as possible--you do this by consistently eating in a moderate caloric deficit.

On the other end of the spectrum, the best you can do while aiming to gain muscle is to gain as little fat as possible--you do this by consistently eating in a moderate caloric surplus. That being said, it's impossible to gain absolutely no fat while eating in a surplus.

luca15306

tagging this for later, I have the same stats apart from age too, have lost 45lbs, but am definitely skinny fat, not much muscle at all, I am currently planning ahead for maintenance and a new exercise regime to tone up a bit, but not gain too much weight, interested to hear some tips

robynthomson710

This book has helped me a lot in understanding how nutrition works.

http://www.amazon.com/Strong-Curves-Womans-Building-Better/dp/1936608642

My understanding is that if you are on maintenance calories (ie you don't gain or lose scale weight) you can change your body composition ie lose fat and gain muscle. Losing the belly fat is a case of reducing overall body fat, unfortunately ab exercises will do nothing for it as you can't spot reduce fat. That's not to say ab exercises are bad, you still need to do them in order to strengthen your core, but killing them isn't really going to achieve much. Personally I don't do many ab exercises. My programme contains enough deadlifting and squatting which strengthen the core anyway.

milileitner

You're quite petite for your height. I would think about increasing your calories to a small surplus for a few months to facilitate muscle growth. It's difficult/impossible to build muscle unless you are eating at a surplus. 200 calories extra per day would be enough. Be sure to get 1g protein per lb of your weight (so right now, 115g) and 1/2g fat per lb (so 57g). Lift very heavy things, preferably barbells. If you can deadlift, squat, bench press and overhead press, that's the main stuff covered and you'll be hitting every muscle group. If you're new to this kind of thing, pick a program like Stronglifts, Madcow, Starting Strength etc and follow it for maybe 6 months. You will need to seriously challenge yourself in the gym to reap the rewards of your increased calories.

mrsiCkstar

It's not really about your weight. What matters is your body fat percentage. As you exercise you gain weight from the muscle you are gaining and the diet you are eating to grow muscle but as long as you gain more muscle than fat you will look leaner and your stomach will flatten out. Basically don't concentrate so much on the weight your scale is showing you and don't be alarmed if you see it go up. Your weight can go up but as long as your body fat percentage goes down (from gaining more muscle than fat) you'll get the results you want.

wanzeee

barbells!


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forgiven16

No matter how you try you can not build muscle and loose fat at the same time. Stick to one and follow it. I am currently skinny fat as well. 5'7, 140 lb male. I choose to take the approach of bulking up first then cutting later on.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

My advice is to eat at maintenance and recomp. Get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (if you don't know your LBM, get .8 grams per pound of weight), and .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight. Start a progressive loading strength training program. If you've got access to a gym (it sounds like you have) do a beginner routine like Stronglifts or Starting Strength.

Recomping means you're going to VERY SLOWLY build muscle while losing fat. I've done it for the past year. My weight is the same but I've dropped 2 pants sizes.

The other option is to bulk and cut (at your weight you shouldn't be cutting any more). But since it doesn't seem like you've got your training down yet, I'd spend 6 months or so learning to lift properly before bulking. It's not strictly necessary but I think it was helpful for me personally.

Boogage

Following for all the great info

Galatea_Stone

My advice is to eat at maintenance and recomp. Get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (if you don't know your LBM, get .8 grams per pound of weight), and .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight. Start a progressive loading strength training program. If you've got access to a gym (it sounds like you have) do a beginner routine like Stronglifts or Starting Strength.

Recomping means you're going to VERY SLOWLY build muscle while losing fat. I've done it for the past year. My weight is the same but I've dropped 2 pants sizes.

The other option is to bulk and cut (at your weight you shouldn't be cutting any more). But since it doesn't seem like you've got your training down yet, I'd spend 6 months or so learning to lift properly before bulking. It's not strictly necessary but I think it was helpful for me personally.

Ditto this. Start with a body recomposition plan. You are brand new to lifting, and despite the conventional wisdom that you can't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time there's this big demographic that has the ability to do so for a few months: NEWBIES!! Eat at maintenance for 6 months and lift heavy. Re-evaluate and if you need more muscle, eat at a slight surplus. If you need to cut more fat, eat at a slight deficit.

Get a good strength training program. Start with something similar to Stronglifts but add in glute work from Strong Curves. Download Stronglifts and get Strong Curves off Amazon. I started this whole thing at 5'7" and 120 pounds. My first year, I dropped a size and stayed relatively the same weight. I'm sitting at 134 pounds this morning wearing the exact same size jeans I started in. The last time I weighed this much, I was 2 sizes bigger. I don't have abs right now because I'm eating at a surplus, but I get abs when I cut.

MityMax96

Less cardio, more weight room. Serious.

Start doing weights.
Consume about 0.8 - 1.0 gr protein / lb of body weight
0.4 gr of fat / lb of body weight (minimum)
Carbs can make up the remainder of your calories.

Try eating around maintenance levels for your calories....
Get your macros right.

AND START LIFTING WEIGHTS

I do maybe 1 day of light cardio a week.....~40min

MityMax96

My advice is to eat at maintenance and recomp. Get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (if you don't know your LBM, get .8 grams per pound of weight), and .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight. Start a progressive loading strength training program. If you've got access to a gym (it sounds like you have) do a beginner routine like Stronglifts or Starting Strength.

Recomping means you're going to VERY SLOWLY build muscle while losing fat. I've done it for the past year. My weight is the same but I've dropped 2 pants sizes.

The other option is to bulk and cut (at your weight you shouldn't be cutting any more). But since it doesn't seem like you've got your training down yet, I'd spend 6 months or so learning to lift properly before bulking. It's not strictly necessary but I think it was helpful for me personally.

I like her advice.
She took the time to write it out better than I did. :laugh: :laugh:

Angelo2975

I tried looking at your diet but its private. Your food and strength training aka lifting weights will be the biggest factor.

HMVOL7409

My advice is to eat at maintenance and recomp. Get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (if you don't know your LBM, get .8 grams per pound of weight), and .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight. Start a progressive loading strength training program. If you've got access to a gym (it sounds like you have) do a beginner routine like Stronglifts or Starting Strength.

Recomping means you're going to VERY SLOWLY build muscle while losing fat. I've done it for the past year. My weight is the same but I've dropped 2 pants sizes.

The other option is to bulk and cut (at your weight you shouldn't be cutting any more). But since it doesn't seem like you've got your training down yet, I'd spend 6 months or so learning to lift properly before bulking. It's not strictly necessary but I think it was helpful for me personally.

This x 1000. I know you might get confused because there's some bad, almost horrible advice in this thread but the advice above will actually stear you in the right direction and not leave you spinning your wheels.

JoRocka

You're quite petite for your height. I would think about increasing your calories to a small surplus for a few months to facilitate muscle growth. It's difficult/impossible to build muscle unless you are eating at a surplus. 200 calories extra per day would be enough. Be sure to get 1g protein per lb of your weight (so right now, 115g) and 1/2g fat per lb (so 57g). Lift very heavy things, preferably barbells. If you can deadlift, squat, bench press and overhead press, that's the main stuff covered and you'll be hitting every muscle group. If you're new to this kind of thing, pick a program like Stronglifts, Madcow, Starting Strength etc and follow it for maybe 6 months. You will need to seriously challenge yourself in the gym to reap the rewards of your increased calories.

^^^^^^^^^^^^ this.

I would add New Rules of LIfting or Strong Curves.

SARgirl

Lift weights and do core exercises. Like others have said, both the Stronglifts 5x5 and New Rules for Women are great programs (I've done them both) for lifting and are easy to follow. I also like the CXWorx program by Les Mills for core work. I don't know if your gym has it but if not you can find some of the workouts on YouTube or can purchase them on eBay. I definitely saw more of a body composition change with the core class as well as with the lifting.

anastasiadietitian

I am a HUGE FAN of Jillian Michael's workout DVDs. They're usually only about 25 minutes and she incorporates weight training with cardio. Definitely a good use of your time if you're trying to tone up.

1daylate1dollarshort

I'm confused about this not being able to build muscle while losing weight thing. I swear I continuously get better at all the exercises I do and can lift heavier dumbbells now way better than I could before (I have little to no muscle).

Am I confusing terms or something? Is it not that I'm building muscle? Isn't muscle what makes you stronger? I can't see a difference at all, but I know that I can do my routine a lot better and have made it harder. It would literally be like, nothing to most people, but I sat on my butt for the past 7 years so.. yeah.

Can someone help me out with this? I can't imagine that there is any way I am imagining a drastic change from the things I could do on day one to the things I can do now as far as toning exercises go. Is that different than building muscle? You can build strength without building muscle?

disclaimer: I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong at all. I'm seriously confused.