Why do we lean out? - help needed please.

Rayman79 · May 2013

I'm wondering if anyone has a resource (of any scientific merit) covering why we should lower our body fat levels before going on any sort of bulking / mass building cycle.

I understand that insulin sensitivity is different at higher and lower body fat levels, and that it is generally accepted that from a lean state partitioning of nutrients is likely to be more favourable, I just cant find a reputable resource to cite.

The context, for those of you who are still reading

is me being tired of my wife calling me too skinny. She has always known me as a bigger guy, and (aside from the projection of poor self image on her part) is struggling with my ever-shrinking physique. Granted in my current state I look like a pale skinny kid with a spare tire, but I am trying to explain to her the virtues of leaning out and getting to about 12%bf before I have a period of maintenance and then start a slow bulk. She's a smart person, but hasn't a clue about nutrition to this level so giving her a scientific study to read is not going to achieve much.

Anything someone could recommend?

Thanks!

Hendrix7 · May 2013

This isn't really what you are looking for but more often it's personal preference/appearance that comes into play rather than science.

When people say they have want to reduce belly fat but want to gain muscle the reality is that you can't do both effectively at the same time so you have to pick one.

Adding significant muscle mass takes a long time, months and years not a few weeks and your BF% isn't going to go down in a surplus. So if you can live with your current body fat and can deal with it even going up a bit then go straight to bulking. Most people want to lean out first and look semi-decent year round so that's why they get told to finish cutting first.

what is your current BF% out of interest?

AntWrig · May 2013

I'm wondering if anyone has a resource (of any scientific merit) covering why we should lower our body fat levels before going on any sort of bulking / mass building cycle.

I understand that insulin sensitivity is different at higher and lower body fat levels, and that it is generally accepted that from a lean state partitioning of nutrients is likely to be more favourable, I just cant find a reputable resource to cite.

The context, for those of you who are still reading is me being tired of my wife calling me too skinny. She has always known me as a bigger guy, and (aside from the projection of poor self image on her part) is struggling with my ever-shrinking physique. Granted in my current state I look like a pale skinny kid with a spare tire, but I am trying to explain to her the virtues of leaning out and getting to about 12%bf before I have a period of maintenance and then start a slow bulk. She's a smart person, but hasn't a clue about nutrition to this level so giving her a scientific study to read is not going to achieve much.

Anything someone could recommend?

Thanks!

If your obese you're insulin sensitivity is low. As you get leaner sensitivity is improved. In a nut shell your metabolic capacity is improved.

Rayman79 · May 2013

Hendrix, I'd say my bf is in the high teens at the moment. Unfortunately for me I carry most of my weight in the spare tyre around my waist. I lost a lot of lbm when I started losing weight as one of those uneducated cardio fools, so not looking great at this point.