Tired of being skinny fat

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salcole42
salcole42 Posts: 17
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone,,
I'm a 19 year old male who is 5'9 170 pounds. So about a a year ago I decided to lose weight and went fr 210 to 160. by the end of May. I will admit I did do i.t the wrong way by starving myself and doing execissive cardio only.. I was left. with not not what I wanted . I was skinny fat. So I ate a t maintence for 3 months and lifted heavy and really didn't see a change in body composition. I did gain 10 pounds though.. I was eating around 2200 calories a day .so then I stated a new. work out program for the last 6 weeks which has me on a deficiet . I've been eating 1900 calories in training days and around 1700 when on off days. In seeing no.changes on the scale or the mirror I'm kind. Of dissaponited because if all the effort I'm putting in and not seeing results.. I'm wondering .if. should continue this 12. Weeks program all the way through.? I mean I'm eating clean foods. Eating less
Then. 100 grams of carbs. A day and getting at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. I mean what gives. I was hoping to see. some sort of muscle gain/ fat loss .





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Replies

  • I_mustacheU4pancakes
    I_mustacheU4pancakes Posts: 41
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    What program are you doing?
    You should look up,
    Www.startingstrength.com
    Www.stronglifts.com
    http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/jason-blaha-ice-cream-fitness-5x5-novice-workout


    All these are for beginners and go into detail what you should be Doing.
    Ice cream fitness is a Mix of strength and hypertrophy,
    SS and SL are for strength and take advantage of noob gains,
    (neural adaption and untrained muscles getting trained)
    And you see consistent progress on all your lifts.

    For a beginner you DONT necessarily have to be in a surplus
    To see lifts go up or to gain small amounts of muscle but if you want muscle
    I would say eat at a small surplus 200-300 calories per day and follow a program.
    If you're gaining .5-.7 pounds per week and gaining strength then you know you're most
    Likely gaining muscle too.
    Be consistent and worry about losing any fat you put on later.
    You need strength and a solid muscle foundation before you lose any more weight.
    Consistency,patience,lift as hard as you can and everything should fall into place.
  • Stage14
    Stage14 Posts: 1,046 Member
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    What kind of lifting program are you doing? If you're doing mostly compound lifts and progressively upping your weight level, there shouldn't be any reason that you aren't seeing some body recomp. Although, if you put on 10lbs in 3 months, you were NOT actually eating at maintenance, so that may have been part of the problem.

    ETA; If you feel "skinny fat", I would continue to eat at a modest deficit and lift heavy to bring your body fat % down before you start trying to bulk.
  • salcole42
    salcole42 Posts: 17
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    I'm doing compond movement yes.
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
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    Depending on how much Lean Muscle you have left (if you know what your BF% is you can figure this out) you might need to bulk and cut to see any definition.. It sounds like you were expecting definition and abs.. Your still eating in a deficit from what I would see.. and 3 months if your new to lifting weights isn't going to magically get you a ripped body..
    Maybe you should look into a bulk cycle to get your lean muscle up, and then cut while watching your numbers to make use you don't just lose what you regain.

    If your only getting 100 gram of carbs, that 10 lbs was your stores refilling most likely.
  • salcole42
    salcole42 Posts: 17
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    How long should I bulk for I don't want to gain a ton of more fat
  • TonyStark30
    TonyStark30 Posts: 497 Member
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    Cut until you are just skinny, not skinny, then bulk, I'm your height and i didn't think i was undersized until I approached 140, and even then i could've lost more fat.

    Then bulk but lift real heavy and train hard, the fact that you start so lean means you can bulk for longer, otherwise you'll just be going from chubby to bigger chubby. You will gain fat anyway, fear of that is just going to ruin your bulk.
  • ril0riley
    ril0riley Posts: 54 Member
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    Okay, look.

    OP, you're trying to solve your pudge-problem by bulking. But even a carefully calibrated bulk is going to add some fat in addition to any muscle you gain, and when you do finally get around to losing that fat, you're going to lose some of that muscle along with it. As long as you've still got fat hanging around, the muscle you do put on isn't going to add as much definition as it would if you were a little skinnier.

    If you're stuck on the idea of doing a bulk/cut cycle, maybe just start off with a prolonged cut. Eat (at a reasonable level!) below maintenance, get some cardio in, and keep lifting. You won't build a lot of muscle mass, but you'll preserve a lot of lean mass that you can build on later.
  • salcole42
    salcole42 Posts: 17
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    I'm trying to cut but my body fat isn't dropping
  • ril0riley
    ril0riley Posts: 54 Member
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    From your original post, it sounds like what you're actually trying to do is bulk up and slim down at the same time; I'm not surprised that the end result has been spinning your wheels.

    Focus your energy on slimming down. Do a program with a bigger emphasis on cardio

    Edit: I should say I'm in a position pretty similar to yours. I started a weight lifting program a few months ago, but I'm keeping my focus on losing fat. My scale weight has been dropping much more slowly than it did when my program was pure cardio and diet, but my body composition has been improving steadily.
  • themassfactor
    themassfactor Posts: 1
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    Hey,

    It really just depends on what kind of plan you are on. Try to find something where you are working the major muscle groups with compound lifts like the bench press, squats, shoulder press, bicep curl etc. Nothing fancy there at all. If you are looking to loose fat (which I think is what you are trying to do on top of gaining muscle), make sure your diet is in check, and think about adding in additional cardio to your lift. What I mean by this is in between the sets, adding in one minute of jumping rope, or burpees, or bench step ups. This will keep your heart rate slightly elevated and will allow you to burn fat throughout the lift. Remember not to work at too high a rate during that minute, a good example would be keeping it light enough that you'd be able to hold a conversation.

    Most of all stay consistent. Keep working hard and you'll see results.

    Goodluck,

    James Williams
    www.themassfactor.com

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