Abs without losing weight?

dillmilk
dillmilk Posts: 88 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I was underweight before so I dirty bulked and gained almost 30 pounds. Now I'm average according to the bmi index, but I think I have a belly. This is probably because I consumed a lot of fat, right? Now is it possible if I just switch to eating lean food from here on out, or do I have to 'cut' to lose the fat and start over? I don't want to be underweight again, but I don't want a belly either. Maybe I am being paranoid. Is it possible to be a healthy weight but still be 'fat'? Please help!

Replies

  • Erik8484
    Erik8484 Posts: 458 Member
    People are underweight because they have less fat than usual, less muscle than usual, or both.

    You gain fat by being in a calorie surplus. Your genetics determine where on your body the fat distributes. When you dirty bulked you gained a lot of fat in the belly region. That's not unusual.

    If you want to get rid of the belly, you need to sit in a calorie deficit. If you don't want to be underweight, you need to maintain your muscle during your deficit, and maybe even build some more muscle after.
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
    edited June 2016
    Abs show when your body fat % is low enough to reveal the muscle underneath.
    To make the abs easier to see, you can work them out to build muscle, meaning they show more even with more fat.
    However, there is a point where no matter how much muscle you build the fat will hide whats underneath and if you don't have the muscle, losing fat won't help much either.

    I don't have a lot of fat on my belly, but because I haven't worked my abdominal muscles and built up muscle, you can't see my abs.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    When you say dirty bulked how many calories over maintenance and what lifting programme did you follow and over what time frame?

    Eating fat does not make you fat, much as eating lean does not make you lean it's all about the calories

    Any bulk will see some fat gain which you will need to lose to reveal any musculature. You lose by eating at a defecit
  • TheRootofGroot
    TheRootofGroot Posts: 118 Member
    BMI index is hot garbage unless you're a woman.

    According to BMI I'm overweight, do I look overweight?

    Anyways, get it together.
    You got the right application, just need to apply yourself.

    Dirty bulking is pretty much useless unless you're on steroids, and even more useless if you weren't following a weight training program.

    How do you think you have a belly?
    Are you suffering from body dysmorphic disorder and seeing things that aren't there?
    You have a belly or you don't.

    Fat has nothing to do with gaining fat inasmuch as overeating does.
    I got to the shape I'm in by obtaining 45% of my daily calories from fat while on a deficit.

    And technically you can be plump and healthy, you need not have a chiseled body to be healthy, but obviously you're not completely satisfied with your body composition or else you wouldn't have started this thread.

    So figure out your TDEE, input it into myfitnesspal, find a workout program you can stick to, and figure out a macro split that works for you and be consistent.
  • TheRootofGroot
    TheRootofGroot Posts: 118 Member
    It's more likely to be accurate being as most women have a negligible amount of muscle mass, something which skews BMI for men.
  • Huffdogg
    Huffdogg Posts: 1,934 Member
    dissentingdude wrote: »
    BMI index is hot garbage

    Fixed that for you.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    dissentingdude wrote: »
    It's more likely to be accurate being as most women have a negligible amount of muscle mass, something which skews BMI for men.

    You take that back ;)

    Although seriously you have to be bodybuilder for muscle mass to take you outside the norms...hence the it's good enough for 80% as a population measure ...it's a bell curve.
  • TheRootofGroot
    TheRootofGroot Posts: 118 Member
    Don't consider myself to be much of a bodybuilder and mine is pretty skewed, but I concede.

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