PPumpItUp Member

Its a beginner full body workout. The lifts are probably bench, squat, deads, and shoulder press. I doubt there are accessory lifts. OP can just do arms and calves, or shoulders, or abs, the options go on.

I work out 7 days a week its no biggie as long as you structure you workout properly, I have a 48 hour rest for most of my muscle groups. Just make sure you do not work out the same muscle group back to back. For example do not do bench, squats and shoulder press Thursday because you missed it today and then do bench,…

I would look at a few calorie calculators online and take an average of what your maintenance calories might be since online calculators are not very accurate. Eat a calorie surplus and resistance train. Keep your protein at least 1g/lbs body weight.

Congrats on the weight loss. Ill agree with what the others have agreed on. I am curious, did you lift weights during your weight loss?

I am saying you need protein and carbs to build muscle, not that you should reduce the carbs. The only macro left is fat and you would have to reduce that to get in your calories from protein and carbs. But that is to build muscle most efficiently, you can loose body fat with any macro combination.

IMO you should cut down on the fat and increase the protein, aim for around 215 grams/day. The thermic effect of protein is around 20-30%, carbs are around 5-10% but fat is only 0-3%.

IMO the three most important factors in building muscle are 1) resistance training 2) protein intake 3) carbohydrate intake. When you were cutting you should have had a protein intake of around 150g-160g of protein. For maintenance and bulking it can be a little lower. You can maintain muscle with resistance training and…

Your protein is far too low. Keep your protein around 2.4g/kg of body weight. Take away from your carbs and fat if you need to.

Stretching before you lift can actually reduce your total volume. At the most I will do 5 minutes of elliptical before I start lifting. I think it is the "White Rino" that does absolutely no warmups, he is an absolute beast though.

I have been listening to a lot of science based podcasts and many of the people on the shows have their clients do mini bulks and cuts. I cannot remember their logic but it had something to do with fat accumulation and having their clients be better prepared for shows.

Are you only training twice a week? Or do you just switch back and forth every other day?

If you average 1650kcal/day and your protein breakdown is 35% you are only getting around 144g of protein a day, which is alright but you could bump it up to around 1g/lbs when you are in a caloric surplus and 1.2g/lbs when you are in a caloric deficit. There is a lot of debate on macro breakdown but if I were you I would…

You can see your traps have grown quite a bit, I am jealous, I am a hard gaining on my traps. Since you stalled after 6 months your training and/or nutrition is lacking. usmcmp already asked what your lifting and program is like, I would add, what are your macros?

Go in a deficit but keep your protein high and increase the resistance training. There are many studies out there that show, even in trained individuals, you can loose fat and gain muscle but as mentioned before you have to have a good resistance training program and keep your protein high, which 1g/lbs as you are…

Going up to maintenance and keeping your protein high, you should be able to gain muscle if your training is good. What are your macro numbers? I assume you are strength training?

Go light/high rep. Bloodflow restriction training is great for when you are injured since you get the benefits of lifting heavy but you are lifting lite, but I do not know how you could restrict the bloodflow to your front delt. Maybe a band under your armpit up to your trap, but that might slip down, try it and see.

You are not skinny fat, you look to have a pretty low body fat %

According to Lyle that takes care of the sagging skin in most cases.

Even going cyclical is not ideal if gaining muscle mass is a goal.

Weighted hip thrusts seem to be pretty good at increasing your glute.

^^True that. The only time properly coached bodybuilders use keto is when they are dieting down close to a show and other methods to cut are not working, you can loose weight on keto but you can loose weight on any diet where you are in a caloric deficit. You never hear of successful bodybuilders using keto to gain muscle.…

If you aren't gaining and you are new to lifting either something is wrong with your training and/or diet. Are you counting your calories and not overestimating?

Lyle McDonald suggests if people are worried about it they should keep cutting until they pinch their skin and it is paper thin. If at this point your skin is still loose and looks like wrinkled papyrus you might have to consider surgery. You lost a lot of weight pretty fast, 29kg in under 6 months correct?

I think that is a little too hardcore for most people on here but it sounds like you are having a blast. OP, you can swim, it will tone you up. Have you thought about joining a circuit class? I hear those are fun and motivating. Have you tried kayaking?

Jeff Nippard has a video on mini bulk cycles I have been meaning to watch.

[/quote]but above 15% and the body tends to favour fat storage over muscle when bulking.[/quote] I have not heard of this before. Where did you find this information?

There was a study at McMaster University that put people on a 40% calorie deficit from their maintenance calories but kept their protein high. They had them resistance train and do HIIT. I forget the period of time they went but they lost a decent amount of fat and gained a nice amount of muscle. IMO you should find your…

I think this might be on the wrong section of the forum and you should be asking a registered dietitian that question.

Get in a caloric deficit and keep your protein around 1g/lbs body weight. If you are doing the Stronglifts 5x5 program I assume you are a novice lifter. You should be able to loose fat and gain muscle at the same time pretty easily.