Skinny Fat .. Bulk or Cut ??

[orlandopunk]

first of all sorry for any grammar mistakes .. English is my second language
LOL I know you guys are going to say BULK ... I really hate looking skinny fat .. my genetics suck .. I have no muscle but plenty fat on my love handles and that makes me depressed
my abdomen after waking up is 34.5 measured at the belly button .. I want to bulk up but I'm afraid of getting too fat .. last year I was very fat 30-35% bf and 200 pounds
if only my abdomen were 31-32 inches ...
what do you guys think is my bodyfat? some people have told me 17 or 18% .. i don't know
Im 5'11 and weight 146-147 lbs after waking up .. I know is very little for my height I just hate that i have this fat on my abdomen and love handles and cant don anything about it because if I try I will look even more skinny
should i suck it up .. and bulk up to 170 maybe, even if I gain fat ???
I live in Miami, Florida and don't go the beach or pool, not because I dont like the beach or getting a tan .. I'm just too embarrassed to show my body
Id love to be at least skinny lean .. 10-12% bf .. I'm envious of guys that are my height and look skinny as me but don't have a big belly ... I don't want to be a bodybuilder though .. I just want to add some muscle and be lean .. maybe weighting 160-170 lbs
like a swimmer body .. is that too much to ask of life ?

[Mxtwoforty]

I would say clean bulk for a couple months before you think about cutting, i was in the same boat about a year ago with little muscles mass...

[xJesusFreaKx]

bulk bulk bulk



cleaaaaannn bulk

[U295]

definately clean bulk and cut, got a good base already...

[orlandopunk]

ok but how long should I bulk ?? and up to what weight ?
is it better to bulk for many monthss until I reach a good weight and then cut .. i have read that if one bulks for too long you will end up adding too much fat and i already have plenty of fat on my abdomen to begin with
is it better to do cycles? like 6 weeks bulking 3 cutting and repeat the process ? or should i just go on a 6 to 12 months bulk even if i gain fat I can lose it later right
what i have read that is better to bulk at a lower bf .. so kinda there is no point in bulking for 6 to 12 months because if i do my bf is going to go up above 20% and every month that goes by i will be adding more fat than muscle
so maybe is better to bulk until my abdomen reaches 37 inches and then cut .. and repeat the process

[orlandopunk]

would trying to lose 5 pounds benefit me ? right now, i probably have about as much fat or even more as anyone would ever really want to get at the end of a bulk phase
if if lift hard and dont do cardio .. concentrate on my diet and lose 5 pounds .. how much bf% would that be ? like 2-3% bf ?
for example this guy right here is 1 inch taller than me and he was very fat 200lbs like i was and went down to 140lbs and then bulked up to 180lbs .. maybe he did a cut in between that bulk
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=114078311
I really dont mind looking skinny or what other people think of me as long as i dont have to take off my shirt .. maybe losing 5 pounds would more beneficial ?

in this calculator
http://exrx.net/Calculators/WeightBodyComp.html
if i put 147lbs and 17%bf it says I will be 13% at 140lbs

[orlandopunk]

nobody wants to help ?? any advice ??

[Mxtwoforty]

just clean bulk for 2 or 3 months and then reevaluate. At that point if you can live with a little extra fat, keep going. If your waking up every morning and wanting to kys because you feel fat, then cut a little

[mcluvin737]

just clean bulk for 2 or 3 months and then reevaluate. At that point if you can live with a little extra fat, keep going. If your waking up every morning and wanting to kys because you feel fat, then cut a little

I'm in the same boat, brother. 5'10, 175-178, 23% bf... love handles. I am asking the exact same question. I've been reading these forums a lot lately and am of the opinion (although I'm no expert) that if I clean bulk with a goal of gaining about 10 lbs of mostly muscle (hopefully keep BF% near the same), then I'll have a faster metabolism and look even better after cutting. It sucks though because it's tough to get 3K calories in every day. Add to that the obvious fact that I am not diggin the gut I see in the mirror and it's a dilemma. So I'm going to keep clean bulking, keep on the Mad Cow 5X5 (I'm 1 week complete) and figure I'll be 185 in a couple of months at 1-1.5 lbs/week. Then the plan is to keep lifting, hit the cardio for 45 min/day on off days, and cut calories to 2K or so (eating clean). With any luck I'll lose 20 lbs fat in about 2 plus months? Then I'll probably go to bulking again.

Anybody? Are there any obvious flaws to the logic here?

Stats are on my bodyspace. Thanks.

[orlandopunk]

lol i really doubt you are going to lose 20lbs of pure fat in 2 months .. the recommended amount seems to be 2 pounds per week in order to not lose muscles mass
that would be like 16 but fat loss isnt linear so most like is going to be less and it will take you longer
I have decided to bulk but slowly .. i dont want to get super fat like one i guy i read the other day haha poor guy
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=3980303
lol
in our position i think is better to do short cycles of bulking and cutting until 10% bf is reached and then bulk for a very long long time

[*STEVE*]

Thats def skinny fat , your bf% is to high for a bulk .... IMO you should cut.

[billyj1994]

CLEAN bulk

[cheeseandrice]

Thats def skinny fat , your bf% is to high for a bulk .... IMO you should cut.

agree

[hypnojedi]

Cut for 10 weeks then think about a clean bulk.

In the big scheme of things 10 weeks is nothing and you'll feel a hell of a lot better having lost some flab.

[orlandopunk]

Cut for 10 weeks then think about a clean bulk.

In the big scheme of things 10 weeks is nothing and you'll feel a hell of a lot better having lost some flab.

yeah but Im 5'11 and 147lbs lol
should i just say fuk the world and what they think of me and cut until I reach a 32" abdomen ? even if i end up weighting 140lbs?
Im in college and I have seen guys my height that are thinner than me, so maybe is ok
I don't have a job right now lol .. schools is up on april and classes start again on july so maybe I can go and hide at home without going out while I look very skinny haha
I know is pathetic but I really hate having this fat on my abdomen, I'm dying to bulk up
I'm tired of looking skinny but i know if i bulk now I may gain too much fat
my body is dying to eat tons of protein and calories lol
unfortunately i come to realization that my body is ecto-endo lol .. since i was 15 years old, my weight was always around 143-145lbs, I have always been skinny and always had some fat on my abdomen .. my abdomen was never really flat
at the time i always wondered why other guys that were skinny as me had flat abdomens and i didnt .. at that time i wasnt really active .. never played sports or did exercise
but i always ate healthy but still had a little belly
after years went by i realized that my genetics and body composition suck and the reason why the other kids at my weight had flat stomachs and i didn't was because my bodyfat was too high
I know if if I cut I will see my abs .. I have seen them before when i was 18 years old .. i lost weight ended up looking almost anorexic 135lbs but I had a 4 pack
I dont want to go that far now .. i just want to lose this fuking gut at least a 32" abdomen
and 140lbs
Im already lifting weights and eating below maintenance, but im not any cardio I dont think it would beneficial for me .. I think if Id did I would lose the very little muscle mass I have
sorry for my english .. i can write better im just really lazy lol

[ndfan54]

yeah but Im 5'11 and 147lbs lol
should i just say fuk the world and what they think of me and cut until I reach a 32" abdomen ? even if i end up weighting 140lbs?
Im in college and I have seen guys my height that are thinner than me, so maybe is ok
I don't have a job right now lol .. schools is up on april and classes start again on july so maybe I can go and hide at home without going out while I look very skinny haha
I know is pathetic but I really hate having this fat on my abdomen, I'm dying to bulk up
I'm tired of looking skinny but i know if i bulk now I may gain too much fat
my body is dying to eat tons of protein and calories lol
unfortunately i come to realization that my body is ecto-endo lol .. since i was 15 years old, my weight was always around 143-145lbs, I have always been skinny and always had some fat on my abdomen .. my abdomen was never really flat
at the time i always wondered why other guys that were skinny as me had flat abdomens and i didnt .. at that time i wasnt really active .. never played sports or did exercise
but i always ate healthy but still had a little belly
after years went by i realized that my genetics and body composition suck and the reason why the other kids at my weight had flat stomachs and i didn't was because my bodyfat was too high
I know if if I cut I will see my abs .. I have seen them before when i was 18 years old .. i lost weight ended up looking almost anorexic 135lbs but I had a 4 pack
I dont want to go that far now .. i just want to lose this fuking gut at least a 32" abdomen
and 140lbs
Im already lifting weights and eating below maintenance, but im not any cardio I dont think it would beneficial for me .. I think if Id did I would lose the very little muscle mass I have
sorry for my english .. i can write better im just really lazy lol

ok first you need to understand that you are not going to gain muscle by eating UNDER maintenance. 80 percent of building muscle is diet. tons of protein, lean meats, etc. your body can not gain muscle while you are trying to lose weight. you need to have a calorie surplus in order to put some muscle on. It is possible to do this with minimal/no fat gains by eating 500 cals over your maintenance with a lean diet. Based on the pictures I would say clean bulk for about 3 months and then cut and you will be a lot happier. the lean muscle mass will fill out any flab you had and it will be alot easier to cut with muscle underneath. I say 3 months bc i know you are just looking to have a decent looking body. If you want to get bigger bulk for like 5-6 months and then cut.

Good luck you and you can do it bud, just make sure you do the research and you don't waste your time like i did!

[jttay]

ill say your at 12% cut down first then rebulk again

[orlandopunk]

12% ? no way man .. my abdomen at the belly button is 34.5" ... rebulk? lol i never bulked in my life .. the reason im skinny fat is because last year i was really fat 35%bf ..200lbs .. and that happened because i was an idiot i let myself go because im depression .. i went from 145lbs to 200lbs but i will never let that happen agian i learned my lesson
I lost weight slowly but I made the terrible mistake of not lifting weights, sometimes I did pullups and pushups .. biceps curls with 20lbs dumbbells lol but thats nothing
thats the reason why im skinny fat now .. lost 53lbs but im sure i lost a lot of muscle by not lifting weights
right now im not even lifting weights .. im just doing pullups, pushups, bicep curls, etc
Im going to start lifting really heavy though ..
some people have told im at 17% bf which I think is correct .. most of my fat is on my love handles and lower abdomen

[orlandopunk]

ok first you need to understand that you are not going to gain muscle by eating UNDER maintenance. 80 percent of building muscle is diet. tons of protein, lean meats, etc. your body can not gain muscle while you are trying to lose weight. you need to have a calorie surplus in order to put some muscle on. It is possible to do this with minimal/no fat gains by eating 500 cals over your maintenance with a lean diet. Based on the pictures I would say clean bulk for about 3 months and then cut and you will be a lot happier. the lean muscle mass will fill out any flab you had and it will be alot easier to cut with muscle underneath. I say 3 months bc i know you are just looking to have a decent looking body. If you want to get bigger bulk for like 5-6 months and then cut.

Good luck you and you can do it bud, just make sure you do the research and you don't waste your time like i did!

I know Im not going to gain muscle by eating under maintenance lol .. unlike many beginners i do read a lot on this forum and search when i dont know something in particular
I know i have to eat more in order to gain muscle mass .. I was trying to say is that is proven that is better to bulk at a lower bodyfat than at a higher bodyfat
so maybe is better if i cut like 7 pounds .. and then bulk slowly

read this :

So what if you're at 13% body fat and don't have that much muscle? Should you bulk up? No! You should go down to 10% then gradually increase your nutritional intake until you reach a point where you're gaining 1.5 to 2 pounds per month. This will allow you to gain muscle at your optimal rate while staying at 10%.

2. The leaner you are, the better your body becomes at nutrient partitioning. This means that lean individuals are more effective at storing the ingested nutrients in the muscle (as muscle tissue or glycogen) or in the liver (glycogen), and less effective at storing them as body fat. Simply put, leaner individuals can eat more nutrients without gaining fat.

3. The fatter you let yourself become, the more fat cells you're adding to your body. As we saw earlier, this will make it easier to gain fat and harder to lose it in the future, not to mention that the fatter you are, the less insulin sensitive you become. This is one of the reasons why fatter individuals are more effective at storing nutrients in the form of body fat than their leaner counterparts.

In my case .. skinny fat .. i dont think i should try to go to 10% lol I would look completely emaciated if I do .. I just want to lose some fat so my abdomen is at 32-33 inches and kinda flat .. I dont want abs lol .. I just want be in a better position for a bulk .. so my chances of gaining fat on bulk decreases

[orlandopunk]

ill say your at 12% cut down first then rebulk again

wow man you were 126lbs when you started .. and you are my height

[ZabCuz]

bulk always

[siimng1979]

You need to start lifting weights and get into a routine of exercising all body parts.

Start off at a pace you can handle and then slowly increase the weight you are lifting for the various exercises. You'll start to develop and begin the muscle building process. Allow enough rest before retraining the same bodypart again. But I seriously think, that once you start lifting you'll see results. These results could appear first on your upper or even lower body, i.e you'll notice your arms fuller/muscular, or your legs beginning to build muscle mass. Your shoulders or and chest will also improve. Gradually you'll see results.

I don't know what your diet is like, but try to drink lots of water throughout the day, and get into the habit of eating clean lean foods (the usual Tuna, lean chicken - without skin, cottage cheese, fruit veg etc).

Don't get too hung up on supplements yet. Let your body begin its natural process of building muscle/alongside your new diet and workout routine. Have patience, stick with it and record your progress (weight, body part measurements, i.e. Arms, chest, calves, thighs, neck, etc).

You look similar to me when I first started (basically not alot of muscle mass). You are the same height as me too (5ft11"-6ft). I started off weighing 170lbs, always been out of shape my life - skinny fat. After time I put weight on - but kept bodyfat the same %. I was around 200lbs at the end of last year, but have gone on a mild cut. I'm now approx 185lbs. I need to get new photos up bigtime.

Best of luck with your gains.
The most important things: Patience, Self Discipline, Determination.
Stick to a clean diet, rest and lift using good form and weights that are getting heavier with time.

[SMFitness]

Its always the same answers I hear to bulk up first but it seems no one considers that you will put on fat as well and if you are already of a high bf how do you know how much mass to put on to look lean when you cut...all very confusing, to the original guy that posted how is it all going?

[ArcaneDota]

in the same road here as well. im 15 years old, 5'10 and 126 lbs. but i have a belly, chest fat, and some back flabs. i can do 15 pushups but cant do a single pullup or dip! i am cutting right now while lifting heavy. havin a lot of protein as well, and im getting good results, losing fat and building some muscle. my strength has gone higher though!

[Bsowards10]

If he cuts he will lose the little muscle he has.

[horseperson]

Bulk