Whats Easier? Skinny Guys gaining mass or Big guys losing fat?

[sid007]

Wondering what's easier. I keep seeing two type of body types.

- Skinny guys that gain muscle and usually look cut but still small

- Big guys that lose body fat and transform and usually have more muscle to start with but it's harder for them to get cut.

What are your thoughts? Which one is easier or would one rather have the other?

[Demagogue28]

Always easier to lose fat then gain muscle.

[robbie_vlad]

Easier to lose fat, but I'd rather be smaller and have to gain muscle personally (for various reasons).

[JeffyDOS]

I think it is mentally harder to lose fat as a large male than it is to gain mass as a thin male.

However, physically, I think it is more challenging to add lean mass onto a thin male rather than lose fat on a large male.

Ultimately though, it boils down to how much knowledge, experience, dedication, and consistency you have.

[cheeseandrice]

Easier to lose fat, but I'd rather be smaller and have to gain muscle personally (for various reasons).

THIS, losing fat SUCKS!!!!!!!

id rather start out a skinny hard gainer ecto than a endo that needs to drop weight

[Lookitskeith]

Wondering what's easier. I keep seeing two type of body types.

- Skinny guys that gain muscle and usually look cut but still small

- Big guys that lose body fat and transform and usually have more muscle to start with but it's harder for them to get cut.

What are your thoughts? Which one is easier or would one rather have the other?

As a skinny guy trying to get big i say being skinny, at leas tthe fattys have the mass haha just have to work off the fat! I have to build EVERYTHING

[metroins]

id rather start out a skinny hard gainer ecto than a endo that needs to drop weight

Agreed, I'd rather be skinny than fat. Losing fat is super easy once you learn about calories + protein. It basically is "Stop doing this and you gain results" whereas putting on muscle you have to constantly work/push harder, eat more and be controlled (not gain fat). Putting on muscle is more work.

[Ivan088816]

I hate having to lose fat and cant comprehend how guys complain that they are not hungry and cannot eat enough. If that was me Id be eating steaks and peanut butter all day everyday. Its baffling to me when people say they have no apetite.

Imo it is more fun to be skinny having to bulk to gain muscle.

Plus... those gains, as a skinny guy, will tend to be leaner and any excess fat gained can most likely easily be cut

[sid007]

I hate having to lose fat and cant comprehend how guys complain that they are not hungry and cannot eat enough. If that was me Id be eating steaks and peanut butter all day everyday. Its baffling to me when people say they have no apetite.

Imo it is more fun to be skinny having to bulk to gain muscle.

Plus... those gains, as a skinny guy, will tend to be leaner and any excess fat gained can most likely easily be cut

Yeah I'm thinking it would be more enjoyable to bulk versus cut

But gaining just lean muscle is hard work but so is losing fat.

[DemonaL]

I started working out with a friend... Him being slim, me being the big one... From the start my strength overcame him for quite some time... Him on his bulk and me on my cut, he was able to surpass me, I would rather been smaller when I started then the fat kid.

[painted_klown]

I agree with everyone above.

As a fat guy, it is a mental challenge to lose the weight. A constant struggle, that when you fail at or give up altogether for a bit, can lead to disasterous results and an even harder struggle to overcome.

If you start out skinny and try to bulk, and you stop for a bit, you just stay skinny without doing too much real "damage" to your health and/or physique.

I would rather have always been the skinny kid who is a hard gainer...

[Brklyns_Finest]

no doubt skinny.... BEING FAT SUCKS! lol thats why im trying not to be anymore. skinny people, unless theyre absolute twigs, rarely get as much crap from other ppl than fat guys do

[Flatz]

Hopefully I will have an opinion on this once I have reached my weight loss goal, and then start working on bigger strength gains.

[Gusthebus]

Losing fat is harder gaining muscle is easier it's easier to eat then not to eat

[mpipes]

I'd say it's equally difficult.

Skinny hardgainers are that way because eating a lot is not natural to them, and when they do eat a lot they subconsciously increase their activity, so gaining mass is more difficult.

For big guys to get lean takes a lot of discipline. Eating small and getting lots of activity is not natural for them, hence why they're fat in the first place. Just when you've made great progress you see a pic of someone else that's leaner and you realize just how much farther you have to really go.

It's a mindgame either way you look at it.

However, I'd rather be a big guy having to diet down, because once the dieting is done, the muscle mass is already there.

[Clamz]

it varies by individual. Some skinny guys can throw on lbs of muscle a month, some can't. Some fat guys can cut quickly, some can't. I'd rather be thin and be able to constantly build, than have to build for a while then stall my muscle progress while I'm shedding the fat.

[ejthomp]

Much, much, much harder to gain muscle than lose fat. Don't confuse gaining muscle with gaining fat. Most people think that if they are getting stronger and getting heavier that they are gaining muscle when the truth is that most of their gains are probably fat. Gaining fat is easy...but gaining muscle is very hard and SLOW......

Losing fat is so much easier that there is no comparison.

Never knew it until I really tried it.

On a reasonable diet....an over weight person could lose 100 pounds in a year.

On a perfect diet...while lifting weights like a mad man....gaining 20 pounds of muscle in a year would be fantastic.

Gaining muscle 5x harder than losing fat.

[BunkMoreland]

agreed with most that is on here. though, it may be harder to gain muscle than lose fat- i would've rather started off on the other side of the equation (be a little skinny guy instead of a big fat guy), for many reasons.

[Ashinder]

Who says that the fat guy has muscle to begin with? What about a fat person who's weak?

[Clamz]

Much, much, much harder to gain muscle than lose fat. Don't confuse gaining muscle with gaining fat. Most people think that if they are getting stronger and getting heavier that they are gaining muscle when the truth is that most of their gains are probably fat. Gaining fat is easy...but gaining muscle is very hard and SLOW......


Gaining muscle 5x harder than losing fat.

For you.

[canadiancoops]

try being a skinny fat guy who has to lose the fat and then build the muscle...now that's tough lol

[kevsworld]

We probably think whatever the OTHER guy has to do is easier. I have a little harder time losing fat, so I envy the guys that get to eat and eat in order to put on muscle.

[KAbjorn]

As a once fat man myself (240 lbs at 6'2 freshmen in highschool) I can tell you that I would have preferred to start skinny and work my way up rather then start large and cut down. A skinny guy never really gets made fun of, but I was teased and while in the end I'm glad I was, I can tell you that my self image just turned to sh*t I was anorexic for a while and went down to 140lbs at 6'3 and I lost all that weight in the time frame of 2.5 months. Not healthy.

So I digress, I would have much rather been skinny to start then fat.

[liammccarthy]

Grass is always greener... Some Pro's and Con's:

Skinny Guy Pro's:
Stays Lean almost all the time
Can eat just about anything in large quantities

Fat Guy Pro's:
Retains muscle easily
Once down to a certain BF% can easily eat enough to gain lean mass

Skinny Guy Con's:
It takes longer and is harder to build muscle than lose fat
Appetite can sometimes not be big enough to easily eat enough to gain

Fat Guy Con's:
Bad social perception
Constant caloric deficit is socially hard to maintain (and if done incorrectly can impact metabolism making it harder to lose fat)


All in all I would say that both have their pro's and con's and are equally challenging when all is considered.

[illiniStrive]

Grass is always greener... All in all I would say that both have their pro's and con's and are equally challenging when all is considered.

^This

[Jonesy08]

Grass is always greener... Some Pro's and Con's:

Skinny Guy Pro's:
Stays Lean almost all the time
Can eat just about anything in large quantities

Fat Guy Pro's:
Retains muscle easily
Once down to a certain BF% can easily eat enough to gain lean mass

Skinny Guy Con's:
It takes longer and is harder to build muscle than lose fat
Appetite can sometimes not be big enough to easily eat enough to gain

Fat Guy Con's:
Bad social perception
Constant caloric deficit is socially hard to maintain (and if done incorrectly can impact metabolism making it harder to lose fat)


All in all I would say that both have their pro's and con's and are equally challenging when all is considered.

Good post. For me one of con's for a skinny guy (not being able to easily eat enough) would be pro so overall i think they have it easier. Imagine being able to eat whatever you wanted and still stay lean, it's like a dream come true. Sounds f'en awesome to a former fatty like me who will ALWAYS have to monitor his intake.

Not to mention women often find skinny men attractive (ie look at you average male celeb heartthrob like Beckham, Zac Efron etc) but it's very rare to find women who find fat guys attractive (ie Kevin James, Chris Farley etc).

[Q115]

Losing fat is easy. You hear people who have lost 50 pounds of fat a year all the time, but you'll never hear a guy who put on 50 pounds of muscle a year.

[Flatz]

I would say that the two situations are very different kinds of difficult.
A skinny person can work to gain muscle, but even if they give up, they likely aren't worried about health or body image. They may simply be a little too lazy to dedicate an hour out of the day to lift some weights.

A person who has spent much of their life overweight will likely have a lot of body issues and low self esteem. They have to battle as they completely change their way of living 24 hours a day. And if they suffer from depression or low self esteem then they really have to adjust their whole way of thinking to overcome those obstacles.

So it's a difference between a physical challenge and a mental challenge.

[Piranha89]

I had it the worst... SKINNYFAT!

[Brklyns_Finest]

I would say that the two situations are very different kinds of difficult.
A skinny person can work to gain muscle, but even if they give up, they likely aren't worried about health or body image. They may simply be a little too lazy to dedicate an hour out of the day to lift some weights.

A person who has spent much of their life overweight will likely have a lot of body issues and low self esteem. They have to battle as they completely change their way of living 24 hours a day. And if they suffer from depression or low self esteem then they really have to adjust their whole way of thinking to overcome those obstacles.

So it's a difference between a physical challenge and a mental challenge.

this is good. like you said, if you dont do it right and youre skinny, you just stay skinny. no harm, no foul. if you do it wrong and youre fat, you likely get fatter. and i think most people would agree that mentally and from a social stand point its harder to be fat than skinny