Should I bulk up and add muscle mass? What likely is my body fat?

[rebelliom]

Hey everyone,
So,I am around 5'8" and my lean muscle mass is around 133lbs and 29lbs is fat.

Should I add more lean muscle mass or not?

I have eaten some bad food today so some inches might have been added on my waist.
According to some online tools my body fat comes out to be around 18%.
What do you say?

[thatmanspence]

You are not going to add an entire inch to your waist in one day. I'd say you are around 18-22% body fat but I'm no expert. I would eat at maintenance and lift, at your BF you can definitely loose fat and build muscle at the same time it just takes longer to see progress. Its a lot more consistent though. Once you are down to around 14-15% body fat I'd start a ~200 cal bulk. but thats a ways away. You have some good starting muscle mass though, good luck man.

[xjrwhitex]

I agree with thatmanspence. Eat around maintenance, and you are definitely capable of losing fat and gaining muscle to some degree. Jeff Nippard has some excellent videos on body recomposition, which I recommend you watch!

[santisica]

you should cut man you have too much fat, cut untill you can see your abs and then bulk again

[TryingBB]

You are not going to add an entire inch to your waist in one day. I'd say you are around 18-22% body fat but I'm no expert. I would eat at maintenance and lift, at your BF you can definitely loose fat and build muscle at the same time it just takes longer to see progress. Its a lot more consistent though. Once you are down to around 14-15% body fat I'd start a ~200 cal bulk. but thats a ways away. You have some good starting muscle mass though, good luck man.

Short story: just cut first and then bulk. Don’t make the mistake I made with recomp...Details below...

Edit: not exactly a mistake with recomp - cuz lifts did go up so I put on some muscle if not a lot.

I am also 5 ft 8inches and 168lbs. I was told in August I should cut to atleast 15% (~160lbs) and then bulk.

I was also told to recomp by some guys.

I went the recomp route.

It was late October and fuk my lifts went up but body still looks the filing same. Pissed as fuk.

I started my cut end of October. I’m starting to look different. I will cut to either 165 lbs or 160 lbs depending on what it looks like and then bulk to 170. Then cut again. That’s the plan.

Cutting and bulking seems to be the way to go. Easier to cut fat than build muscle.

Also more volume is not better. I was on ICF 5x5 and switched to Fierce 5. Only couple weeks and results in Fierce 5 are already showing. Probably due to better recovery

Good luck bro. Recomp is also good advice but visual changes can take months or maybe a year

[AutistTrigger]

Try a recomp. If you do it right you’ll gain some muscle and lose fat. Google recomp and check posts on here.