Noob advice

[deano1978]

Hey all, I’m looking for some advice if anyone can steer me in the right direction please.

I’m 41, 177cm tall and around 67kg. Slim build but in ok shape with some belly fat. I don’t know bf % but I’d guess 18-22%. My goal is to bulk up to around 75-80kg and build muscle mass for aesthetics.

My question is - should I look to reduce body fat first and stick to say a 2k cal p/day diet whilst working out and reduce body fat closer to 12% and then lean bulk or go ahead now with a 2,500-3k calorie p/day meal plan and worry about body fat later once I’ve reached my target weight/muscle mass goal?

Apologies if it’s long winded!

[1MANU]

Your body will be in a much better position for a successful bulk if you first focus on reducing body fat.

Do you have a current pic?

Also, don't just randomly select a calorie number to start your cut. First read here and make sure it makes sense:

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=173439001

[deano1978]

Hey thanks for the reply. I used a tdee calculator to gauge my daily needs. I plugged in sedentary which came out to 1,843 cals and moderate exercise (3-5x p/w) which was 2,400. So 2k per day is somewhere in the middle. I’ve lost about 300-400g over the last 5 days like this so I guess at the end of two weeks I will have a better understanding how my body is reacting.

A “cut” at this stage seems to be the right way as you confirmed so that this will set me up to lean gains.

I’ll post some pics to my profile and track my progress.

Looking forward to joining the community!