Lose weight first or jump to bodybuilding?

[Sempy]

Hi, I'm 18 and an absolute "pre-beginner" to everything bodybuilding wise. I'm eager to start building up muscle mass as early as now so I can have a good set of workout and diet routine for the rest of my life, and finally feel good about it instead of thinking that it's torture and feeling hesitant in starting each workout.

I have a slightly above average bod, I have chubs in both face and belly. So I'm wondering if I could immediately start taking in protein, carbs etc in building up muscle mass accompanied by my usual Cardio/HIIT workouts (I wanted to get flexible and energetic enough before starting calisthenics)

Or should I continue what I'm doing right now. Right now I'm doing my daily HIIT/Cardio workouts that spans from 20-40 minutes alternating from lower body, core to upper body focused movement. I have also just begun a Keto diet (which to be honest seems menacing to start) and I am having second thoughts about keeping up with it. Letting go of carbs that I've been eating since the day I was born seems difficult for me, and also the workouts gets a lot more difficult since I think my body's still trying to figure out where to get an alternative source of energy.

So should I jump right into bodybuilding? Get those carbs back up and work my way into building that muscle mass? Or should I lose all my chubs first with the usual workouts and hopefully keto before moving on to body building?

Oh and please don't suggest bodybuilding on KETO, that seems like pure torture haha!
Still, any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

[SuffolkPunch]

Without stats or a picture, we can't tell you if you need to diet or gain mass. Of course every novice needs to do both.

Most importantly, never diet without weight training - you will lose muscle. HIIT is not going to preserve muscle like weight training will. You may even be able to gain a little muscle at the same time as losing fat if you don't try an overly aggressive diet.

[ExpSaysItAll]

Normally you need to stick with one goal at a time, bulking or cutting. But since you're beginner you don't need to worry much here are what i suggest:

1. stop Keto diet, start eating normal, 25%protein 50%carbohydrate 25%fat is considered good enough macro for starters
2. learn to count calories. from intermediate to advance level, calories is the most important factor above everything. But from now on, eat at moderate amount (maintenance level)
3. minimize all type of cardio
4. start lifting weight. It's important to do only compound moves namely Bench press, Pull up, Pull down, shoulder press, squat, dead-lifts. Other moves besides these are considered useless for beginners.
5. focus on overall strength and CNS. you will improve every-time u lift.

[Garage Rat]

I would lose the fat first,excess chub while trying to maintain what muscle you currently have.
Gaining weight for weight sake is gaining fat and muscle.
What you'll end up doing is cutting/dropping weight because you'll have little definition.
So if you start from a lean body and slowly work on gaining muscle not weight per say you'll be better off in the long run if gaining muscle is your goal.
Be aware that gaining just muscle takes time,a strict diet plan and discipline.
Not everyone can stick to it long term.
You may only gain 5-10 pounds of muscle in a year.
As a beginner you are able to gain more in the beginning but as you get more experienced it will be less from year to year.
You need to train intensely enough to stimulate muscle hypertrophy.
do these three things eat correctly(lots of protein,train intensely and get plenty of rest/recovery between training.
Record all your eating and training in a journal to track what your doing.

[pondman]

I'd educate yourself on your daily caloric needs, and keep your diet at that level. Eat your protein.Diets doesn't have to be magic or religious, just keep the protein high, and don't over consume on the carbs and fats. Eat 3 times as many vegetables as you currently are. And find a beginning strength program. I'd avoid bro conversations.

[BBryan098]

You're a beginner. You can build muscle and lose fat at the same time because of how undertrained you are. Get those newbie gains. Get a good program from the workout section here in the forums. Fierce 5 would be a good one. Focus on getting your strenght up, eat at a slight calorie deficit (200-500 cals max), eat around your bodyweight in grams of protein, drink a gallon of water a day, and go from there. You will gain muscle, and lose fat. Stop doing so much cardio. You can do cardio on your off days if you want, but up your cals a bit on those days.

You could also just go at maintenance or a slight surplus. You won't lose much fat if you do so, will gain some on the surplus, but you can always do a cut after you put on decent muscle size. The more muscle you have the more calories your body will burn to maintain them, so it'd be easier to lose fat after.

Choose whichever you like. Do keep in mind that after you get those newbie gains you will stop putting on much if any muscle on a deficit. So you'll have to eventually start eating at a surplus to keep the muscle building process. Small calorie surplus is what I always suggest to keep fat gain to a minimum.

Keep things simple at first. Get used to the motions, don't do any drastic diet changes and slowly build your body up. If you wanna do this on the long term, do not go to any extremes you know you won't able to keep up