140 lbs 5'9 Skinny Fat: How Fast Should I Gain Weight?

[dumbidiot2]

I'm going to start lifting soon. For now I'm just going to focus on the main lifts. I'm not sure how fast I should gain weight. I want to get my lifting numbers up, but despite my low bodyweight I have kind of a large belly. If I gain weight too fast to get my numbers up I'm worried I'll just end up with a gigantic belly. On the other hand I could stick to gaining half a pound a week to avoid excess fat gain, but doing that it would take almost five months just to get up to 150 pounds, which is still very light for someone of my height, not to mention my lifts would probably plateau at low numbers. I've seen some people recommend cutting for skinny fat people to shed the excess belly fat before starting a bulk, but I honestly don't think it would healthy for someone of my weight and height to be cutting.

I realize there's no perfect solution to this, gaining fat while gaining weight is inevitable. I just don't want to look pregnant, nor do I want my bench to be stalling at 135 because I'm too afraid of putting on excess fat. Let me know what you think I should do.

[alriva37]

Roughly 0.5-1% of your current bodyweight per week. But since you are skinny fat, it might be more advantageous to maintain your weight. Eat at a slight deficit (200-300kcal) to do so. If you're really scared about dropping to an unhealthy weight then try eating at maintenance and resistance training 3x a week. Hope you found this helpful!