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Skinny fat = Low muscle, too much fat. What should you do? You should gain a little muscle and get rid of some fat. Then your looks become balanced and nice. Basic logic here, it is weird people lack common sese so commonly. If someone wants to continue getting muscle - Great. After losing fat and getting a little muscle your fitness increases and you can really start with some serious exercising. Increasing kcal intake a little and increasing weights progressively while maintaining the right technique.
if you're ''skinny fat'' from not exercising...you should just start to implement more physical activity in your daily routine, and try to get a few hours of sport a week while keeping the same calorie intake...2-3 weeks in you'll start noticing obvious visual changes and may get motivated by yourself to clean your diet a bit while increasing activity too... bulking and cutting should be professional protocols for extreme cases... most of ppl just need to be a bit more physically active in a regular base and stick to it...
@@oneaveroes4627 I mean if you are skinny fat - Then your problem is too much fat and too little muscle. So what's the solution? Eat less kcal and exercise regularly (not excessively, just regularly). Muscles need time to develop. Just make sure your testosterone is at normal range and that you eat a good amount of protein.
Tbh if you are skinny fat, the lifestyle change of just going to the gym 3 times per week should recomp your body anyway. You shouldnt really have to change much diet wise, unless your a heavy drinker or something
Diet matters dude. Training 3 times a week and doing what a lot of skinny fat guys do which is, not really eating “meals” but more grazing constantly / snacking… that won’t get you anywhere.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: As with most things there is some gray area involved here since it does depend on your exact definition of "skinny fat". If you're thin but with only a very small bit of extra fat then bulking first isn't necessarily "wrong" if putting on overall size is your definite top priority. Just be aware that once you enter into a surplus, fat gain is going to be a one way street and you won't be getting any leaner until you shift gears later on and drop into a deficit. From what I've seen over the years and having viewed literally thousands of "should I bulk or cut" photos from guys who identify as skinny fat, cutting first makes the most sense in the majority of cases. Fat loss is a much faster process pound for pound compared to muscle growth, and you can probably gain at least some muscle throughout your initial cutting phase as well. You'll look better, feel better, and as Joel mentions in his video, you'll also put yourself into a much better position to carry out a longer term bulk once that cutting phase has ended.
Agreed on all this. And as much grief as BMI gets as a measurement, it works perfectly well for someone like me who was skinny fat. I'd say anyone who's skinny fat with a BMI over 25 should cut
@@udhaykumar9853 You can try to recomp, but most people just get frustrated, because you see very slow results that way. Recomposition has the problem in that the timeline is very long and you see essentially no results for months and months. With a cut, you see results quite quickly and bulking after allows you to see clear results in terms of performance. Some people can recomp, most people can't really handle it psychologically.
I'm 5'11, and at one point, I was 300 lbs. I was always a skinny guy growing up, but in my twenties, I made a series of bad decisions and developed a lot of unhealthy habits that led to a massive weight gain. I remember telling myself that I would never be able to lose all that weight again, and for a while I felt like giving up. The first thing I did was quit drinking. Most of my weight gain was related to my alcoholism, and also my poor diet choices while drunk (which was basically all the time). Second thing I did, was to cut to eating only one meal a day. It was hard at first, but I still would eat fairly unhealthy foods and eventually my body got used to only eating once. Then I reduced my carbs and started eating cleaner. I got a physically demanding job as a mover, and started lightly working out at home. I lost 90 lbs in about 5 to 6 months, and I've never felt better. I can run or walk for extremely long periods of time without getting tired, I have energy, and I started getting attention from women again. People treat you differently when you're fat. It's horrible, but it's a sad truth. Losing weight was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
The best advise I got when starting out was to go for walks and hikes before lifting. It got my body's baseline health up and it helped introduce the idea of hypertrophy to my body.
Wdym why? How else is he going to build more and or lose more fat from his body. It's not a bad mindset, but your mindset is the mindset of those 300pounds girls/teen girls that leads to lies. Of course, no caloric deficit means a surplus or a maintance, which would not only not make someone not lose fat/gain fat, but also additionaly overwork the nervous system etc.
@adamrozek5782 The skinny fat guy’s biggest problems are lack of muscle building exercise and a poor diet. No need to drastically cut calories. Get rid of the junk, up the protein, and work out like you mean it. I’m in my 50’s and my workouts are more intense than most of the younger folks at my gym.
I agree. For most skinny fat people they are just too sedentary and sloppy with dietary habits. Cleaning that up is usually enough to make changes in appearance without consciously bulking or cutting. Before we had calorie counting apps, this is what people did to get in shape.
If you're skinny fat, odds are you've never worked out at the gym before, so don't even get mixed up on what you gotta do if you haven't even started the simplest step. Just get to the gym consistently and try to eat healthy. After you've got your newbie gains then you can go off what you need to do, but you gotta learn to walk before you run.
These newbie gains people talk about avoids skinny fat people. I've worked out for 4+ months consistently with little to no progress. Got a tooth pulled and didn't get my macros in a few days and what little gains I did have were visibly gone in 4 days time.
@@adolpholiverbush5867hard to blame it on being skinny fat when many many variables can play into why youre not growing. How many sets and reps? How close to failure do you go in those sets? How many times a week are you training? What sort of food are you eating? Are you eating regularly enough? Are you making sure you have proper form to hit the muscles youre trying to focus? Are you not getting any size but getting stronger by being able to get more reps in or lift heavier weights? Do you have any deficiencies or health issues(Hormonal or dietary deficiencies and imbalances)? Many many many questions that will influence your muscle growth. One of the symptoms that arise from some of these issues would be being skinny fat, it wouldnt be the cause but rather a correlation.
@@adolpholiverbush5867 you're probably not putting in as much effort as you think you are in the gym. Then again there could be other outliers, but like I said once you get through th first initial year or 2 of lifting, then you can make adjustments tailored to your needs. The problem is with beginners is staying in the habit of working out. Everyone trys to go 100 percent at the beginning but that is too much for one person to keep track of especially if they don't have the will power.
This is facts. Take 1-2 months of just consistently going, learning new excersises, improving your form, learning gym etiquette, etc. When you get more comfortable, you can start doing actual programs and messing with your diet. A lot of people want to start fast and see fast results, but if you take your time and ignore the noise, you'll make actual lifestyle changes, and that's what gets you results in the long run.
Nah, The correct answer is, Eat right and work out 3 times a week at the least. Telling people to cut or to bulk at the start of anything like this isnt going to get them motivated to do it. Even if they ate right and just got a little more active. That skinny fat would just turn into skinny. You dont have to be a GYM rat to feel good. I personally do it every day once I got sober off some real heavy shi. Its my meditation for the day and without it I'm depressed and feel like using again. So I kinda switched habits, Health and fittness instead of Fetty and street stims.
@@Kaledrone well their solution is not good. If you are skinny fat, that doesn't mean you have a lot of fat, but this has a lack of muscle, build muscles first, that will increase your maintenance, and losing fat will become easy.
It doesnt, nota that soon. I tried to bulk being skinny fat. I gained weight and still just look very soft in one year. Only after a mini cut I looked more average body fat wise.
As someone who was skinny fat for most of my 20s, I disagree strongly. The problem with most people (myself included) was inconsistent strength training, and poor diet. I’ve gained 20 lbs this past year yet most people think I’ve actually lost weight. Still bulking but following my macros better, and working on compound movements and progressive overload.
Idk I was in the same boat as you. I was skinny fat and bulked and with clothes on you will end up looking pretty jacked in the end, but shirt off… I just looked fat. And then the road to a 15% bf cut was wayyy longer and tiring then it would’ve been if I started on a cut. Once I got down to that the bulk/cut cycle are much more maintainable and the training is more enjoyable
@@kavan1773I was a lot more insecure about my body on a cut then I was on a bulk no matter how “pudgy” in the stomach I got but that’s just me personally. I also like being able to lift heavier and be stronger overall.
Completely agree. I remember watching a “coach” Greg video that said “if you don’t see your abs you’re fat”. I took that to heart and ended up about 140lbs at 6’1 (still no abs even though I was basically a twig + still thought I was fat). The only serious change I’ve made is trying to eat 3 meals a day (instead of 1 with obscene amounts of caffeine + water to keep the appetite under control) I’m now near 180lbs. Of course that isn’t 40lbs of muscle but I’m a lot healthier now. Body dysmorphia is definitely real lmao. Looking back I don’t really know if I was skinny fat or just skinny, but it’s easy to convince yourself you’re “fat” when all you see are shredded dudes that have washboard abs year round.
Did people like Sean just forget that the people who are skinny fat most likely have a very low bodyfat percentage with pretty much no muscle (hence the fat shows). Saying that cutting is the best solution for fixing skinny fat is very flawed advice because cutting while being that low will probably cause more health issues rather than the opposite. As for someone who was skinny fat for a time a lean bulk is the best solution as I've gained muscle and looked more leaner despite me not cutting at all during this period. The fact that so many people are blindly agreeing to these takes feels so strange to me.
I think it heavily depends on the person for me bulking was needing as I was undereating but some people are naturally skinny fat and might be better off cutting I personally lost a lot of weight and under ate for years which caused me to be skinny fat and it changed once i started to bulk
Yeah I agree. My test was always super low and I was skinny fat as a result. I’m 6’1 and at one point cut down to 158lbs (which is borderline anorexic for my height/body type) and I still had love handles, belly fat, and essentially ZERO muscle. I looked horrible and disgusting. Was always going back and forth not knowing what to do until I decided to do a slow, long-term “mini bulk” at about 200-300 caloric surplus. Gained a tiny bit of fat but a good amount of muscle. That extra muscle stretched out the existing fat so I actually looked _more_ lean despite gaining both muscle and fat.
I absolutely disagree skinny fat it means lack of muscle not obese they're not the same skinny fat is the lack of muscle with general y in that abdomen,so skinny fat always bulk first
Absolutely, if ur skinny fat u dont have a lot of muscle to begin with so u have to bulk and workout at the same time so that u can gain muscle, cutting just gonna make u feel more exhausted and weaker
but what if you definitely have way more fat than muscles? wouldn’t it be better to cut first? especially as a beginner? (genuine question btw, im a noob)
Look up Dr. Sean O’Mara and his research. Skinny fat or TOFIs (thin outside, fat inside- people with visceral fat) actually WILL NOT see gains until they get rid of their visceral fat. Once they do that, with a clean low carb, meat and fat heavy diet, he says that his clients see amazing gains. He shows this through MRIs of the body where you can literally see a person’s fat and muscle in their body.
I was skinny fat like 2 years ago. I was on a light calorie deficit and lost 20 pounds in a year. Some people said i looked too skinny and I need to gain weight. Now im lean bulking and have gained 10 pounds so far (hopefully all muscle cuz i think i lost some fat too)
@joynelbonetdelgado4952 The thing is I feel leaner than I was before (much more visible abs and more muscle defenition overall). I do not think i gained much (if any) fat, but maybe i didnt lose any either. I should also mention that I'm doing a mix of calisthenics and weightlifting. Maybe that has some effect but idk.
@@blablablabla4418 If your clothes are fitting more loosely, and you feel a sense of spring and vitality, I would bet you have put on fair amount of muscle.
I agree 100%. Take it from me. I was over 213lbs in May and I had no idea if I should eat in a surplus or go on a calorie deficit. I'm so glad I decided to go with the latter. In just 6 months I was able to drop to 179lbs and are now in a much better position to start a proper gaining phase.
If you train when you're not eating properly, you're not gonna gain any muscle, you're just gonna get skinnier, if you're not eating enough so if you're skinny fat, you could just be wasting your time, your diet is very important in how you look, especially if you're trying to get healthy or get in shape, no matter what your goal is. Your diet is eighty percent of how you look working out is only toning up your body
Why even disagree when they are both almost equally as important. But to be honest Your diet is most important. commit to consistently eating the right food and getting the right amount of calories before anything .
99% of people who are "skinny fat" are just people who are skinny and want abs ASAP. Unless you're overweight, you have no business cutting if you haven't been lifting for at least a year. You NEED to build a strength base before it makes sense to do it. In fact, if you're even describing yourself as skinny fat, it usually means you're super new to the gym, which means you need to eat some food and get bigger. If you cut you're gonna spend 4 months spinning your wheels to look like a skeleton, give yourself an eating disorder, and make no progress. I'm not even big-- I'm 5'8" and 155 lbs lean. I started at 130. This took me TWO YEARS of bulking with a 6 month cut to get to 155. Building muscle takes FOREVER, and you're just shooting yourself in the foot if you calorie restrict when you can barely bench a plate. Current my SBD 1RMs are 345/270/385, which I am VERY happy with at my weight. I don't really see myself getting much bigger than this.
My first cut I did I expected to have well defined abs and serratus at the end. Turns out that if you don't have muscle, your abs don't look good and you need to cut to deathly low body fat percents to look "defined." I'm way heavier now than I was after my first "cut," but I look way, way, way more muscular and lean since I actually have some mass to show
@@jksdo88 If you're not medically overweight you should just go to the gym and lift. Don't worry about bulking or cutting the first year. Focus on consistency, effort, and form, and figure out what kind of movements you like.
I'd say you better try to keep the same weight and the same caloric intake while upgrading your protein intake. Your body will adapt to the caloric deficit the growth of muscle mass will provoke and draw on stocked fat, making you bigger and leaner at the same time. Sorry for any potential english error
I agree for a few reasons. 1: skinny fat means that you have some fat but no muscle. Bulking won't help as you already have the fat and the muscle will come from training. 2: I think it's a bad idea to even introduce the idea of bulking to completely new people because they should just at least have like a month or 2 minimum of just training normally before trying to get too fancy and optimized with it. Just my opinion though.
I'm 6'0" (182 cm) and I've never had an aesthetic physique. I was really chubby growing up and messed up my body with a crash diet and no gym. For the rest of my life, I’ve been pretty active, but I never escaped the cycle of looking either too fat or too skinny. Last year, I started lifting and reached 198 lbs (90 kg), but I still looked awful because my body fat percentage was so high. Four months ago, I decided to see a nutritionist. I went from 198 lbs (30% body fat and 139 lbs of lean mass) to 171 lbs (21% body fat and 134 lbs of lean mass). The next goal is to get down to 163 lbs and hopefully around 18% body fat. We'll see if I can reach 15%, though I’ll probably still look terrible for a long time.
I don't think you know this but if your skinny fat you probably have no muscle on you in the first place, cutting would only make you look and feel worse, doing a lean bulk first will always be a better option
@@deaglehawkings2543I was skinny fat and I did a cut, whilst also lifting. Ended up gaining muscle and also losing fat and in the end I looked pretty good. If you’re skinny fat but underweight then you should bulk, but if you’re skinny fat and overweight then you should cut. So many people over complicate it for no reason
@@pavannair6469you can’t be skinny fat and overweight the whole point of skinny fat is having a high bf and no muscle mass but with a normal BMI, that would just make you fat with no muscle
@@BlueZombie7 I was slightly overweight. BMI just being a little over my natural weight for my height and body fat percentage was about 20% and I had very little muscle
Being skinny fat indicates you have insulin resistance. This means you’re rapidly approaching chronic disease and need to not only put on lean muscle mass but also correct your metabolic disfunction. Closely monitor your fasting insulin and HbA1c, being resistance training to put on lean mass, and prioritize protein and healthy fat - minimizing processed food as much as humanly possible. You can’t think of everything in life within a bodybuilding, cut vs bulk paradigm.
Actually insulin resistance is just one of the reasons, not the only cause of it. I was skinny fat because I never exercised and I drank way too much, even though I ate relatively healthy
@@nouse4oraname Incorrect. In every society absent of man-made, industrial foods, their men are lean and have lean mass. This was also true of 90% of western men prior to very recently. Just because you think you ate “healthy” food doesn’t mean you actually did. This skinny fat phenomenon is recent in our species’ history and doesn’t come about without some level of metabolic derangement.
@@nouse4oraname By the way, metabolic derangement causes alcoholics to become skinny fat AND acquire fatty liver diseases. Non fatty liver disease is also caused by… insulin resistance, specifically from fructose.
@@blahizake the Australian aborigines living in the outback would like to have a word with you 😆 As would the Japanese 🤣 FYI I’m not from the west, and I’m pretty sure if you were royalty and consumed too much calories, partied every night and hardly ever had to do physical work, you’d be skinny fat too. Not saying insulin resistance isn’t an issue. I don’t eat processed foods and mostly cook my own food. I’m just saying it’s not the only reason.
I lifted, did calisthentics, yoga, ran marathons, ran 50 miles a week for years, ran barefoot tens of thousands of miles, got heavier and lifted heavy after, did lots of mobility and balance, just years and years of full time job amounts of time every day. I have pseudo gynecomastia on my chest and stomach that reduced and most people think I look nice but if someone else did the amount of work I did they'd be absolutely shredded. It took me 10 years to do a muscle up even when I could do ten 45lb weighted good full extension chest to bar pullups, because some of my muscles didn't develop in the shoulder girdle. I'm autistic and hyoermobility spectrum disorder I get nerve problems my whole family does, and that holds me back too. I'm still strong and able to do lots of above average stuff but I put in elite level efforts to get above average results only. I want to get lipo+BodyTite some day but I'm 40. It causes me literal gender dysphoria but I can kinda live with it. I wish I had just gotten that done as a teenager my parents would've saved me years of distress.
Agree, I m 34 and was skinny fat last 6 years of my life basically, I ve been doing only some little home training like pushupts etc and hiking/running every now and then...but at the same time I ate like a garbage truck (alot of beer alot of unhealthy stuff and only like 2 big meals a day) 3 month ago I got my apendix removed, was in hospital for 5 days basically eating nothing, diet for next month, my fat was gone, started going to gym 2-3 times a week and I can see a difference already. I can run 10-12 km constantly and for past 4 weeks I m running this lenght once a week - seeing this, alongside with more healthy food and cutting alcohol by 70% ( cannot stop completely, I m a slav afterall) had impact on size of my gut..in a goodway ofc. So yeah, loose the fat first, then start eating like a real human and run and lift. ez
@@pesvids6673 if your BMI is in normal range and yet you have lots of fat, it means you are skinny fat. Things would have been different of you were muscular as well
Former skinny fat and sorry to say that this is just dumb I lean bulked and went from 62 KG to 76 KG (aiming for 80 KG) and while I have increased my body fat the muscle I’ve put on has made me far healthier and made me look far better doesn’t help that many other respected fitness content creators have also shared their take on this being to either recomp or bulk not to mention the far majority of the people that actually are skinny fat are teens which is not healthy for them to cut whatsoever with the exception being they actually reach a certain bf and even then they would have to go into a low caloric deficit
hey man, can i ask do you go for a cut now, i was skinny fat 5’6, lean bulked from 68kg to 76kg now. I have more mass, and people noticed, however, my gut is getting to big
I'm female, I was skinny fat a the other year. I'm making sure I lift 4x a week, cardio 1-2 times a week, getting 100+g protein in every day, and I recently started eating in a deficit of like 500 cals. I still eat a shit load, but I also go for the low fat options. I'm eaitng the same shit every day that I meal prep but I love it - low fat Greek yoghurt with protein powder, berries and granola, low fat cottage cheese, apple with peanut butter, chicken stir fry and a low fat beef and cheese burrito. The switch to low fat had helped a lot with weightloss. I was 13 stone 13 at the beginning of June, I'm now down to 12 stone 13. I still have fat on me but my muscles have grown a lot and filled me out so even though i'm still skinny fat in some areas like my waist and stomach, my upper and lower body have got enough muscle on them now that it is less noticeable. In a few months i'll probably do a mroe substantial cut to get rid of extra fat, because my stomach is kind of getting in the way of my lifts lol. But I've had great success so far and I feel so confident. It really is quite simple when you filter out all the unnessesary influence and fads, learn the science and stick to the basics!
Started developing skinny fat after taking a 6 month hiatus from the gym and eating out way too frequently. That's a good way to guarantee that problem. Back in the gym 5x a week for 3 weeks in a row now. Feeling great. Just need to clean up the diet
I was skinny fat. Bulking is much better than cutting to start IF you do like 100-300 calorie surplus, you will be losing almost as much fat (wich in the long run it doesnt matter) while building somewhat more muscle. Also you dont need to diet. Thats 100% a pro
IF YOU ARE SKINNY FAT YOU DO RECOMP UNTIL YOU ARE SKINNY!!! You don't start from no exercise to cutting while exercising! You are setting people up for failure that way.
@@LetsPlayCrazy If you’re “skinny fat” you’re not overweight. You are skinny with no muscle so the fat shows. If you cut while skinny, you’ll just become a twig.
Recomps aren't really that great just bulk at that point and eat relatively healthy doesn't need to be more complicated than that recomping is always presented as this magic system that will fix your physique but it often it's and you are better just bulking putting on the size and slowly cutting later to reveal muscle and repeat the cycle till desired results
@@MyNamesHunter75 Even a bulk can be really hard for beginners... what is it with you 'experts' and letting people ease into the sport? I have recomp'ed my first 2 months now and I saw awesome results. Not only was it easy, it also motivated me because I saw noticable improvements in weight and musclegain. Its not like doing recomping the first few months is going to give dramaticially different results anyways. Body has enough fat to burn and little musclemass. So these extra bodybuilding techniques won't do more than like 5-10%... which at low musclemass is barely even visible. REMEMBER THAT NOT EVERYONE IS A 100% SURE THEY WANT TO CONTINUE. Getting them thrown off with bulking or cutting is just hurting their chances of success.
I used to be skinny fat, tried cutting a year ago and it was a complete waste of time, lost a tiny bit of fat and too much muscle, bare in mind I was getting an adequate amount of protein and carbs and I maintained a good calorie deficit. Switched to bulking a few months ago and I look and feel so much better already
Agree. I'm skinny fat but have noticed that the fat in my belly is reducing dramatically while muscles are growing slowly (but surely) and getting more and more defined. I'm at a slight caloric deficit.
That's it, you convinced me. After 3 months of bulking, I'm going to switch to cutting. Sadly though It's much harder to cut, but I hope I will manage it.😢
@@WalterWhite-go2lhif you’re already bulking just stick to it until you’re happy with your size or unhappy with the amount of body fat you’ve put on, you have to decide when the time is right for you, not when other people tell you. Good luck
You should bulk first for health reasons if you're skinny-fat. There will be nothing left on your body if you cut. You'll have zero energy and ability bulk if you have no mass of any kind left. You'll look and feel way better with both more muscle and fat if you bulk first before cutting. A person's lack of muscle is a much worse problem health than a bit too much fat in comparison to muscle. this is a rare massive and dangerous L for Sean.
Even people who don't lift weights can get lean without losing all muscle mass. Yeah you won't have the muscle mass of someone who has been lifting a while but even if you're just staying active by playing sports or whatever then you'll maintain most of your muscle mass when you cut. If you lift weights you'll definitely retain almost all of it. Also having muscle mass on the low end is not that dangerous unless you're older, a 20 year old going from skinny fat to skinny is not going to have health problems unless they're trying to get shredded level lean which is not something most people are doing anyway
I don't think you understand how deceiving skinny fat can be. I was like 50 lbs overweight and getting told I looked "too skinny" because my shirt was hiding all of it. I went on a 700 cal/day deficit and started running 6x week, lifting 2x week. Months later I'm down 25 lbs (still barely below a BMI of 25). I've not felt low energy once, and have visibly added muscle. Skinny fat is fat, it just all sits around your core. Makes no sense telling a fat person to bulk. Edit: also, look and feel better packing an extra 10-20 lbs of fat around my core and thighs? Making it more uncomfortable to bend, sit, lay down, EXERCISE? Make me look better? Please lol
This is something I needed to know when I started going to the gym. I'm 15, I practice swimming 5 times a week, I was indeed skinny fat and I started to watch youtubers that loved going to the gym. So, last year I asked my dad if I could go also to the gym. I started practicing there only by doing supersets with machines. I was thinking that I was doing correct, watching also some youtubers that encouraged bulking. Then, after 6 months, I started to realize that, in fact, some muscle grow, but I was still fat. Finally I started to think that maybe I needed a cut. And there I am, losing much more body fat and going faster at swimming; thanks for this video!
This might be right way but as someone that used to be skinny fat my confidence increased immensely when I started my journey with the intention to put on muscle. You look so much better in clothes when you have muscles and a little fat anyway. And it’s very motivating to feel yourself get stronger and stronger. So for someone with low self esteem I would suggest “bulking” first
Bodyfat percentage is more important than weight. You could be 5’10 155 lbs but 25% bodyfat, which is still unhealthy despite the skinny BMI. On the other hand you could be 5’10 190 lbs with 12% bodyfat and you’d be healthy despite the overweight BMI.
I am 57. I have lost 50 lbs since October 23. I am 5'9", 130lbs with runner build. I have been lifting for about 4 months. I can see results. That was my main reason for dropping the weight before first. Actually lifting wasn't the plan but once I lost the meno weight i was able to see potential. Also saw lots of YT videos of women in their 50. 60, 70s that have slowed aging. Feel better now than i have since mid 30s.
I was skinny fat most of my life. 5'11 and hovered around 195lbs. Always ate whatever because I wasn't obviously fat. I exercised so I could eat whatever I wanted. At age 50 I had a heart attack and a double bypass operation. Genetics were also a factor but the main reason was my diet. My advice based on my experience is lose the fat first with a cleaned up diet and exercise regimen. Focusing only on bulking won't necessarily clean up the diet and add excessive calories. Currently 54 and down to 170lbs...but looking much more muscular than I have in my whole life because my body fat % now ( around 12%) is much lower than 4 yrs ago ( around 20%). Consider that!
I did a 5 month cut as a skinny fat before starting to bulk and it was not a good time. It was very demoralizing seeing the people that started the gym at the same time as me getting stronger every week meanwhile I was more tired every day. And by the time the cut ended I was just as weak as I started and just looked skinny. I was this close of quitting the gym because I wasn't getting stronger. The psychological aspect is something that all these people that recommend skinny fats to cut never take into account If I could go back I would have bulked, you are not unhealthy just because you are skinny fat, a couple pounds more will not look bad on you, Your body will even out, you are not gonna get a bigger gut. My advice for you, the skinny fat reading this is to listen advice from others that were skinny fat.
I have had to work through skinny fat. This is how I have been working through it with pretty solid results. For strength training do a little lower weight but higher reps. Do quite a bit of cardio. Run at LEAST a half mile every time you go to the gym. Try to get in some supersets to keep the heart pumping. Do NOT eat anything with soy, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, artificial sweeteners and corn. Try to get most of your protein from beef and chicken. For carbs, try to make them complex carbs. But that cardio is a must.
Completely agree. As someone who was skinny fat my whole life and tried to hit the gym and bulk. I lost confidence bulking because i just looked more fat. I cut weight instead, gained my confidence, and now will start introducing more calories to gain weight. Everyones approach is different, do what works for you. Its easier for me to go to the gym and be confident as a skinny guy, then it is for me to be fat. Its a mental thing. But goodluck to whoever is on their journey
Speaking from experience this is absolutely true. I started going to the gym and didn't know anything. I was by definition "skinny fat" and after a while I decided I was in a position to bulk up. But I still had a lot of fat around my stomach and chest. I got a lot bigger and stronger, but realised all I'd done is put on size and still looked overweight. Cut as much fat as possible first. Then do a controlled bulk.
Strength gains are addictive. Do a NLP, and eat enough to keep it going to 1/2/3/4 plates on the big four lifts. Take advantage of the noob gains and maingain while you still can. Break the cycle of hitting the gym hard, dieting hard, and burning out a month or two later. It’s psychological. It’s irrelevant whether cutting first is more efficient or not. Consistency is the most important aspect, by far. Build the habit with the dopamine boost of hitting PRs twice a week. Then cut after you hit 1/2/3/4 plates. You’ll also probably be a bit sick of eating 3000+ calories a day, in order to hit that goal and stay at about the same weight. Heavy squats and deadlifts burn way more calories than people think. When it’s cutting time, it’s just a matter of doing more cardio and cleaning up the diet a bit. Everyone wants what they can’t have. The grass is always greener. Objectively speaking though, it seems people who are a bit fat have a much easier time progressing than the skinny dudes. Unless they’re medically obese or underweight, the untrained male has no need to think about bulk/cut cycles for at least six months.
I was skinny fat about 7 months ago and what worked for me to look fit and lean was none of that bs… just goto the gym, lift heavy, and fix your diet. (Throw in some cardio at the end of your workout). That’s what worked for me.
I was skinny fat with mainly fat. Heres what I did to fix it: 1. Researched simple calisthenics plans and picked one out 2. Started counting calories 3. Increased my daily steps and ate at around a 500-750 cal deficit 4. Started tweaking workout schedule, slowly incorporating strength training 5. Lost the fat but am underweight, currently starting clean bulk (eating only a little under maintenance calories while eating the rest back in just protein) to gain back purely muscle mass and avoid fat gain while getting leaner
I generally agree with this.. I’m a skinny fat guy but putting muscle in and getting physique right away mitigated it a bit I’m older so having a gut kind of comes with the territory unless you’re either stupid disciplined or have the the ability to manage the diet and nutrition and it’s much easier when you’re a working stiff to go to the gym than it is to try to count calories I did wind up having some gut issues that destroyed my appetite and I’m now in a caloric deficit for the most part so I’m rolling with that and taking advantage of it
i’m skinny fat and started going to the gym 3 weeks ago…im 191 lbs and want to get down to 185…once i get there, i just plan on maintaining and building muscle over time then i’ll figure out where to go from there
I became a skinny fat at 40, I'm 47 now and still can't cope with it. Have been cycling and doing Roman bench for the past 8 months and haven't lost a pound. Never home before 6 or 7 pm, care about kids during weekend, pretty hard but I hope I'll find a solution
I’m skinny fat. I’m 5’10” and I weighed 120lbs at one point. That’s super skinny arms. Then I started working Graveyards and now I bulked up to 165lbs. Arms are definitely bigger. I need to trim some fat off and gain muscle on my back, chest, and core to look bigger. But gaining almost 50lbs really did help start my building process. I feel so much better with this weight. Definitely feel stronger and more confident.
I’m 17 and I walk 4 hours on treadmill 30-40k steps everyday 6 days ppl and eat a lot I gain muscle and lose fat. Trust me this works. Don’t just lift weight and sit down the whole day. Stimulate ur body and it’ll retain muscle and lose fat trust the process.
Just start lifting and things will change. People who are skinny fat will gain muscle and loose fat easily with consistent workouts. The overthinking will push people to avoid it by making them think they're doing the wrong thing.
As someone who started skinny fat and bulked first, I didnt see any muscle for over a year, but as soon as I cut I saw much more. Simple, cut or lean bulk. Dont gain more fat youll just make it more difficult
I’m fat and muscular 😂 - so I’m cutting while doing a mild body building routine - I primarily powerlift but I have wanted to get my body weight down for a long time just for generally better functionality and health. My plan is to get down to a weight low enough that when I increase the workload aka focus more on muscle building, I can comfortably gain back up to 20-30 lbs & then hopefully maintain from there. Reducing size does kinda mess with my head a little but seeing the muscle peaking out from the fat finally is also rewarding ❤
As a skinny fat boi, the first main problem is that I am not strong at all!! I was really struggling with the 10s and 15s. Benching ONLY the bar was enough and super tiring. So for a skinny-fat, not strong enough, and then you send it in a caloric deficit? That boi isn't gonna be able to pick up a damn apple, let alone the 10s
When you are a pro you have very clear bulk and cut phases, but at the beginning of your process, when you still have some fat and few muscles, the best is not to have neither a big caloric deficit nor a surplus. Keep eating as much as you eat usually, add proteins and reduce carbs, and lift. Once the fat is converted into muscles, you start thinking in terms of bulking and cuts. If some people say that it is better to bulk and some people say that it is better to cut, a very reasonable choice is to do neither.
I recommend watching Greg Doucettes video on main gaining. Basically eating maintenance and lifting having best of both worlds. But it keeps motivation the highest.
The point about noobie gains is real. If you're skinny fat, you can get away with cutting or recomping for close to a year before you start to miss out on any real gains.
Facts, exactly what I did. People neglect the fact that going down 4/5 times a week relies on a lot of motivation, and when you can see results in fat loss, that’s usually enough to keep you motivated toward to long term goal
I disagree those who are skinny fat will loose even more muscle when cutting and then get even more fat when bulking. Bulk in moderate profictit lift heavy for 1 year at least then cut if you want
Also if you start out the bulk on a lower body fat percentage, when your bulk is over it won’t have gone up neay as high as if you started with higher body fat percentage, and it will be easier to lose enough fat to get to your ideal body without losing too much muscle (you won’t have to cut as long).
Really depends how we're defining skinny fat. I think most people saying that are just referring to people that aren't overweight oe obese, but also clearly dont go to the gym.
Thank you I was skinny fat and bulked first for a year then I got a job that required me to wake up 5AM and come home around 9:30-10PM and lost my progress due to lack of eating and got back to skinny fat in just a few months now I know I need to lose some stuff first
I tried this, but maingaining was the way to go for me cuz cutting when already having bad self control was super hard. Too much of a deficit and I found myself binging. Cutting is no problem now, but if you're anything like me maingain. Healthier food is often more nutrient dense and calorie-poor as well and it's really nice to be able to eat "a lot" and lose fat. Eating little thinking abt food was too hard for me. I couldve obv gone on like a 200 calorie deficit, but full on tracking from not giving a shit is too difficult. Just get 80g of high quality protein daily, eat leafy greens 2-3 times a week and ur fine for now. Even if u need 200-300g protein when cutting I personally found myself eating 200 3 days a week and suddenly literally eating 20-40 the rest. Consistency is king and do what makes you consistent
I really feel like they use "bulk first then cut" or the ridiculous "turn fat into muscle" clichés to avoid doing cardio. I know the vast majority don't like it but it is what it is. I tell people all the time. It's like going to work. Nobody really loves doing it, but guess what?
Agree. This also applies to most people in the beginner stage unless you're just skinny. I wouldn't consider 20% body fat 'fat' but you can still bring body fat percentage down while enjoying your newbie -gains
No one is right. Maintaining is 99% of time what's best (unless you are obese). You don't stress the body with a deficit and keep a more anabolic context for your body, while you lose fat and since you are in a maintenance, all the weight you keep is gonna be muscle that is replacing what was fat. Once you have built enough muscle, deficit is gonna be easier and then you can develop that into a cut.
i was skinny fat when i started working out, got super lean and packed on muscle because of the noob gains. After that I pretty much was on and off a bulk for 2 years. This past year I dirty bulked from 168 to 198. Now i’m cutting again and am skinny fat again. Working to lose it
Besides training and good nutrition (duhh) Start fasting 16 hours a day and make sure your testostorone stays high. Thats how I transformed from skinny fat into muscle, 6 pack and 14% bodyfat in about 16 months
2 หลายเดือนก่อน
I aim for 2500 calories max when I go to the gym. When I don’t, I should limit myself to 1950. Weight loss + muscle gain is the way to go for me. Not absolutely cutting, nor absolutely bulking. Just eating slightly more than I would need if I didn’t work out at all to maintain bodyweight (somewhere around 2100-2300 calories). That way I make gains without feeling tired and malnourished, I still lose weight and the extra nourishment helps build more muscle in place of fat. Is also way more stable than going straight into a massive deficit. What matters is switching to a high protein diet where I eat less fats and less carbohydrates. Not less than proteins, but less than normally. This helps maintain muscle growth and reduces fat storing. If I eat a small (sedentary lifestyle) surplus when breaking myself down in the gym, this should be optimal for growth and energy levels whilst still allowing me to lose weight. Albeit at a slower pace.. but going too fast on the weight loss has nasty side effects for me anyways. I aim to lose .5kg of adipose tissue per week or two. Not more than that. Then doing 1 to 1.5 hour gym sessions of moderate to high-intensity weight lifting exercises with good pace and a focus on keeping slowed control in the eccentric phase to boost hypertrophy. I wonder what kind of beast I’m going to be a year from now.
depends what your goals are. either way getting stronger is at the heart of the plan. in addition to strength numbers, things like 40 yard dash time and mile time keep me honest food wise. High level mobility as a focus keeps any period of heavier eating naturally moderate.
As someone who has been skinny, fat, skinny-fat, and strong-fat (currently on that last one rn) all over the course of about 15 years I'd super recommend losing the weight first. I find it harder to lose weight now as there's a fear of losing strength and mass. I'm about 20lbs off 3 plates on my bench and I'm dreading going back down when I lose weight. It'll be worth it though long term.
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Skinny fat = Low muscle, too much fat. What should you do? You should gain a little muscle and get rid of some fat. Then your looks become balanced and nice. Basic logic here, it is weird people lack common sese so commonly.
If someone wants to continue getting muscle - Great. After losing fat and getting a little muscle your fitness increases and you can really start with some serious exercising. Increasing kcal intake a little and increasing weights progressively while maintaining the right technique.
all this guy does is try to get us to buy his shit
❤
if you're ''skinny fat'' from not exercising...you should just start to implement more physical activity in your daily routine, and try to get a few hours of sport a week while keeping the same calorie intake...2-3 weeks in you'll start noticing obvious visual changes and may get motivated by yourself to clean your diet a bit while increasing activity too...
bulking and cutting should be professional protocols for extreme cases...
most of ppl just need to be a bit more physically active in a regular base and stick to it...
@@oneaveroes4627
I mean if you are skinny fat - Then your problem is too much fat and too little muscle. So what's the solution? Eat less kcal and exercise regularly (not excessively, just regularly). Muscles need time to develop. Just make sure your testosterone is at normal range and that you eat a good amount of protein.
Absolutely agree. First get healthy. It's the foundation to build other goals on.
Nope
You are completely incorrect
Being Skinny is just as bad as being fat
You gotta try aiming in the middle
@@a_guy_in_the_internetwhat did you just said
@sleekntears9467 if you're skinny fat, you're not underweight lol
Tbh if you are skinny fat, the lifestyle change of just going to the gym 3 times per week should recomp your body anyway. You shouldnt really have to change much diet wise, unless your a heavy drinker or something
Im saying just dont have a dumb diet and if u start working out from doing nun at all u will lose fat and gain muscle
if you are eating like 50 gr of protein per day recomping could take years, diet matters
Recomp 💀
Do you want to have a guy waste years of his life? Tell him to just "recomp"
Diet matters dude. Training 3 times a week and doing what a lot of skinny fat guys do which is, not really eating “meals” but more grazing constantly / snacking… that won’t get you anywhere.
I think if you’re fat go every day. No one considers that fat people have lower metabolisms
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
As with most things there is some gray area involved here since it does depend on your exact definition of "skinny fat".
If you're thin but with only a very small bit of extra fat then bulking first isn't necessarily "wrong" if putting on overall size is your definite top priority.
Just be aware that once you enter into a surplus, fat gain is going to be a one way street and you won't be getting any leaner until you shift gears later on and drop into a deficit.
From what I've seen over the years and having viewed literally thousands of "should I bulk or cut" photos from guys who identify as skinny fat, cutting first makes the most sense in the majority of cases.
Fat loss is a much faster process pound for pound compared to muscle growth, and you can probably gain at least some muscle throughout your initial cutting phase as well.
You'll look better, feel better, and as Joel mentions in his video, you'll also put yourself into a much better position to carry out a longer term bulk once that cutting phase has ended.
Agreed on all this. And as much grief as BMI gets as a measurement, it works perfectly well for someone like me who was skinny fat. I'd say anyone who's skinny fat with a BMI over 25 should cut
I'm 5 feet 8.5 inches and 153 pounds.
BMI is 23
About 18 to 20 % body fat.
I still don't know whether to cut or bulk?
Well, I thought recomp is best for skinny fat guys 😮
@@udhaykumar9853 You can try to recomp, but most people just get frustrated, because you see very slow results that way. Recomposition has the problem in that the timeline is very long and you see essentially no results for months and months. With a cut, you see results quite quickly and bulking after allows you to see clear results in terms of performance. Some people can recomp, most people can't really handle it psychologically.
thanks
I'm 5'11, and at one point, I was 300 lbs. I was always a skinny guy growing up, but in my twenties, I made a series of bad decisions and developed a lot of unhealthy habits that led to a massive weight gain. I remember telling myself that I would never be able to lose all that weight again, and for a while I felt like giving up. The first thing I did was quit drinking. Most of my weight gain was related to my alcoholism, and also my poor diet choices while drunk (which was basically all the time). Second thing I did, was to cut to eating only one meal a day. It was hard at first, but I still would eat fairly unhealthy foods and eventually my body got used to only eating once. Then I reduced my carbs and started eating cleaner. I got a physically demanding job as a mover, and started lightly working out at home. I lost 90 lbs in about 5 to 6 months, and I've never felt better. I can run or walk for extremely long periods of time without getting tired, I have energy, and I started getting attention from women again. People treat you differently when you're fat. It's horrible, but it's a sad truth. Losing weight was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
How do you guys gain weight that fast? I try to bulk up but I barely gain any weight, Im skinny fat btw
@@sammyofficial1Usually people that heavy develop emotional relationships with food. The downside is that it's an eating disorder
The best advise I got when starting out was to go for walks and hikes before lifting. It got my body's baseline health up and it helped introduce the idea of hypertrophy to my body.
yes! for me my job required me to walk like 8 hours a day. walking helps ALOT. i lost about 100lbs while still building muscle. now i am skinny fat.
Why cut or bulk? Just workout and improve the quality of your diet.
Wdym why?
How else is he going to build more and or lose more fat from his body. It's not a bad mindset, but your mindset is the mindset of those 300pounds girls/teen girls that leads to lies.
Of course, no caloric deficit means a surplus or a maintance, which would not only not make someone not lose fat/gain fat, but also additionaly overwork the nervous system etc.
@adamrozek5782
The skinny fat guy’s biggest problems are lack of muscle building exercise and a poor diet. No need to drastically cut calories. Get rid of the junk, up the protein, and work out like you mean it. I’m in my 50’s and my workouts are more intense than most of the younger folks at my gym.
I agree. For most skinny fat people they are just too sedentary and sloppy with dietary habits. Cleaning that up is usually enough to make changes in appearance without consciously bulking or cutting. Before we had calorie counting apps, this is what people did to get in shape.
Because bulking and cutting is a MUCH faster way to make progress.
Because thata how u gain or loose muscle
If you're skinny fat, odds are you've never worked out at the gym before, so don't even get mixed up on what you gotta do if you haven't even started the simplest step. Just get to the gym consistently and try to eat healthy. After you've got your newbie gains then you can go off what you need to do, but you gotta learn to walk before you run.
I agree
These newbie gains people talk about avoids skinny fat people. I've worked out for 4+ months consistently with little to no progress. Got a tooth pulled and didn't get my macros in a few days and what little gains I did have were visibly gone in 4 days time.
@@adolpholiverbush5867hard to blame it on being skinny fat when many many variables can play into why youre not growing.
How many sets and reps? How close to failure do you go in those sets? How many times a week are you training? What sort of food are you eating? Are you eating regularly enough? Are you making sure you have proper form to hit the muscles youre trying to focus? Are you not getting any size but getting stronger by being able to get more reps in or lift heavier weights? Do you have any deficiencies or health issues(Hormonal or dietary deficiencies and imbalances)? Many many many questions that will influence your muscle growth. One of the symptoms that arise from some of these issues would be being skinny fat, it wouldnt be the cause but rather a correlation.
@@adolpholiverbush5867 you're probably not putting in as much effort as you think you are in the gym. Then again there could be other outliers, but like I said once you get through th first initial year or 2 of lifting, then you can make adjustments tailored to your needs. The problem is with beginners is staying in the habit of working out. Everyone trys to go 100 percent at the beginning but that is too much for one person to keep track of especially if they don't have the will power.
This is facts. Take 1-2 months of just consistently going, learning new excersises, improving your form, learning gym etiquette, etc. When you get more comfortable, you can start doing actual programs and messing with your diet.
A lot of people want to start fast and see fast results, but if you take your time and ignore the noise, you'll make actual lifestyle changes, and that's what gets you results in the long run.
Correct answer is “Just lift bro”
Nah, The correct answer is, Eat right and work out 3 times a week at the least. Telling people to cut or to bulk at the start of anything like this isnt going to get them motivated to do it. Even if they ate right and just got a little more active. That skinny fat would just turn into skinny. You dont have to be a GYM rat to feel good. I personally do it every day once I got sober off some real heavy shi. Its my meditation for the day and without it I'm depressed and feel like using again. So I kinda switched habits, Health and fittness instead of Fetty and street stims.
@@Mikesusendsadasdc blah blah, just lift bro
@rolandomota7771 you can lift as much as you want but you'll still be skinny fat without a high protein diet and a calorie deficit.
@@Ambo1216 most people eat enough protein, protein deficiency is a very rare occurrence especially in places with access to internet.
@@Marta1Buck that's not true at all. Highly processed snacks and fast food have people eating an outrageous amount of fat and unhealthy carbohydrates.
I did this and I’m finally seeing result, getting skinny first gives you confidence to go after your gains🔥
Honestly, whether it's cutting or bulking, as long as you're doing something you're on a good path.
Sean agreeing just jumpscared me, goes I have to cut now
Yea bc TNF and Sean are the goats of fitness
Look
Train normally 💀
Don't eat much, don't eat less, until you build some gains in your body here you might take the "cut or bulk" approch
Do not take Sean’s advice here.
@@MM33003 Okay then. Go from Skinny Fat to Fat then lol
lol
Both most down to Earth fitness influencers 🙌
no......
@@मृदुलशर्माkeep yapping currycel
@@Kaledrone well their solution is not good. If you are skinny fat, that doesn't mean you have a lot of fat, but this has a lack of muscle, build muscles first, that will increase your maintenance, and losing fat will become easy.
Skinny fat essentially means your fat is accentuated by the lack of muscle. A Lean bulk will get you out of that stage in 6 months
It doesnt, nota that soon. I tried to bulk being skinny fat. I gained weight and still just look very soft in one year. Only after a mini cut I looked more average body fat wise.
Bigger is always better, fill in bro! Bulk
Its refreshing to have agree with someone
As someone who was skinny fat for most of my 20s, I disagree strongly. The problem with most people (myself included) was inconsistent strength training, and poor diet. I’ve gained 20 lbs this past year yet most people think I’ve actually lost weight. Still bulking but following my macros better, and working on compound movements and progressive overload.
Are you saying you built 20 lbs of muscle?
Fuck you! This dude is absolutely right. You will lose fat as you EMEM (Eat more exercise more). Go fuck yourself!
Idk I was in the same boat as you. I was skinny fat and bulked and with clothes on you will end up looking pretty jacked in the end, but shirt off… I just looked fat. And then the road to a 15% bf cut was wayyy longer and tiring then it would’ve been if I started on a cut. Once I got down to that the bulk/cut cycle are much more maintainable and the training is more enjoyable
@@kavan1773I was a lot more insecure about my body on a cut then I was on a bulk no matter how “pudgy” in the stomach I got but that’s just me personally. I also like being able to lift heavier and be stronger overall.
Completely agree. I remember watching a “coach” Greg video that said “if you don’t see your abs you’re fat”. I took that to heart and ended up about 140lbs at 6’1 (still no abs even though I was basically a twig + still thought I was fat). The only serious change I’ve made is trying to eat 3 meals a day (instead of 1 with obscene amounts of caffeine + water to keep the appetite under control) I’m now near 180lbs. Of course that isn’t 40lbs of muscle but I’m a lot healthier now. Body dysmorphia is definitely real lmao. Looking back I don’t really know if I was skinny fat or just skinny, but it’s easy to convince yourself you’re “fat” when all you see are shredded dudes that have washboard abs year round.
Body recomposition is a viable option for new lifters. Taking advantage of those newbie gains while losing fat is a win win.
Did people like Sean just forget that the people who are skinny fat most likely have a very low bodyfat percentage with pretty much no muscle (hence the fat shows). Saying that cutting is the best solution for fixing skinny fat is very flawed advice because cutting while being that low will probably cause more health issues rather than the opposite.
As for someone who was skinny fat for a time a lean bulk is the best solution as I've gained muscle and looked more leaner despite me not cutting at all during this period.
The fact that so many people are blindly agreeing to these takes feels so strange to me.
Agreed
Yes if your weight is on the lower end then bulk, but if it’s the other way round and you’re more overweight then you should cur
I think it heavily depends on the person for me bulking was needing as I was undereating but some people are naturally skinny fat and might be better off cutting I personally lost a lot of weight and under ate for years which caused me to be skinny fat and it changed once i started to bulk
Yeah I agree.
My test was always super low and I was skinny fat as a result. I’m 6’1 and at one point cut down to 158lbs (which is borderline anorexic for my height/body type) and I still had love handles, belly fat, and essentially ZERO muscle. I looked horrible and disgusting.
Was always going back and forth not knowing what to do until I decided to do a slow, long-term “mini bulk” at about 200-300 caloric surplus. Gained a tiny bit of fat but a good amount of muscle. That extra muscle stretched out the existing fat so I actually looked _more_ lean despite gaining both muscle and fat.
No, they do not most likely have a very low body fat percentage. No one is going to look “skinny fat” with sub 10% body fat.
I absolutely disagree skinny fat it means lack of muscle not obese they're not the same skinny fat is the lack of muscle with general y in that abdomen,so skinny fat always bulk first
Yeap 💯
Absolutely, if ur skinny fat u dont have a lot of muscle to begin with so u have to bulk and workout at the same time so that u can gain muscle, cutting just gonna make u feel more exhausted and weaker
but what if you definitely have way more fat than muscles? wouldn’t it be better to cut first? especially as a beginner? (genuine question btw, im a noob)
Look up Dr. Sean O’Mara and his research. Skinny fat or TOFIs (thin outside, fat inside- people with visceral fat) actually WILL NOT see gains until they get rid of their visceral fat. Once they do that, with a clean low carb, meat and fat heavy diet, he says that his clients see amazing gains. He shows this through MRIs of the body where you can literally see a person’s fat and muscle in their body.
@@alijocI’d say to cut first and then do bulking cutting phases from there
Can’t lie - can’t hate - Sean your videos are so good - quick - informative - and funny - this guy has the data AND RESULTS!
I was skinny fat like 2 years ago. I was on a light calorie deficit and lost 20 pounds in a year. Some people said i looked too skinny and I need to gain weight. Now im lean bulking and have gained 10 pounds so far (hopefully all muscle cuz i think i lost some fat too)
And u probably look bigger too
Realistically mostly fat, it's much easier to gain fat than muscle. Unless of course you have pharma on your side.
@joynelbonetdelgado4952 The thing is I feel leaner than I was before (much more visible abs and more muscle defenition overall). I do not think i gained much (if any) fat, but maybe i didnt lose any either. I should also mention that I'm doing a mix of calisthenics and weightlifting. Maybe that has some effect but idk.
@@blablablabla4418 If your clothes are fitting more loosely, and you feel a sense of spring and vitality, I would bet you have put on fair amount of muscle.
If your skinny fat you should have no issue gaining some muscle and losing your fat at the same time
I would think age has something to do with that.
Sure, if you’re at age with a barely functional hormonal profile and ruined metabolism
doesn't work
I used to think skinny fat meant you were once fat and got skinny but now have a lot of lose skin.
THAT happens only if you lose your fat too fast
@@gioric0458those visceral fats need to be cut off not actually the healthy fat you gain from whole foods
I agree 100%. Take it from me. I was over 213lbs in May and I had no idea if I should eat in a surplus or go on a calorie deficit. I'm so glad I decided to go with the latter. In just 6 months I was able to drop to 179lbs and are now in a much better position to start a proper gaining phase.
i disagree. the first step should be to actually commit to the training and after 6-12 month you can look to go from there
If you train when you're not eating properly, you're not gonna gain any muscle, you're just gonna get skinnier, if you're not eating enough so if you're skinny fat, you could just be wasting your time, your diet is very important in how you look, especially if you're trying to get healthy or get in shape, no matter what your goal is. Your diet is eighty percent of how you look working out is only toning up your body
Why even disagree when they are both almost equally as important. But to be honest Your diet is most important. commit to consistently eating the right food and getting the right amount of calories before anything .
99% of people who are "skinny fat" are just people who are skinny and want abs ASAP.
Unless you're overweight, you have no business cutting if you haven't been lifting for at least a year. You NEED to build a strength base before it makes sense to do it.
In fact, if you're even describing yourself as skinny fat, it usually means you're super new to the gym, which means you need to eat some food and get bigger.
If you cut you're gonna spend 4 months spinning your wheels to look like a skeleton, give yourself an eating disorder, and make no progress.
I'm not even big-- I'm 5'8" and 155 lbs lean. I started at 130. This took me TWO YEARS of bulking with a 6 month cut to get to 155. Building muscle takes FOREVER, and you're just shooting yourself in the foot if you calorie restrict when you can barely bench a plate.
Current my SBD 1RMs are 345/270/385, which I am VERY happy with at my weight. I don't really see myself getting much bigger than this.
My first cut I did I expected to have well defined abs and serratus at the end. Turns out that if you don't have muscle, your abs don't look good and you need to cut to deathly low body fat percents to look "defined."
I'm way heavier now than I was after my first "cut," but I look way, way, way more muscular and lean since I actually have some mass to show
Completely agree, definitely don't think you should be in a deficit first but rather slight surplus and gain some muscle / strength first
what if you are 84 kg but have very little muscle? like the muscle of a 67 kg person and the arm size the of it. should I bulk then too?
@@jksdo88
If you're not medically overweight you should just go to the gym and lift. Don't worry about bulking or cutting the first year. Focus on consistency, effort, and form, and figure out what kind of movements you like.
@@shengshaoyi 100%
I'd say you better try to keep the same weight and the same caloric intake while upgrading your protein intake. Your body will adapt to the caloric deficit the growth of muscle mass will provoke and draw on stocked fat, making you bigger and leaner at the same time.
Sorry for any potential english error
I agree for a few reasons.
1: skinny fat means that you have some fat but no muscle. Bulking won't help as you already have the fat and the muscle will come from training.
2: I think it's a bad idea to even introduce the idea of bulking to completely new people because they should just at least have like a month or 2 minimum of just training normally before trying to get too fancy and optimized with it.
Just my opinion though.
Agree 100%. Cutting down from skinny fat will NOT make you look skinny. You're losing the fat, yes, but it will show muscle.
I'm 6'0" (182 cm) and I've never had an aesthetic physique. I was really chubby growing up and messed up my body with a crash diet and no gym. For the rest of my life, I’ve been pretty active, but I never escaped the cycle of looking either too fat or too skinny. Last year, I started lifting and reached 198 lbs (90 kg), but I still looked awful because my body fat percentage was so high.
Four months ago, I decided to see a nutritionist. I went from 198 lbs (30% body fat and 139 lbs of lean mass) to 171 lbs (21% body fat and 134 lbs of lean mass). The next goal is to get down to 163 lbs and hopefully around 18% body fat. We'll see if I can reach 15%, though I’ll probably still look terrible for a long time.
I have been skinny fat, but honestly I cut down the fat and put on muscle, and then bulked up.
One of the best choices ngl.
I don't think you know this but if your skinny fat you probably have no muscle on you in the first place, cutting would only make you look and feel worse, doing a lean bulk first will always be a better option
@@deaglehawkings2543I was skinny fat and I did a cut, whilst also lifting. Ended up gaining muscle and also losing fat and in the end I looked pretty good. If you’re skinny fat but underweight then you should bulk, but if you’re skinny fat and overweight then you should cut. So many people over complicate it for no reason
@@pavannair6469you can’t be skinny fat and overweight the whole point of skinny fat is having a high bf and no muscle mass but with a normal BMI, that would just make you fat with no muscle
@@pavannair6469You were probably just fat, not skinny fat. If you were truly skinny fat, you would’ve hardly gained any muscle on a recomp.
@@BlueZombie7 I was slightly overweight. BMI just being a little over my natural weight for my height and body fat percentage was about 20% and I had very little muscle
Being skinny fat indicates you have insulin resistance. This means you’re rapidly approaching chronic disease and need to not only put on lean muscle mass but also correct your metabolic disfunction.
Closely monitor your fasting insulin and HbA1c, being resistance training to put on lean mass, and prioritize protein and healthy fat - minimizing processed food as much as humanly possible.
You can’t think of everything in life within a bodybuilding, cut vs bulk paradigm.
Do you have a medical degree?
Actually insulin resistance is just one of the reasons, not the only cause of it. I was skinny fat because I never exercised and I drank way too much, even though I ate relatively healthy
@@nouse4oraname Incorrect. In every society absent of man-made, industrial foods, their men are lean and have lean mass. This was also true of 90% of western men prior to very recently.
Just because you think you ate “healthy” food doesn’t mean you actually did. This skinny fat phenomenon is recent in our species’ history and doesn’t come about without some level of metabolic derangement.
@@nouse4oraname By the way, metabolic derangement causes alcoholics to become skinny fat AND acquire fatty liver diseases. Non fatty liver disease is also caused by… insulin resistance, specifically from fructose.
@@blahizake the Australian aborigines living in the outback would like to have a word with you 😆 As would the Japanese 🤣
FYI I’m not from the west, and I’m pretty sure if you were royalty and consumed too much calories, partied every night and hardly ever had to do physical work, you’d be skinny fat too.
Not saying insulin resistance isn’t an issue. I don’t eat processed foods and mostly cook my own food. I’m just saying it’s not the only reason.
skinny fat is really just a lake of muscle so why cut?
you should bulk then cut just like anyone
I lifted, did calisthentics, yoga, ran marathons, ran 50 miles a week for years, ran barefoot tens of thousands of miles, got heavier and lifted heavy after, did lots of mobility and balance, just years and years of full time job amounts of time every day. I have pseudo gynecomastia on my chest and stomach that reduced and most people think I look nice but if someone else did the amount of work I did they'd be absolutely shredded. It took me 10 years to do a muscle up even when I could do ten 45lb weighted good full extension chest to bar pullups, because some of my muscles didn't develop in the shoulder girdle. I'm autistic and hyoermobility spectrum disorder I get nerve problems my whole family does, and that holds me back too. I'm still strong and able to do lots of above average stuff but I put in elite level efforts to get above average results only. I want to get lipo+BodyTite some day but I'm 40. It causes me literal gender dysphoria but I can kinda live with it.
I wish I had just gotten that done as a teenager my parents would've saved me years of distress.
Agree, I m 34 and was skinny fat last 6 years of my life basically, I ve been doing only some little home training like pushupts etc and hiking/running every now and then...but at the same time I ate like a garbage truck (alot of beer alot of unhealthy stuff and only like 2 big meals a day)
3 month ago I got my apendix removed, was in hospital for 5 days basically eating nothing, diet for next month, my fat was gone, started going to gym 2-3 times a week and I can see a difference already. I can run 10-12 km constantly and for past 4 weeks I m running this lenght once a week - seeing this, alongside with more healthy food and cutting alcohol by 70% ( cannot stop completely, I m a slav afterall) had impact on size of my gut..in a goodway ofc.
So yeah, loose the fat first, then start eating like a real human and run and lift.
ez
Being lean also increases testosterone production, which will help with building muscle.
Being too lean decreases your test though, so you definitely don’t want to take the cut too far
Just don't go below 10% body fat. You don't need to have visible abs to be healthy. Anyone staying between 10-20% body fat is healthy
It doesnt make sense to cut then bulk then cut again if you are skinny fat always bulk first
@@comrade_marshalbut skinny fat is between 15-20 % right? I’m 16% and skinny fat
@@pesvids6673 if your BMI is in normal range and yet you have lots of fat, it means you are skinny fat. Things would have been different of you were muscular as well
Just eat in maintainance and build muscle
Then cut
Hey like coach Greg says main gain or a very slight surplus cut the fat later in year 2/3
@@reiudfgq3vrh34urthat’s not gonna do nothing
Former skinny fat and sorry to say that this is just dumb I lean bulked and went from 62 KG to 76 KG (aiming for 80 KG) and while I have increased my body fat the muscle I’ve put on has made me far healthier and made me look far better doesn’t help that many other respected fitness content creators have also shared their take on this being to either recomp or bulk not to mention the far majority of the people that actually are skinny fat are teens which is not healthy for them to cut whatsoever with the exception being they actually reach a certain bf and even then they would have to go into a low caloric deficit
i agree, there is no reason to go on a deficit except if u are really fat, in my case i have some fat but zero muscle.
Exactly. Cutting with. No muscle is the worst idea ever. Asking for injury imo, too
So fcking rude for what?
hey man, can i ask do you go for a cut now, i was skinny fat 5’6, lean bulked from 68kg to 76kg now. I have more mass, and people noticed, however, my gut is getting to big
@@HanAn-kd9vy depends on ur age
I'm female, I was skinny fat a the other year. I'm making sure I lift 4x a week, cardio 1-2 times a week, getting 100+g protein in every day, and I recently started eating in a deficit of like 500 cals. I still eat a shit load, but I also go for the low fat options. I'm eaitng the same shit every day that I meal prep but I love it - low fat Greek yoghurt with protein powder, berries and granola, low fat cottage cheese, apple with peanut butter, chicken stir fry and a low fat beef and cheese burrito. The switch to low fat had helped a lot with weightloss. I was 13 stone 13 at the beginning of June, I'm now down to 12 stone 13. I still have fat on me but my muscles have grown a lot and filled me out so even though i'm still skinny fat in some areas like my waist and stomach, my upper and lower body have got enough muscle on them now that it is less noticeable. In a few months i'll probably do a mroe substantial cut to get rid of extra fat, because my stomach is kind of getting in the way of my lifts lol. But I've had great success so far and I feel so confident.
It really is quite simple when you filter out all the unnessesary influence and fads, learn the science and stick to the basics!
Started developing skinny fat after taking a 6 month hiatus from the gym and eating out way too frequently. That's a good way to guarantee that problem. Back in the gym 5x a week for 3 weeks in a row now. Feeling great. Just need to clean up the diet
I was skinny fat. Bulking is much better than cutting to start IF you do like 100-300 calorie surplus, you will be losing almost as much fat (wich in the long run it doesnt matter) while building somewhat more muscle. Also you dont need to diet. Thats 100% a pro
ong bro people who weren't skinny fat shouldn't talk about how to get jacked from skinny fat
IF YOU ARE SKINNY FAT YOU DO RECOMP UNTIL YOU ARE SKINNY!!!
You don't start from no exercise to cutting while exercising! You are setting people up for failure that way.
No. Bulk.
@@MM33003 If you have bulked your whole life, you do not need to bulk either.
@@LetsPlayCrazy If you’re “skinny fat” you’re not overweight. You are skinny with no muscle so the fat shows. If you cut while skinny, you’ll just become a twig.
Recomps aren't really that great just bulk at that point and eat relatively healthy doesn't need to be more complicated than that recomping is always presented as this magic system that will fix your physique but it often it's and you are better just bulking putting on the size and slowly cutting later to reveal muscle and repeat the cycle till desired results
@@MyNamesHunter75 Even a bulk can be really hard for beginners... what is it with you 'experts' and letting people ease into the sport?
I have recomp'ed my first 2 months now and I saw awesome results. Not only was it easy, it also motivated me because I saw noticable improvements in weight and musclegain.
Its not like doing recomping the first few months is going to give dramaticially different results anyways.
Body has enough fat to burn and little musclemass. So these extra bodybuilding techniques won't do more than like 5-10%... which at low musclemass is barely even visible.
REMEMBER THAT NOT EVERYONE IS A 100% SURE THEY WANT TO CONTINUE. Getting them thrown off with bulking or cutting is just hurting their chances of success.
I used to be skinny fat, tried cutting a year ago and it was a complete waste of time, lost a tiny bit of fat and too much muscle, bare in mind I was getting an adequate amount of protein and carbs and I maintained a good calorie deficit. Switched to bulking a few months ago and I look and feel so much better already
Agree. I'm skinny fat but have noticed that the fat in my belly is reducing dramatically while muscles are growing slowly (but surely) and getting more and more defined. I'm at a slight caloric deficit.
That's it, you convinced me. After 3 months of bulking, I'm going to switch to cutting. Sadly though It's much harder to cut, but I hope I will manage it.😢
I mean at this point I’d wait until early spring 🤷♂️
@@trevor_4 how does the season matter??
@@WalterWhite-go2lh I mean most people bulk in winter when your wearing warm clothes and inside and then cut for summer for the beach and stuff
@@trevor_4 yeah you're right I read some other comments and it changed my mind, I will go on with the bulk
@@WalterWhite-go2lhif you’re already bulking just stick to it until you’re happy with your size or unhappy with the amount of body fat you’ve put on, you have to decide when the time is right for you, not when other people tell you. Good luck
You should bulk first for health reasons if you're skinny-fat. There will be nothing left on your body if you cut. You'll have zero energy and ability bulk if you have no mass of any kind left. You'll look and feel way better with both more muscle and fat if you bulk first before cutting. A person's lack of muscle is a much worse problem health than a bit too much fat in comparison to muscle. this is a rare massive and dangerous L for Sean.
Even people who don't lift weights can get lean without losing all muscle mass. Yeah you won't have the muscle mass of someone who has been lifting a while but even if you're just staying active by playing sports or whatever then you'll maintain most of your muscle mass when you cut. If you lift weights you'll definitely retain almost all of it. Also having muscle mass on the low end is not that dangerous unless you're older, a 20 year old going from skinny fat to skinny is not going to have health problems unless they're trying to get shredded level lean which is not something most people are doing anyway
You aren't going to die if you're skinny 🤦♂️
You’re not going to signaler didn’t fat like ifbb pro bodybuilders. I’m 135 at 5ft 7, I’m fine
As long as you stay above 10% body fat you'll have more than enough "energy" to bulk up again.
I don't think you understand how deceiving skinny fat can be. I was like 50 lbs overweight and getting told I looked "too skinny" because my shirt was hiding all of it. I went on a 700 cal/day deficit and started running 6x week, lifting 2x week. Months later I'm down 25 lbs (still barely below a BMI of 25). I've not felt low energy once, and have visibly added muscle. Skinny fat is fat, it just all sits around your core. Makes no sense telling a fat person to bulk.
Edit: also, look and feel better packing an extra 10-20 lbs of fat around my core and thighs? Making it more uncomfortable to bend, sit, lay down, EXERCISE? Make me look better? Please lol
I’m lifting and eating regardless. Trying to lose weight first is a waste of time.
This is something I needed to know when I started going to the gym. I'm 15, I practice swimming 5 times a week, I was indeed skinny fat and I started to watch youtubers that loved going to the gym. So, last year I asked my dad if I could go also to the gym. I started practicing there only by doing supersets with machines. I was thinking that I was doing correct, watching also some youtubers that encouraged bulking. Then, after 6 months, I started to realize that, in fact, some muscle grow, but I was still fat. Finally I started to think that maybe I needed a cut. And there I am, losing much more body fat and going faster at swimming; thanks for this video!
100 percent reality check this👍💪
This might be right way but as someone that used to be skinny fat my confidence increased immensely when I started my journey with the intention to put on muscle. You look so much better in clothes when you have muscles and a little fat anyway. And it’s very motivating to feel yourself get stronger and stronger. So for someone with low self esteem I would suggest “bulking” first
What do you mean: "Get healthy first?" Most skinny fat people are not even overweight.
Bodyfat percentage is more important than weight. You could be 5’10 155 lbs but 25% bodyfat, which is still unhealthy despite the skinny BMI. On the other hand you could be 5’10 190 lbs with 12% bodyfat and you’d be healthy despite the overweight BMI.
I am 57. I have lost 50 lbs since October 23. I am 5'9", 130lbs with runner build. I have been lifting for about 4 months. I can see results. That was my main reason for dropping the weight before first. Actually lifting wasn't the plan but once I lost the meno weight i was able to see potential. Also saw lots of YT videos of women in their 50. 60, 70s that have slowed aging. Feel better now than i have since mid 30s.
I was skinny fat most of my life. 5'11 and hovered around 195lbs. Always ate whatever because I wasn't obviously fat. I exercised so I could eat whatever I wanted. At age 50 I had a heart attack and a double bypass operation. Genetics were also a factor but the main reason was my diet.
My advice based on my experience is lose the fat first with a cleaned up diet and exercise regimen. Focusing only on bulking won't necessarily clean up the diet and add excessive calories.
Currently 54 and down to 170lbs...but looking much more muscular than I have in my whole life because my body fat % now ( around 12%) is much lower than 4 yrs ago ( around 20%). Consider that!
I did a 5 month cut as a skinny fat before starting to bulk and it was not a good time. It was very demoralizing seeing the people that started the gym at the same time as me getting stronger every week meanwhile I was more tired every day. And by the time the cut ended I was just as weak as I started and just looked skinny.
I was this close of quitting the gym because I wasn't getting stronger.
The psychological aspect is something that all these people that recommend skinny fats to cut never take into account
If I could go back I would have bulked, you are not unhealthy just because you are skinny fat, a couple pounds more will not look bad on you, Your body will even out, you are not gonna get a bigger gut.
My advice for you, the skinny fat reading this is to listen advice from others that were skinny fat.
Cutting for skinny fat give you positive emotion boost and makes you love gym more
I have had to work through skinny fat. This is how I have been working through it with pretty solid results. For strength training do a little lower weight but higher reps. Do quite a bit of cardio. Run at LEAST a half mile every time you go to the gym. Try to get in some supersets to keep the heart pumping. Do NOT eat anything with soy, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, artificial sweeteners and corn. Try to get most of your protein from beef and chicken. For carbs, try to make them complex carbs. But that cardio is a must.
Patience is a virtue
Completely agree. As someone who was skinny fat my whole life and tried to hit the gym and bulk. I lost confidence bulking because i just looked more fat. I cut weight instead, gained my confidence, and now will start introducing more calories to gain weight. Everyones approach is different, do what works for you. Its easier for me to go to the gym and be confident as a skinny guy, then it is for me to be fat. Its a mental thing. But goodluck to whoever is on their journey
Speaking from experience this is absolutely true. I started going to the gym and didn't know anything. I was by definition "skinny fat" and after a while I decided I was in a position to bulk up. But I still had a lot of fat around my stomach and chest. I got a lot bigger and stronger, but realised all I'd done is put on size and still looked overweight. Cut as much fat as possible first. Then do a controlled bulk.
Sean is what the industry needs but does not deserve
Strength gains are addictive. Do a NLP, and eat enough to keep it going to 1/2/3/4 plates on the big four lifts. Take advantage of the noob gains and maingain while you still can. Break the cycle of hitting the gym hard, dieting hard, and burning out a month or two later. It’s psychological. It’s irrelevant whether cutting first is more efficient or not. Consistency is the most important aspect, by far. Build the habit with the dopamine boost of hitting PRs twice a week. Then cut after you hit 1/2/3/4 plates. You’ll also probably be a bit sick of eating 3000+ calories a day, in order to hit that goal and stay at about the same weight. Heavy squats and deadlifts burn way more calories than people think. When it’s cutting time, it’s just a matter of doing more cardio and cleaning up the diet a bit.
Everyone wants what they can’t have. The grass is always greener. Objectively speaking though, it seems people who are a bit fat have a much easier time progressing than the skinny dudes.
Unless they’re medically obese or underweight, the untrained male has no need to think about bulk/cut cycles for at least six months.
Maintenance is also viable, but really getting the habit to going to the gym first should be your priority before thinking about bulks or cuts
The recomp never gets enough love
I was skinny fat about 7 months ago and what worked for me to look fit and lean was none of that bs… just goto the gym, lift heavy, and fix your diet. (Throw in some cardio at the end of your workout).
That’s what worked for me.
I was skinny fat with mainly fat. Heres what I did to fix it:
1. Researched simple calisthenics plans and picked one out
2. Started counting calories
3. Increased my daily steps and ate at around a 500-750 cal deficit
4. Started tweaking workout schedule, slowly incorporating strength training
5. Lost the fat but am underweight, currently starting clean bulk (eating only a little under maintenance calories while eating the rest back in just protein) to gain back purely muscle mass and avoid fat gain while getting leaner
I generally agree with this..
I’m a skinny fat guy but putting muscle in and getting physique right away mitigated it a bit
I’m older so having a gut kind of comes with the territory unless you’re either stupid disciplined or have the the ability to manage the diet and nutrition and it’s much easier when you’re a working stiff to go to the gym than it is to try to count calories
I did wind up having some gut issues that destroyed my appetite and I’m now in a caloric deficit for the most part so I’m rolling with that and taking advantage of it
i’m skinny fat and started going to the gym 3 weeks ago…im 191 lbs and want to get down to 185…once i get there, i just plan on maintaining and building muscle over time then i’ll figure out where to go from there
I became a skinny fat at 40, I'm 47 now and still can't cope with it.
Have been cycling and doing Roman bench for the past 8 months and haven't lost a pound. Never home before 6 or 7 pm, care about kids during weekend, pretty hard but I hope I'll find a solution
I’m skinny fat. I’m 5’10” and I weighed 120lbs at one point. That’s super skinny arms. Then I started working Graveyards and now I bulked up to 165lbs. Arms are definitely bigger. I need to trim some fat off and gain muscle on my back, chest, and core to look bigger. But gaining almost 50lbs really did help start my building process. I feel so much better with this weight. Definitely feel stronger and more confident.
I’m 17 and I walk 4 hours on treadmill 30-40k steps everyday 6 days ppl and eat a lot I gain muscle and lose fat. Trust me this works. Don’t just lift weight and sit down the whole day. Stimulate ur body and it’ll retain muscle and lose fat trust the process.
Just start lifting and things will change. People who are skinny fat will gain muscle and loose fat easily with consistent workouts. The overthinking will push people to avoid it by making them think they're doing the wrong thing.
Agree. I was skinny fat and was told to bulk, which was a terrible mistake. Cutting teaches you to eat correctly much better than bulking.
This makes so much sense. I wish someone had told me this before i went into bulking phase a couple of years ago. It took me so long to figure out.
As someone who started skinny fat and bulked first, I didnt see any muscle for over a year, but as soon as I cut I saw much more. Simple, cut or lean bulk. Dont gain more fat youll just make it more difficult
Another thing you can do is straighten your posture and tighten your core muscles, you can do that by doing cardio or squats or situps
I’m fat and muscular 😂 - so I’m cutting while doing a mild body building routine - I primarily powerlift but I have wanted to get my body weight down for a long time just for generally better functionality and health.
My plan is to get down to a weight low enough that when I increase the workload aka focus more on muscle building, I can comfortably gain back up to 20-30 lbs & then hopefully maintain from there.
Reducing size does kinda mess with my head a little but seeing the muscle peaking out from the fat finally is also rewarding ❤
As a skinny fat boi, the first main problem is that I am not strong at all!!
I was really struggling with the 10s and 15s.
Benching ONLY the bar was enough and super tiring.
So for a skinny-fat, not strong enough, and then you send it in a caloric deficit? That boi isn't gonna be able to pick up a damn apple, let alone the 10s
When you are a pro you have very clear bulk and cut phases, but at the beginning of your process, when you still have some fat and few muscles, the best is not to have neither a big caloric deficit nor a surplus. Keep eating as much as you eat usually, add proteins and reduce carbs, and lift. Once the fat is converted into muscles, you start thinking in terms of bulking and cuts.
If some people say that it is better to bulk and some people say that it is better to cut, a very reasonable choice is to do neither.
I recommend watching Greg Doucettes video on main gaining. Basically eating maintenance and lifting having best of both worlds. But it keeps motivation the highest.
The point about noobie gains is real. If you're skinny fat, you can get away with cutting or recomping for close to a year before you start to miss out on any real gains.
Id think the right step would be a slow cut, so muscle can be built at the same time. So I agree with you on that point.
Facts, exactly what I did. People neglect the fact that going down 4/5 times a week relies on a lot of motivation, and when you can see results in fat loss, that’s usually enough to keep you motivated toward to long term goal
I disagree those who are skinny fat will loose even more muscle when cutting and then get even more fat when bulking. Bulk in moderate profictit lift heavy for 1 year at least then cut if you want
How about neither? Start lifting with a very slight caloric deficit and get the newbie gains -> body recomp
Also if you start out the bulk on a lower body fat percentage, when your bulk is over it won’t have gone up neay as high as if you started with higher body fat percentage, and it will be easier to lose enough fat to get to your ideal body without losing too much muscle (you won’t have to cut as long).
Week 5 of this process!. Ready to grind and make the change🙏💚🙏
Really depends how we're defining skinny fat. I think most people saying that are just referring to people that aren't overweight oe obese, but also clearly dont go to the gym.
starting lean helps with muscle growth, also it helps prolonging the bulking phase rather than getting fat quickly and have to start cutting
Thank you I was skinny fat and bulked first for a year then I got a job that required me to wake up 5AM and come home around 9:30-10PM and lost my progress due to lack of eating and got back to skinny fat in just a few months now I know I need to lose some stuff first
I tried this, but maingaining was the way to go for me cuz cutting when already having bad self control was super hard. Too much of a deficit and I found myself binging. Cutting is no problem now, but if you're anything like me maingain. Healthier food is often more nutrient dense and calorie-poor as well and it's really nice to be able to eat "a lot" and lose fat. Eating little thinking abt food was too hard for me. I couldve obv gone on like a 200 calorie deficit, but full on tracking from not giving a shit is too difficult. Just get 80g of high quality protein daily, eat leafy greens 2-3 times a week and ur fine for now. Even if u need 200-300g protein when cutting I personally found myself eating 200 3 days a week and suddenly literally eating 20-40 the rest. Consistency is king and do what makes you consistent
100 percent agree! I took the opposite approach first and regretted it. Cut first, then bulk.
I really feel like they use "bulk first then cut" or the ridiculous "turn fat into muscle" clichés to avoid doing cardio. I know the vast majority don't like it but it is what it is. I tell people all the time. It's like going to work. Nobody really loves doing it, but guess what?
Agree. This also applies to most people in the beginner stage unless you're just skinny. I wouldn't consider 20% body fat 'fat' but you can still bring body fat percentage down while enjoying your newbie -gains
No one is right. Maintaining is 99% of time what's best (unless you are obese). You don't stress the body with a deficit and keep a more anabolic context for your body, while you lose fat and since you are in a maintenance, all the weight you keep is gonna be muscle that is replacing what was fat.
Once you have built enough muscle, deficit is gonna be easier and then you can develop that into a cut.
i was skinny fat when i started working out, got super lean and packed on muscle because of the noob gains. After that I pretty much was on and off a bulk for 2 years. This past year I dirty bulked from 168 to 198. Now i’m cutting again and am skinny fat again. Working to lose it
Besides training and good nutrition (duhh) Start fasting 16 hours a day and make sure your testostorone stays high. Thats how I transformed from skinny fat into muscle, 6 pack and 14% bodyfat in about 16 months
I aim for 2500 calories max when I go to the gym.
When I don’t, I should limit myself to 1950.
Weight loss + muscle gain is the way to go for me. Not absolutely cutting, nor absolutely bulking. Just eating slightly more than I would need if I didn’t work out at all to maintain bodyweight (somewhere around 2100-2300 calories).
That way I make gains without feeling tired and malnourished, I still lose weight and the extra nourishment helps build more muscle in place of fat.
Is also way more stable than going straight into a massive deficit.
What matters is switching to a high protein diet where I eat less fats and less carbohydrates. Not less than proteins, but less than normally.
This helps maintain muscle growth and reduces fat storing.
If I eat a small (sedentary lifestyle) surplus when breaking myself down in the gym, this should be optimal for growth and energy levels whilst still allowing me to lose weight.
Albeit at a slower pace.. but going too fast on the weight loss has nasty side effects for me anyways. I aim to lose .5kg of adipose tissue per week or two. Not more than that.
Then doing 1 to 1.5 hour gym sessions of moderate to high-intensity weight lifting exercises with good pace and a focus on keeping slowed control in the eccentric phase to boost hypertrophy.
I wonder what kind of beast I’m going to be a year from now.
depends what your goals are. either way getting stronger is at the heart of the plan. in addition to strength numbers, things like 40 yard dash time and mile time keep me honest food wise. High level mobility as a focus keeps any period of heavier eating naturally moderate.
As someone who has been skinny, fat, skinny-fat, and strong-fat (currently on that last one rn) all over the course of about 15 years I'd super recommend losing the weight first. I find it harder to lose weight now as there's a fear of losing strength and mass. I'm about 20lbs off 3 plates on my bench and I'm dreading going back down when I lose weight. It'll be worth it though long term.