Thread: Ectomorph with love handles

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this site, so I apologize if this topic has already been discussed. I'm a nearly 40 year old male ectomorph. I'm 6' 0" and about 150 lbs. I've always been thin, but in the past few years I've been getting a little
bit of a love handle thing going. According to my bodyfat scale, I'm at
12%. I've been doing cardio 3x a week for several years and started strength training 6 weeks ago and do that 3 times a week. I've been increasing the amount of protein in my diet. I've also been trying to eat a bit more, eat more frequently, and watch my fat intake and the type of carbs I eat. Since starting this, I've gained 2-3 lbs and my bodyfat has stayed the same. I do cardio twice a week for 45 minutes because I read that too much cardio can make muscle gains more difficult, especially for a hard gainer.

I know that men tend to have a hard time getting rid of fat around their midsections (particularly as we get older) and I know that ectomorphs have a hard time building muscle mass. With all the low-carb stuff, I've been thinking that I need to reduce my carbs in order to lose the fat. But I'm not sure if that would work against the objective of gaining muscle mass. I've heard that carbs are necessary to have energy to workout. So the dilemma is how to burn fat and build muscle. How do I figure out how much protein, fat, carbs, and cardio to do to lose the handles?

Any suggestions?


Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions and for the sympathy from the ecto club! We're not alone. I can't believe we have issues with bodyfat either, but there it is.