100lbs at 16% BF and wanting to build muscle

[nick1990]

Hi, im new here and i was wondering what i should eat to gain some muscle and bring my BF down? I am 5'2 and weigh 100. I am currently eating 1200 calories a day.
if anyone could give me a meal plan that would be awesome! thanks

 

[Matt Taylor]

Hi, im new here and i was wondering what i should eat to gain some muscle and bring my BF down? I am 5'2 and weigh 100. I am currently eating 1200 calories a day.
if anyone could give me a meal plan that would be awesome! thanks

I can tell you right now you can't do everything at once. You need to bulk up first... which means your body fat might not come down right away... and to bulk up... you are going to have to eat 5-6 times a day... a lot of good quality proteins, good carbs and good fats.

Then you hit the gym -- and don't stay there more than 1 hour. Make your workouts intense and don't mess around. Just get in, work hard and get out.

And only work out 3 days a week.

After you bulk up to whatever weight you want to be at... then you can start working on keeping the muscles while decreasing your body fat.

 

[amucci]

You should be eating at least your body weight in GM's of protein, you can go even higher, 1.5x. Like Matt said, you should either be bulking or cutting. One or the other. You want to bulk and then cut. If you eat clean, and workout hard, some fat will come off natually anyhow.

I would eat clean fats like peanut butter, almonds, olive oil etc.

You probably have a very high metabolism, so you can probably be pretty generous on your carbs. If I were you I would do a 40-40-20, Protein, carbs, fat.

It's important that if you are going in increase your calories, that you go hard at lifting weights in the gym. Otherwise, you'll just get fat.

Make sure to drink at least a gallon of water a day. it sounds like alot, but it's basically (8) 16oz bottles of poland spring water. No soda, or anything else to drink.

I would stay away from cardio, or do very light cardio, no more than 20 min.

 

[danzik17]

Well before any of us can give you any reasonably good advice we need some info.

Age, Gender, Current Goal (Bulk or Cut) estimated BF %

Also list how your previous diet went and any training that you have done.

I can tell you straight out that 1200 calories is likely way too low for you. Depending on some of the variables I listed above it could go anywhere from like 1600 calories - 2000 calories for a cut.