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Help for Skinny-Fat

Toocoolforschool

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Hi guys,

I am new on this forum so hello everyone! :) So my problem is that I am a skinny-fat 20 years old man. When I was 17, I lost 80 pounds putting me from 250 lbs to 170 in less than a year. But that big change in my body was not all that great...I lost a lot of muscle. While I was doing weight training and cardio at the beggining and also eating a balanced diet, I stopped weight training after about 3 months after the begining of my transformation. Very bad idea ! The reason I did this is because I thought cardio and eating well were the only things that could help me burn fat...Even my personnal trainer was like : " You have to start building muscle mass to continue your weight loss! " but I did not listen to him, I am very pig-headed. At the same time, I was taking fat burners, ephedra and other stuff on and off for about three years. I stopped all that medication recently since I now know that it makes you burn muscle. So it's been 3 years since I dropped that massive amount of weight and during those three years I was searching for the solution to drop the fat I still have on my body. I did soooo much cardio, bought a 3000$ treadmill, heavily reduced my calories, went on starvation diets, made myself vomit my meals but all this with very little results. The one thing I did not do during those 3 years was weight training. During that time I was really not satisfied with my body and I was wondering what were skinny and lean people doing to have their amazing bodies. I was not able to lose the weight (love handles, belly, thighs) even if ran like a rabbit for hours a week on the treadmill so I got discouraged. A paradoxal thing is that people were all amazed at all the weight I lost, my friends think i am lean and I even got scouted by a model agency. But if they knew... Because in clothes I look like the normal skinny guy but when I take my shirt off ( I never do this in front of other people ; I did not go to the beach/pool for the past 5 years because I was not confortable with the way my body looked), it's a whole other story because I look soft and fat. I even thought about liposuccion but I recently understood that I was skinny-fat and that I could work on it without surgery. I realized that my protein intake was not high enough and that I was not doing the right exercise. So I joined a gym and I've been working out for about 3 weeks (routine included bellow). I also started eating more....more protein ( lean meat, protein shakes ) nuts, greek yogurt, milk, fruits and vegetables but my diet is not the cleanest ( I sometimes eat ice cream, iced cappuccinos and donuts ). I do my workout 3 times a week and stopped the cardio since it eats muscles. I now weight 173 lbs and my height is 6 ft 2. I was wondering if you guys could give me informations to how to lose that skinny fat look. What is my approximate fat percentage? How long will it take to bring it to 12% ? I am a bit confused with the whole bulk and cut thing. I would like to cut right now but I think it is too early since my metabolim is not that high since I did not gain that much muscle mass...When should I see some results? How long until I go on a cut? Any inspiring stories to motivate me from former skinny-fat members? Should I take creatine or any other supplement ? Will I gain a lot of fat with the calorie surplus I am at right now?



My workout x3 times per week (suggested by my personnal trainer)

A)
5 minutes warmup on bike


B)
3 sets of each, 12 reps

*Super set with machine 45lbs
Biceps
Triceps


*Legpress 90lbs

*Benchpress 30 lbs

*Back muscles with machine 75 lbs


C)
Stretching


Thank you for your help
 
You need to fill out.. Up your calories, make sure your getting 1g protein per lb of lbm and research real workout routines. Keep your cardio going but just eat more..
 
Compound lifts, squats, deadlifts.... no machines or isolation exercises. Make sure your diet is 40/30/30, 40% calories from protein etc, 30% from carbs, etc. Get enough vitamins and minerals, check the RDA table and supplement what you're not getting from food (or multivitamin).

Lift at 85-90% of your one-rep-max. You should be able to do 4-6 reps per set. If you can do more, increase the weight. If you can only do one or two, decrease the weight. Proper form is critical! When doing your squats, go all the way down and maintain the slight natural arch to your back. This is extremely difficult for the first time squatter and you may need to stretch out your glutes by going down into the squat without any weight and staying there for 30-60 seconds (while maintaining your arch). Don't feel pressure to up your weight to keep up with youtube videos or the other guys at the gym. Your numbers aren't going to be amazing and that doesn't matter, what matters is proper form and building your glutes by doing the squat the right way (vs building only your quads by doing 1/4 or 1/2 squats like most people do).

Continue cardio 2-3x per week and remember only type 1 muscle fibers burn fat Skeletal striated muscle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia So you need to do both cardio and weight lifting to lose fat and build muscle (one does one, the other does the other). You make type 2 (2a, 2b, 2x) fibers by lifting weights, but they do not burn fat. So lean out you must do cardio and keep your diet calorie-neutral or deficient (which would lead to not building muscle, unless you're on tren or something)

The first few months/years are probably the hardest. You could also try taking low dose of an anti-estrogen if you feel moody (a sign of high estrogen). High estrogen causes increase in fat and stops muscle building. Lowering estrogen will increase testosterone because of internal feedback loops.

Good luck!
 
Compound lifts, squats, deadlifts.... no machines or isolation exercises. Make sure your diet is 40/30/30, 40% calories from protein etc, 30% from carbs, etc. Get enough vitamins and minerals, check the RDA table and supplement what you're not getting from food (or multivitamin).

Lift at 85-90% of your one-rep-max. You should be able to do 4-6 reps per set. If you can do more, increase the weight. If you can only do one or two, decrease the weight. Proper form is critical! When doing your squats, go all the way down and maintain the slight natural arch to your back. This is extremely difficult for the first time squatter and you may need to stretch out your glutes by going down into the squat without any weight and staying there for 30-60 seconds (while maintaining your arch). Don't feel pressure to up your weight to keep up with youtube videos or the other guys at the gym. Your numbers aren't going to be amazing and that doesn't matter, what matters is proper form and building your glutes by doing the squat the right way (vs building only your quads by doing 1/4 or 1/2 squats like most people do).

Continue cardio 2-3x per week and remember only type 1 muscle fibers burn fat Skeletal striated muscle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia So you need to do both cardio and weight lifting to lose fat and build muscle (one does one, the other does the other). You make type 2 (2a, 2b, 2x) fibers by lifting weights, but they do not burn fat. So lean out you must do cardio and keep your diet calorie-neutral or deficient (which would lead to not building muscle, unless you're on tren or something)

The first few months/years are probably the hardest. You could also try taking low dose of an anti-estrogen if you feel moody (a sign of high estrogen). High estrogen causes increase in fat and stops muscle building. Lowering estrogen will increase testosterone because of internal feedback loops.

Good luck!


MONEY^
be sure to give props to whoever wrote it
 
(snip) I am a skinny-fat 20 years old man. When I was 17, I lost 80 pounds putting me from 250 lbs to 170 in less than a year. (snip)

I even thought about liposuccion
(snip)

I do my workout 3 times a week and stopped the cardio since it eats muscles. I now weight 173 lbs and my height is 6 ft 2. I was wondering if you guys could give me informations to how to lose that skinny fat look. What is my approximate fat percentage? How long will it take to bring it to 12% ? I am a bit confused with the whole bulk and cut thing.
(snip)

My workout x3 times per week (suggested by my personnal trainer)

A)
5 minutes warmup on bike


B)
3 sets of each, 12 reps


*Super set with machine 45lbs
Biceps
Triceps


*Legpress 90lbs

*Benchpress 30 lbs

*Back muscles with machine 75 lbs

Congratulations on the weight loss. I'm sure most of that was fat, so well done!

Forget about lipo. Unnecessary for your case, imo. In fact, your "skinny-fat" appearance is less fat than it is a lack of muscle and bone structure. We share the jutting hips and narrow torso, but you seem to have an advantage in the clavicles length.

You're probably around 20% bodyfat. The local gym has one of those handheld devices that measure your bodyfat. Perhaps a gym near you does, too.

The mirror is more important than some arbitrary number, though. So what if a machine, a tape, or hydrostatic whatever says you're 17.125% bf? The mirror tells the real tale and people at the beach won't care about some computer readout or a number your trainer told you.

You might want to switch from 3 sets of each and 12 reps per set to a pyramid set-up. Say, five sets of your compound movements, increasing weight and decreasing reps each set. An example:

  1. leg press 75 lbs. X 20 reps
  2. 85 lbs. X 15 reps
  3. 95 lbs. X 10 reps
  4. 105 lbs. X 8 reps
  5. 115 lbs. X 6 reps
I'd skip the direct biceps and triceps work and focus on dumbbell benching and dumbbell rows instead. The benching will hit your triceps and the rows will work your biceps sufficiently.

What exercise are you doing for your back, a rowing machine or pulldowns? Again, I'd swap it out for dumbbell rows.

You need to build muscle mass and that takes time. You also need to work compound movements and not miss workouts. I'd do a split routine of some kind.

Here's a good resource: Weight Training Workout Templates

You'll get there. Best of luck!
 
^^ reiterating the direct Bi & Tri training - if you're just getting into it, one of the best points of direction you can get is to not fixate on "arm size" -- you don't need to do curls all day long to get your arms to grow - they can grow as a secondary part of your core lifting. (i.e. bis engage when you do back work, tris engage during chest work). At most look at training bis / tris as a second muscle group on those bigger muscle group or core days, but don't make them the focus. Too easy to overtrain - which I guarantee will lead to tendonitis problems. Usually shows up as "tennis elbow" type pain first, and eventually becomes something you have to live with.
 
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Something else to add that I've been thinking of lately. I don't think it matters what kind of split you do, whether it be a full body 2x/3x a week or whether you do 1-2 bodyparts each day. What matters is that you hit the body part during the peak of its supercompensation. Supercompensation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The frequency of your workouts will depend on the time available you have and which body part(s) are needing to be worked to hit the peak. I do a rotating body part schedule where I hit 1-2 muscles each day and try and time it to do the body part again in 5-6 days. I combine muscles like chest and triceps because there doesn't seem to be a good way to fit triceps in if you hit them somewhat on chest day (supposing you split them up). Back goes with biceps, and so forth. I try and do legs and cardio (basketball) as far away as possible (legs on sunday, bball tues/thurs, legs again on sat).

This isn't to say you wouldn't get good results doing it another way. I just have the opinion this way would get (if only slightly) better results
 
Thanks very much for your help guys ! I am definitely a newbie in this whole bodybuilding world but I guess if I take one step at a time, I will be reaching my goals. How long do you guys think it would take me to get to that ultimate 13% and less bodyfat ? I just cant wait to hit the beach ;). Do you guys think regular cardio is good or HIIT better? I dont want the cardio to burn my muscles like it did during the 3 years...And also why are the machines not as good as the normal exercices ?
Here are other pictures of my body
http://profile.imageshack.us/user/toocool4school/
 
Thanks very much for your help guys ! I am definitely a newbie in this whole bodybuilding world but I guess if I take one step at a time, I will be reaching my goals. How long do you guys think it would take me to get to that ultimate 13% and less bodyfat ? I just cant wait to hit the beach ;). Do you guys think regular cardio is good or HIIT better? I dont want the cardio to burn my muscles like it did during the 3 years...And also why are the machines not as good as the normal exercices ?
Here are other pictures of my body
http://profile.imageshack.us/user/toocool4school/

Make lifting your priority - its not that you have a lot of fat, but you don't have a lot of muscle. Dont' get too hung up on cardio - the perpetual argument about whether HIIT is better than steadystate - I'd start w/ which you like more. I think maybe 20 min cardio x 3/week will work well for you - spend the time on lifting. Let the diet & the lifting do the work for you. Lots of cardio will cost you muscle, but you don't need lots of cardio , so don't worry about that part.

Free weights are better than machines because they force you to use your core to balance the weight during the movement, and also force you to perfect your form. Machines are great for some things - but I like to keep the bulk of my work w/ free weights or cables.
 
Sassy,

thank you for your words of wisdom, as I love that outline and will now use it. Color coded fun! Each thing does something, and to me that is better then nothing.

Cardio is this
weights will do that
diet can do this

it is endless the positive means I've secured by you all here. (even you psycho) *don't ask and don't tell
 
Chin ups, bench press, squats, cleans, dips, military press, and deadlifts are about all you need at his point, spend a year bringing those up. Aim for 25 total reps per exercise you could do 5x5, 8x3, 4x6 those are probably ur best choices. Lift 3 days per week you cod do something like monday-squat, bench, dips, military press Wednesday-deadlift, cleans, chin ups then Friday do Monday's workout an the following Monday Wednesday's workout
 
Read the Training 101 stickies at the top of the Training board, and also google Mark Rippetoe, Bill Starr 5x5.
 
Gongrats for losing such a tremendous amount of weight.
Lot of great advice here, so I don't feel the need to add much of anything, but good luck with your progress and I hope you keep us informed on how you are doing over time.
 
Some great advice here, I am having a similar problem.
 
what I find concerning about this thread here is that NO ONE has commented on the statement of throwing up food!!! like it a normal thing to purge after a meal?...... if you need help there is lots of support and when you go to measures that extreme to control you body thats a huge red flag of underlying body and life image issues
 
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I don't think anyone is saying that throwing up after meals is a good idea, but the OP seems to have concluded that on their own. It was a very brief reference in the context of a series of failed weight loss techniques.
 
If you thought about lipo that means you have money. Higher a personal trainer who is jacked and a dietician to create ready to eat meals, and have the jacked personal trainer order you some "supplements" and put you on a training regiment. If you have the resources and motivation ( which it sounds like you have since you came and posted) you can turn it around before you know it. keep up the positive attitude and good luck bro
 
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