Hi guys,

Am fairly new to strength training (less than 1 year), with my lifestyle, i go to the gym as often as i can 2-3 times a week, and if i cant, i'll just do simple bodyweight workouts at home such as push ups, sit ups, wall handstand pushups. (been away from the gym for 2 months and only started going again 2 weeks ago due to personal matter)

I am 166-168cms tall and weigh 72-74kgs (this depends when i weight myself, after or before lunch etc)

Even with that weight, i am not muscular nor am i big like other people who weigh the same (ppl who train/bodybuilds).
Am not sure where the weight comes from, could be from fats or maybe heavy bones? (i did hear from my auntie who's a doctor who told me that ppl in my family tend to weigh heavier than we look due to our bones...in fact, most of us cant even float)

My situation is when i go to the gym, people who see my body tells me to gain more mass and then cut, while some who look at my weight, tells me to lose weight first, then only should i train.

My question is that, which should i do? I am afraid if i lose weight first, i'd be too skinny.

Will post pics soon when i get back and take some.

thanks

This post has been edited by bakry: Oct 13 2010, 05:56 PM

well, this is not expert advice, but if it were me i would aim for a target weight, bulk up till i reach targeted weight and then only cut. doesnt make sense to cut first and then bulk since you'll lose your cuts?

Just my two cents, in no way it is an expert's advice.

Instead of asking people how you should look (cut then gain, or gain then cut), why not you look in the mirror, and judge for yourself? Ultimately, it is your body man. You should decide how you want to look.

And if you do have heavy bones, why not do a body fat percentage check? Instead of relying on the BMI scale?

thanks for ur advice..

yea, i am thinking of bulking first, but i was wondering if theres such thing as a "certain weight for certain height"?

and i do look at the mirror. and i am the one who judge i look just wondering whats the best way of going round to do it.

Oh, i bmi doesn work for me. U guys know where i can get free body fat % test?

Don't worry about the "certain weight for certain height". I always had the feeling that BMI was for people who don't work out. Before I started working out, I was skinny as hell but my BMI said I was perfect. Now that I have some muscles to back it up, my BMI says I'm overweight. BMI fails for me in this respect.

The mirror doesn't lie.

Certain weight for certain height? It depends man, on how big/lean you wanna be. For me, I'm 175cm, aiming to be around 70kg.

And you can get a free body fat percentage test at any fitness store. Just go and ask. All the best.

Thanks, still at the office but will take some pics when i get home.

Shy but what to do..gotta do what u gotta do right?
The guys at my office gym, they are not pros or trainer. just people who work within the same group. but they are huge. however when i ask them, they dun really explain properly.. more like "makan banyak...angkat berat.." when i ask "makan apa" they will say "makan je roti banyak"

wth..

normal question for a every beginner i guess. cut or gain 1st.
a pic would definitely help us to judge.
dun really on bmi unless u think u r overweight/underweight.
ppl are more interested with body fat% when it comes to bodybuilding.

Do:

Squat
Deadlift
Row
Dip
Pull-up
Press
Run and jump
Pull and push something heavy

Eat:

Meat, eggs, fish, fruits, dark colored veggies and green veggies. Eat seafood, nuts, avoid processed food

Always:

Stretch
Pray
Meditate
Move
Eat
Do the "Do's"

NEVER:

Hoping to be spoon fed
Procrastinate
Give excuses
Say "but"
Say "but if"
Take the easy way out
Change what I tell you to do without first consulting me

That's what I tell my clients all the time. I've never had a single of my clients fail to lose fat or gain muscle. Provided they follow the advice give.

---

Added on October 13, 2010, 8:06 pmDo:

Squat
Deadlift
Row
Dip
Pull-up
Press
Run and jump
Pull and push something heavy

Eat:

Meat, eggs, fish, fruits, dark colored veggies and green veggies. Eat seafood, nuts, avoid processed food

Always:

Stretch
Pray
Meditate
Move
Eat
Do the "Do's"

NEVER:

Hoping to be spoon fed
Procrastinate
Give excuses
Say "but"
Say "but if"
Take the easy way out
Change what I tell you to do without first consulting me

That's what I tell my clients all the time. I've never had a single of my clients fail to lose fat or gain muscle. Provided they follow the advice give.

This post has been edited by pizzaboy: Oct 13 2010, 08:06 PM

Just don't do this at Fitness First on the Tanita scales--they rig them to try and sell PT services to you (the scale at my FF said I was 50% fat, when I'm closer to like, 30% fat).

woah wtf really? damn it! i've been checking once a month on those. basket really thought i was at 27% fat although i felt that was kinda off. Was convinced scales dont lie

What the hell man. I'm pretty sure that's providing misleading information, which is illegal. The things these people do these days, no more ethics man.

50%??? If u were to be 50% then I think I am 80%!

What a wonderful scale they have there

Btw, look it at the brighter side, yea it shows higher reading, give ppl more motivation to cut!

This post has been edited by chicaman: Oct 13 2010, 09:50 PM

*cough* 80% muscle more like *cough*

I mean if angrydog has 50% fats then I have 80% fast! look at his pics and definitely not 50% fats!

I know. If they had mentioned that angrydog is 50% fat I would've laughed in their face.

And you don't look like someone with 50% fats too. Both of you huge yo.

hi guys, back from work..

will take some pics after my shower.

To pizza boy, yes, i definately havent been giving excuses. If i cant go to the gym, i make sure i at least do something at home..enough intensity to make me sweat n ache.

thanks for the tips guys..

edit: here are pics of me. sorry if the pic quality is bad. had to use my phone.

---

Added on October 14, 2010, 5:58 pmHope to hear replies from u guys soon thanks!



This post has been edited by bakry: Oct 14 2010, 07:23 PM

hmm i think u can bulk, but clean bulk
guess u have high bf% also
so cardio + clean bulk

i definately think i have high bf%.. hhahaha..

alright!

Tell me about it, FF Bukit Tinggi gave me a 26% bf when FF Subang Jaya only showed a 22% bf after I stepped on it.

Used calipers on my body, pretty good accuracy shown by the indicator in Subang Jaya

The personal trainer in Klang measured mine and told me craps like your BMI is on the overweight side, started to tell me stories where my bone weighs about 20kgs and to think, this personal trainer has been on some testimonials.

Not trying to condemn anybody but I do know about my body.

This post has been edited by lilredridinghood: Oct 15 2010, 12:56 AM

you can use cheap scale like this to measure bodyfat





Results




Chow

ok. but just wondering, how does a weighing scalde determines ur body fat %? how does it tell the diff between body fat weight and muscle mass or bone mass?

This post has been edited by bakry: Oct 15 2010, 02:18 AM

how much is that bro and how accurate?

low impedance electric. Lol, i dunno, i not scientist

its from Cosway, but must be a member to buy la (im not a member, not selling, lol). only Rm 79.99
Cosway Health Club
i've used calipers, Accumeasure digital calipers, Tanita scale, Navy seals formula and this. all about the same result la. maybe 1-2% diff, doesnt matter much no?


Chow

This post has been edited by bata: Oct 15 2010, 02:42 AM

any cosway member here ? i want to buy that one.. i wonder if there any similar price for that scale outside

bata,
u mean to say normal caliper and that cosway weight scale produce small difference in terms of bf%?

How much does a calipper cost?

yeahh...my results still about the same using any method


Chow

To actually calculate via a scale, is to take your weight, age, height, calculations. Then what happens is they have this electric thing that is sent through your body. Fat, I THINK, slows the transfer of electricity. Through this, they roughly measure your bodyfat. However, it's highly inaccurate, as the time, amount of static your body has collected, food, water can throw off it's calculation.

The most accurate calculation is believed to be via the DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) machine. I think the machine costs a good, 6 figures.

Another method is of course the ever so faithful bodyfat caliper. Now despite not being able to calculate visceral fat, it's still able to calculate your external bodyfat which to the bulk of us, is pretty darned good already. So cheers!

Sorry to dissapoint but my parents have one of these at home. Its BMI accuracy and water level is goddamn awful. Sometimes my BF% would change between 14% to 19% . Apart from that, it's good for measuring our weight but not worth the RM80 tag.

I got simple tool to measure your bodyfat. it's call mirror

Hahahah.. body fat.

IMO, thse BMI and those funny gadgets don't work too well on body fat% it relies on a single equation which it applies to all not considering different bodytypes.

And i think caliper method is far the most accurate of all. but i don't think most have access to a good caliper. and it's pretty tedius having need to pinch urself in different part of ur body.

I've made a posting before In ukmuscle.com on another method to measure BF. it works out pretty close to the caliper method.

Steps:

Measure your height, without shoes.
Measure the circumference around your abdomen, at a horizontal level around the navel for men, and at the level with the least width for women. Don't pull your stomach in.
Measure the circumference of the neck, below the larynx with the tape sloping slightly downward to the front. Avoid flaring your neck out.
For women only: Measure the circumference of the hips, at the largest horizontal measure.
Plug the numbers into one of the formulas below, or use this online calculator.
Round to the nearest full percent.


Formulas

For men, all measurements in inches:
%Fat = 86.010*LOG(abdomen - neck) - 70.041*LOG(height) + 36.76

For men, all measurements in centimeters:
%Fat = 86.010*LOG(abdomen - neck) - 70.041*LOG(height) + 30.30

For women, all measurements in inches:
%Fat = 163.205*LOG(abdomen + hip - neck) - 97.684*LOG(height) - 78.387

For women, all measurements in centimeters:
%Fat = 163.205*LOG(abdomen + hip - neck) - 97.684*LOG(height) - 104.912




to get the LOG value, just type in google search as eg. 'log 3.11'

Good luck.