Hi, I want to ask that my weight at november 2013 is 58kg. Currently weight at 73kg. Is it normal for my body,or i calories surplus too much? I do weight lifting 5 days and cardio 1 day per week. Thanks for advice

stand in front of a mirror.

do you like what you see?

Thanks for being so specific. I agree with slimey. Go see mirror.

No bro , you're doing good .
If you have already satisfied with your body now get in shape and do cutting . Gain muscle .
If you want to go bigger then eat more and lift heavy

Mirror best judge to decide bulk or cut.

what if skinny like me?

No muscle to cut to, too fat to bulk...

I got it..My mirror tells me to cut..Muscle mass does increase and look more bulk.. What annoys me is the belly getting bigger as well. What I worry bout is gaining weight too fast,probably what I get is fat(dirty bulk). Is it truth?

skinny fat?

belly getting bigger...it is not "probably", it already show that you gain alot of fat.

to decide bulk or cut. it is depend on you. cut only bulk or bulk only cut. see the mirror and decide yourself :-)

i guess you're about the same with me..when i first started i gain 15 kg in the first 3 months..my belly gets really big at first..give it sometimes , then your other part of body will grow as well and your belly will become normal back..and be prepare for some stretch marks all over your body

lift weight bro and eat proper food to gain muscle..muscle doesn't come it self.
I think you have to start lifting get into shape first and then you can do bulking to grow bigger if you want to.

That ain't me brah. Just showing the guy an example of skinny fat. I'm already 3 months in my cut.

I see. Haha my apologize i thought youre giving a picture of your body looks like

Thanks for this totally unnecessary post. Do you actually post things like this for the sake of posting or you're actually serious? What part of my earlier comment was unclear? You're the one who judges yourself. Or if you want people to judge you, then post your pic instead of sounding so vague.

You're welcome. But I'm kinda serious and hoping that you could give more insight to those who have the same dilemma that I had back then. Thought you could give info like slow bulk or recomp. Or to people who have much fat on them and the effect on estrogen or testosterone. In other words, I'm actually hoping that you could provide your point of view at this. Not just to me, just the mass majority of newbie who started with skinnyfat.

My apologies for my vague initial reply. But I'm srs.

don't always be on the edge la .. later no one dare to post anything in this section anymore...

This post has been edited by GameFr3ak: Mar 14 2014, 12:36 PM

Lol you were too vague. A recomp will take quite some time. A slow cut down to 10-12% seems legit then bulk. Cos if your bf% is too high, bulking will just make you gain more fat than muscle.

what's the best diet, anything to avoid in particular for the bulking process to ensure that keep fat low and muscle optimum?

Glad my decision is good. I was at 25% of BF god knows what'll happen if I choose to bulk lel thanks man

Honestly, IIFYM can only go so far. It can be abused easily if one is not careful. Sure I can cut on nasi lemak, burgers and all that and I'm in one of the phases where I'm in the best shape of my life at below 8% bf. But you need to realize there is a difference in hormonal makeup in very lean individuals vs the average person, especially insulin sensitivity.

A person who is leaner will have a greater chance of success at bulking because he will have less predisposition to gain bodyfat and more predisposition to gain muscle compared to a person who is not lean enough to begin a bulking cycle.

thanks for the head up, i dun think the IIFYM suit me, cos to me calories is important but it doesn't represent everything, there's still % of saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and other element that we should be taken care of while choosing food, hope i'm correct abt this
currently my diet is very blant, eggs, sweet potatoes, tofu, salad (no dressing), i'm doing a vegan diet btw

I don't exactly support IIFYM, I more like support IIWFY (if it works for you). There's a line between flexible dieting, IIFYM and eating junk. A lot of beginners and intermediates will not see that line but if you get into the game longer enough, you'll see it.

so am i eating right? any other suggested food?
i eat eggs for the protein (with whey protein supplement too) and sweet potatoes mainly for the collagen and vit-e for my slight loose skin

Oh man.... too long of a post. You need to research buddy. But before you get influenced into IIFYM and pics of noodles, fried rice and stuff, do your research first and foremost. Find out why some of us can do it and get away with it, then strike a balance between the 2. You cannot be too strict and you cannot be too lax either.

noted, actually am planning to read up this sunday and try to work out a plan

What advise would you give for someone who's on a cut for 3 months+ and have hit a stonewall with a deficit of 400/day? And also low TDEE 2000 - 400 = 1600 (very low already, can't go any lower).

refeed? cardio? reverse diet > slow bulk?

NO refeeds for anyone with high bodyfat. Lol. Or, refeed very infrequently like once every 2 weeks. Bigger deficit. Lol, suck it up.

Can go lower than 1600 calories/day ?

why not?

I've did a lot of readings on this and a lot suggested that going any lower would be health affecting already... this is my understanding... but all of those comments are on bb.com all mat salleh .. prolly diff on us asians?

depend. check your progress. if you find out there are no improvement after 2~3weeks. then you might consider reduce it more.
i personally doing maintenance calories on train day and 30~40% deficit on rest day. and it going well. my strength still same.
you just need adjust according to your body. be patience, check on mirror and progress. hit hard, eat smart.

I've hit a cut plateau at 70.8kg ~ 71.3kg for over a month. I went to a vacation, pretty much eat what I wanted (mostly sea food and rice). I came back and weighted myself at 70.3kg

I guess eating near/at maintenance helped normalize things a bit. I'll go back to eating at 1600 calories per day for 2 more weeks to see if I'm gonna progress further.

My strength level didn't drop much throughout my cut as well. I've considered eating slightly more on my training days but the thing is, I train pretty much 6 days/week. Takkan I eat more 6 days/week lol.

I'm now experimenting on eating more only on my worst body part day (push day for me). If I don't progress further after another plateau, I'll try dropping my calories deficit to 1500 calories per day.

Thanks a lot man.

abang, 6x per weeks is too much. you can try gym every alternative day. your body need rest and heal too.
rest day = calories deficit.
more rest day = burn fat more
easy right?

Hey man I'm alternating several body parts and they have enough rest.

Push/Pull/Legs/Off/Push/Pull/Legs/Off - repeat

hmm I've never though about going even lower after 1600 calories. Is it seriously not gonna affect my over health?

as long as you get your nutrition right, and you didn't feel weak. why not? Big calories deficit (600-800 kcal) for long term, continuously, of course will affect the health.

as for 6x gym per week, it is depend on individual.

for my opinion, i will do 3 times per week, which is (Push/Rest/Pull/Rest/Legs/Rest/ = Repeated). Rest day = Calories Deficit 20~40%.
just my 2 cent. it is depend on individual. it work for me might not work for you. Monitor your progress and do adjustment when necessary.

Thanks bro. I'll instead increase my activity (cardio 15 mins?) everyday.

why not? 2 years ago when i started off cutting, i ate 1k calories, top 1.5k. never more than 1.5k for entire 3 months.
coupled up with 5 days a week workout, 3 cardio sessions every week at least.
i was healthier and more energetic, and pooped mroe than i did when i was eating unhealthily before i went for my first ever cut.



top is my bro, 4.5 months progress overall, from june 2013 to november 2013.
bottom is me.
the timeline goes like this, first pic was in April 2012 (still summer in the states), then 2nd pic was in end of August 2012 (end of summer).
3rd pic was october 2013 (after 3 months cut).
now at my bulking phase, all abs gone. eating at around 2.8k to 3k clean calories. BUT STILL troubles gaining weight.. darn..

you do realise when your weight drops so does your TDEE right?

I dont know how people cut with <1700 cals, I'm cutting with 2100+- and still feeling hungry all the time

But would you be losing lotsa muscles? Though I would give going lower a try if I still stalls. Thanks man.

Yeah man but I've been advised against going any lower than 1600 a lot on BB.com. Hence my dilemma.

at first beginner stage u will gain muscle and lose fat.

yes.. at least for my case. i have no abs and stomach is one round belly now.

bro, now that I think back to what you said, is this what people call "metabolism slowdown" ?

Edit: did some reading, I think I get the gist of it.

This post has been edited by GameFr3ak: Apr 3 2014, 05:03 PM