Advice ??

[rufflychux]

L
Former fat dude here, been into running to lose most of my weight, went from 270-170 as of this morning, def have a skinny fat frame with a little man boobs and a belly still, been in the gym consistently for the past 3 weeks with a locked in diet, was looking for advice on weather I should be cutting down a bit to get rid of some of this excess fat or be eating at a maintenance to recomp. Currently eating about 1900 calories and hitting my protein goals everyday, 5’9 24 years old

 

[sue21]

@rufflychux No idea how long it took you and wish there were pictures, but first of all a huge CONGRATULATIONS! That is spectacular and life changing. It’s amazing you did that at 24 and you should make that a life goal.

Second, that is a LOT of weight to lose. You are going to have loose skin and that is going to make you appear skinny fat depending on how long that took you. You’re young, so a lot of that will tighten up if you maintain that weight or lower for a year or two. After that you can reassess.

Now, in answer to your question and with zero idea of what you look like, based strictly on your height and current weight I would say… probably keep cutting till you are down around 150 and then “main-gain”. Gaining muscle will help fill out the frame and the skin and go a long way to curing the skinny-fat body. Because you lost so much and you were heavy before it will be very easy for you to gain weight again. Don’t dirty bulk, ever. Dirty bulking is for hard gainers. People like you and me are easy gainers. Instead focus on macros and gain at maintenance or slightly above maintenance while eating clean. Either way, hit your goal weight first.

That’s my 2 cents.

 

[rufflychux]

@sue21 That’s solid advice and much appreciated, posted a pic in a different sub Reddit if you wanna check my profile, was told a slow bulk would be a good idea to fill out my frame, but was just curious as I still feel a i got a little belly and some love handles left.

 

[sue21]

@rufflychux Ok, checked your profile and looking at your picture helps a lot. You have a pretty good foundation of muscle, which is great, especially in your arms. Can’t see your legs, so hard to judge there.

Based on what I see, you still have some fat to lose, at least 10 lbs. Losing is easier than gaining muscle and faster, so I would stick with that a little longer. Your weight loss looks like it was done pretty quickly, so you have a lot of loose extra skin. You’re young, so it is likely that your skin elasticity is really good and you won’t know what your dealing with as far as extra skin until you have maintained at a low weight for a while. It is really your choice at this point. You can find your maintenance calories and start eating at that or you can keep losing. FYI, finding your maintenance calories isn’t as simple as an online calculator. They will give you a good starting point, but base metabolism and energy output requirements for tasks and even how a person absorbs nutrients from food differs person to person. This means that you will need to find your maintenance calorie need through trial and error. Start with what a calculator says you need and then weigh yourself weekly. Adjust accordingly.

There is a possibility you will need surgery to fully get rid of all the skin, but you won’t know for 24 months so nothing to worry about yet. You might not need it at all. Until the skin does tighten, you will look skinny fat. It is the way things are.

Good luck.

 

[rufflychux]

@sue21 Appreciate the advice more then you know gonna get down to 160 and get a idea of what I look like there then 100% gonna try a clean bulk and try and pack on some muscle, not too worried about the loose skin for now but will probably get something done in the future depending on how it looks in a couple years. Cheers!!

 

[asperd]

@rufflychux At 5'9" 170lbs (24.65 BMI) with minimal experience you could probably recomp a considerable amount of fat to muscle eating at maintenance.

I'm trying this right now at 167cm (5'6") 152.6 lbs (24.97 BMI) after having bulked 24.5 lbs in over a year. Because I'm afraid that I'm going to lose my gains cutting now. And I still want to build more muscle mass. Particularly in the lats. My back is still very narrow.

Maingaining has a bad reputation because skinny guys like this try it and wonder why they're not getting much in the way of gains. lmfao. Revival Fitness roasted him on YouTube

https://www.reddit.com/r/GregDoucette/comments/16w1iav/one_year_of_lifting_and_im_actually_still_skinny

He found Revival Fitness' video about him. I reached out to the guy on YouTube and told him to eat at a 200-300 calorie surplus and eat 1.8g protein per kg of bodyweight per day because he's way too skinny to maingain.

Maingaining is not a cure for skinnyfat if you are closer to skinny than you are fat. But it sounds like you're closer to fat than skinny so it should work. The closer you are to fat than skinny, the more efficient maingaining is.

Revival Fitness has railed against maingaining for years. Because he was 5'10" 150 lbs when he was doing it. Yeah skinnyfat dudes with 21 BMIs shouldn't maingain. But 24.65 BMI? That should be fine.

 

[conner74]

@rufflychux Pics or it didn’t happen

 

[asperd]

@conner74

Pics or it didn’t happen

He posted his pic on another sub. He definitely does look like he dropped 100 lbs. He has lots of loose skin.

 

[pinetowntree]

@rufflychux

cutting down a bit to get rid of some of this excess fat or be eating at a maintenance to recomp.

Just do whatever makes you happy. If you're really tired of losing weight, eat at maintenance. If you feel up for the challenge of losing a bit more weight, that's fine too. The thing about being a normal body weight is that as long as you're making positive changes, it does not matter in which order you make those positive changes. Just do what makes sense for your lifestyle and goals in the medium range.

 

[rufflychux]

@pinetowntree My main goal is just to see what I’d look like with just a bit less of that chest and belly fat, no doubt there some loose skin there but not and INSANE amount. I would just like to get to a good point where I feel comfortable starting my first official bulk to put some muscle back on my frame, I do think I will try and get just a bit lower, not a lot probably around 160 or so, and then switch it up. Appreciate your input

 

[pinetowntree]

@rufflychux That sounds perfectly reasonable. I think the reason most people do bodybuilding is to look better with their shirt off, not "having the most muscle possible." Congrats on the progress, keep it up.

 

[dawn16]

@rufflychux This may help: