Yeah, when someone asked by boyfriend how to know when to bulk/cut and he replied “you bulk until you hate yourself and then cut until you hate yourself” I decided it was time to suggest therapy and a more moderate approach to bodybuilding.
@dawei7 I would focus on building muscle and those pictures are not accurate at all.. I have 24.9% body fat at 191lbs so don’t look like the 25% person pictured
And happy to see you don’t want to cut. Replacing fat with muscle will help you burn more as muscle burns more resting than fat does
@dawei7 Most people have give pretty good advice here and honestly I was a bit surprised to see that you are at a BF% of 44% seeing that you do judo twice a week and walk an average of 10k. You are actually not very sedentary. How's your diet like?
I would suggest going for a simpler approach and get your diet in check first. Make sure the calories you are eating are good ones. Less junk food and if you can, prep your own meals. A lot of abdominal fat buildup is due to poor diet and eating habits. See a dietitian if you need to.
Edit: Personally the pressing issue to me is the abdominal fat. That should be your primary concern, gaining muscle mass is secondary. If you don't have a lot of time to workout, I will stick to cardio first. Cardio and good diet I found was the fastest way for me to lose weight and fat. Then you can slowly cut back on cardio and add in resistance training.
@mykey Which is why I suggested cardio. She is 4.5 months post partum that is almost 18 weeks post pregnancy. I don't see why some cardio like jogging is bad seeing she is already doing judo and walking 10k per day.
@dawei7 So because you have such a large amount of fat around your middle, that's what's creating a high BMI. It's also a serious risk factor for cardiac health issues and other obesity-related illness. Unfortunately, it probably can't all be helped because where you hold fat is predetermined genetically.
Honestly, your best bet is to exercise and significantly increase muscle mass to change your body composition proportions. The fat on your stomach will decrease naturally though I doubt it'll ever go away. You do not need to go to 125. You could stop at 135 at the lowest and already have a significant body difference if you build up the muscle. I would eat at maintenance for now especially if you are still breastfeeding. Breastfeeding will cause weight loss all on its own and there's no need to stress milk production right now.
@dawei7 According to this BMI calculator you would be underweight if you cut to 125. The healthiest lowest you can be is 127.
If it were me I would personally cut because that is the only way you will bring your body fat levels down. It you try to bulk and then cut there is a risk you might never lose the weight if you're a beginner and be in an even worse position. Once you get the hang out bulking and cutting and are down to a lower weight it might be a good time to play around with bulking and cutting. Also remember when you lose weight you will also lose some muscle but the ratio is something like 70% fat 30% muscle.
@michelle12790 Thing is BMI is not accurate for individuals and was originaly devised as a tool for determining the health of an overall population. Fat/ muscle composition is much more effective as a health guide.
@dawei7 Do you have any medical issues or have gotten recent blood work done? From your picture, I can see that your legs are skinny, but you have a large abdominal girth and almost a cushingoid body habitus. I would wonder about any endocrine/hormonal/metabolic issues and follow up with a doctor for a general check up.
@sussi Is there anything that you know of that might cause a body like this that isn’t cushings? I’m trying to research on my own so I’m informed before I go into the dr. I have looked into cushings a but there are a few things which lead me to believe it’s not that, for instance my mom and great aunt share the exact same body type and from what I understand cushings is not hereditary.
@sussi It’s interesting that you brought this up, I have for years wondered if I had some kind of hormonal imbalance because I do not gain weight like an average woman and have never met anyone with my same body type except my mom. I brushed it off because I don’t have any health problems besides weird weight distribution until after my first child was born and I discovered that I have mammary hypoplasia. I came across cushings after I started digging to try to figure out why I couldn’t produce enough milk and to see if I had some issue hormonally. My dr and gyno more or less dismissed my concerns with whatever reason and so I let it go but you’re making me think I should push them harder for an endocrine referral.
@dawei7 Please do. Especially fat around the stomach is an alarming health indicator. The fact that you seem to store everything there is definitely not good. If you can, just get a full work up done.
@dawei7 Seeing your pictures, I'm not really very surprised by that BF percentage. You really don't have much in the way of muscle/lean mass, so that 152lbs has to come from somewhere. If I were you, I would ABSOLUTELY NOT CUT. Doing that is going to leave you with even less muscle mass. Personally, I would advise eating at maintenance and recomping. 152lbs is a perfectly fine weight for someone who is 5'9". You just need to drastically increase your lean tissue mass.
