Beginning Again w/ High Bodyfat

Hey guys,

So I lifted weights this summer, stopped for a bit until I got a bit more organized, and now I’m starting up again. My goal was to get more muscle mass, so I started off with the starting strength program.

Anyways, according to a scale I just bought my body fat is 24%, thats quite high…

So if my goal is to get bigger, should I cut down to a reasonable bf% first?

My intuition tells me to just bulk and cut down all at once, but I know I’ve read somewhere its hard to bulk with a high bf%. Something about your insulin response being different. I can’t find that article anymore…and I’m not sure how high is high.

So any insight?

Thanks guys.

Wait hold on guys…So its been a few hours. I hoped on the scale again, and instead of a consistent 24%, my bf is now a consistent 20.3%. Much more acceptable.

Weird…I think it might be because I first used the scale after I had just worked out.

This thread may no longer be valid…if my bf is 20% I think it would be reasonable for me to bulk. 24% was just border line obese…so it made me a bit uncomfortable.

So what do you guys think now? 20% still ok to bulk? Or does it still affect my insulin response?

How much do you weigh?

If you weigh 80kg with 20% it just means you have no muscle (skinny fat) if you weigh 110kg with 20% you are morbidly obese.

Uhhh 20% seems way high to bulk in my opinion. However your scale is not going to give you an accurate reading anyways. You need a caliper test to give you any sort of accurate idea as to how much fat you are actually carrying.

hey guys,

so I figured out why it was giving me inconsistent readings. The second time I measured my bf% I just recently came out of the shower.

So my usually dry feet, were instead a bit more moist, giving a better reading. So now when I go to measure myself I wet my feet first and my bf has been consistently read to be 18% all day.

I’m about 5’7" and I weigh 165lbs (75kg)

I think 18% is not unreasonable high for a bulk. Right?

You should eat lots of clean food and lift hard. Don’t neglect cardio either.