Appreciate the feedback. I wasn’t trying to imply I’m shredded or anything like that — just describing where I’m at relative to my own starting point.
My main goal right now is steady progress and building a better base rather than chasing a specific scale number. Based on the replies so far, I’m leaning toward a slow recomp / lean bulk through the summer and focusing on consistency and performance.
If you see any obvious issues with my current training split or calorie approach that would limit that, I’m open to hearing it.
It certainly wasn’t meant to be. There’s no judgement in the statement, it’s simply your current state.
It’s a bit freeing, in its own way, because you don’t have to be inhibited by maintaining definition or losing strength or any of these things. You can just eat and train and improve. Just tightening up your diet and lifting consistently is going to see both your strength and body composition improve from here.
To the above point about judgement, changing our body is emotional for all of us. The more clinically we can treat the process, however, the more success we tend to have.
This is pretty much how all of us did it back in the day, and it’s the best.
For this one, you’ll want to maintain pretty consistent calories day to day for a couple weeks so you know where you are and can make purposeful adjustments.
Appreciate the clarification. I just wanted to be taken seriously in terms of intent. I’m focused on improving from where I’m at and building toward something better over time. It doesn’t matter what I compare to, just what I can execute.
The point about keeping calories more consistent is helpful. I’ve let day to day intake fluctuate too much, so I’ll tighten that up for a couple weeks and adjust from there. Thanks.
I never believed in isolation work for increased definition (spot fat reduction). Flex posing will add muscle control, which will better display spots of your physique. IMO, you have much more body fat to drop to see muscle definition detail.
I am not recommending that you go into a calorie deficit, but you should clean up your diet and eat with insulin management in mind.
Exactly my thoughts, so I’m happy to feel independently validated here. I think OP is in such a baseline position, he can just start “doing” and things will improve across the board.
Thanks for all the good advice, thankfully my diet and exercise are improving. If I can combine that with good sleep and consistency I’m sure I can make some solid progress and check back when I have some more experience.
3 days since posting! Still not lean but push day was mean. Thank you guys for all contributing to my workout plan. I understand that I’m still in a beginner phase, but I appreciate you all for taking the time to let me know your opinions on how I can make some gains. Looking forward to future achievements and developing my workout inspo as I progress.
You need to build muscle, point blank. Find a program you can recover from while eating around maintenance and gain as much muscle as possible. Don’t skip lower body, as that will put on a ton of muscle. RDLs, Leg curls and Leg extensions is what I do (because I hate squatting).
You’re 5’7, 155lbs around 25% bodyfat which puts you right at average FFMI. Put on 10 pounds of lean body mass and stay at that same weight and you’ll be 20% bodyfat at 20 FFMI which is beginning to be above average. You’ll have more definition and it’ll look way better because you will have more shape due to the more muscle mass. It’ll take 6-12 months but just be patient dude a year goes by in the blink of an eye. You can do this at maintenance because you have a lot of fat stores for the body to use to build muscle. There’s no reason for you to eat up to 170lbs just to get fatter and then have to cut it off.
And this might get me flamed but I don’t believe in tracking calories or macros. It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re eating if you feel hungry all the time, eventually you’re going to break. Focus on eating satiating foods and avoiding foods that make you want to eat more. Get in tune with your body, you’ll know when you’re full or not. For me, once I completely stopped eating processed sugar and learned how hunger actually feels vs stomach tension, pleasure seeking etc. I could actually just trust my appetite. But if you’ve never learned how to eat, maybe tracking is good for you for a little while.
Like I said, all I eat are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, oatmeal, potatoes, some olive oil, almond milk, non fat greek yogurt, beans, rice, lean meat, and maybe some chips or popcorn here and there. I make sure to get soluble and insoluble fiber, keep saturated fat low and I walk a little after I eat to keep insulin response in check (google walking after meals and blood sugar control).
I tracked every calorie and macro for a decade and I stopped this year. It is way better for me because I no longer think about food until I actually get hungry, so I don’t make myself THINK I’m hungry.
Thanks for the thoughtful response, just figured out I might be closer to 5”8, I realized I just have a lot of training and eating (the right things) to do. I had no idea I was such a beginner, because I thought other things than weights were contributing to growth; maybe muscle density from lots of hiking with backpacks but it was not hypertrophy. Now I’m starting back in the gym as of about 3 weeks and trying to keep things going. It has been pretty good, just did a shortened leg day because my gym was closing and I tried doing some squats with the plate, but my lower body was not ready for that so I didn’t complete many good reps at the higher weight, but moved on to machines and compensated with lower weight good form. I don’t need to look perfect or like I’m on steroids, but I’m seriously happy with the weight I have been able to put on since I always looked like a twig, and was pretty short growing up.
Macros have been good and cutting out some junk food like ice cream, just drinking milk, eating lots of eggs, and kind of obsessed with Chipotle even though it’s high sodium I know.
Now just trying to systematically lean bulk for a couple months and then maybe a light cut for my big wedding event I am prepping for starting July.
You think I am in a phase where I can just focus on form and gradually add weight? I’m having trouble lifting big numbers but still want to put on muscle and been to the gym 3x this week so far.
if you want to look better for your wedding, focus on lifting while losing a lot of fat. Idk when your wedding is but it sounds like its in a few months. You arent going to gain much muscle in a few months, maybe a few pounds (which is normal).
when you are lifting, it isnt about the weight youre lifting or the reps, its about stimulating the muscle. If you make your form worse or speed up the reps you just are making it so you have to do more reps for the same stimulation. The exercise and the weight are just tools to stimulate the muscle and put it under tension. Stop thinking in terms of how much weight you lift and how many reps you’re doing, start thinking how you put the muscle under tension. This doesn’t mean just do slow as shit reps, do a normal rep speed but make it count.
But anyway, you aren’t going to gain enough muscle in the few months until your wedding to make much difference in your looks. If that’s what you care about most, then focus on losing fat while keeping your muscle through lifting. Kick up your steps to 10-15k a day, do zone 2 cardio as much as you can handle, maintain your current lifts and eat highly satiating foods (high fiber, high water content like berries and potatoes, high protein, enough fat for hormones). You will probably feel like crap but that’s how you lose fat fast.
Look up what each muscle does so you understand why you’re doing an exercise. That will also help with you finding exercises you like and work for your body structure, and will help you make sure you are stimulating the muscle you’re trying to grow.
Anyone is allowed to give advice! Right now I’m just trying to establish a standard training, nutrition, and recovery program on top of my school and social activities, and that invites anyone to weigh in. Some things I’m working on is a health oriented bulk so that I can improve bench press, and posture so that I can get better at stance, poses, and flexing.
