As the title say I don’t really know where to begin, I have lifted weight on and off for a year or so with no real dedication, And I currently sit at 168lb at 20% body fat (iv never diet or even watched what I eat).
I have been looking at beginner programmes like starting strength to build a base level of strength, due to I play rugby, but I am also going on a lad holiday in 10 weeks and don’t want to be carrying 20% body fat when I go.
So my question is do I do starting strength eat clean and do cardio and recomp or do I go on a cut?
My stats (if this help any)
5.7ft
168lb
20%
115kg deadlift x5
75kg bench press x5
5 bw pullups
Get on a proven program. Read up on the following, pick one you like (it doesn’t matter which one) and do it AS WRITTEN:
5/3/1, WS4SB, Juggernaut method, texas method, bill star 5x5, starting strength 5x5
Eat healty food. It’s not that hard. Here is a simple plan:
At every meal, eat the following, in this order:
Large portion of meat or eggs
A serving of vegetables
A piece of fruit
A carb source, IF you're still hungry
Wash that down with a glass of milk
Eat 3-4 meals a day exactly like this. You can have a "cheat meal" once or twice a week.
Finally, do some conditioning. Sprints, prowler/weighted sled, strongman conditioning, bodyweight circuits, or whatever else. Make sure it’s hard. Don’t just go jogging on a treadmill.
[quote]partime wrote:
So my question is do I do starting strength eat clean and do cardio and recomp or do I go on a cut?
[/quote]
Get rid of this mindset of “cut” and “recomp”. Right now just lift, eat smart, do some cardio (if your playing rugby that might cover the cardio part pretty well) and focus on losing some weight each week. If you are really 20% bf and want to lose some of that fat, just make sure your losing weight each week. You’re fairly new to lifting and not very strong, odds are you’re going to get at least a little stronger while getting leaner. Chris gave you some good advice about how to do that. Follow it.
[quote]Chris87 wrote:
Get on a proven program. Read up on the following, pick one you like (it doesn’t matter which one) and do it AS WRITTEN:
5/3/1, WS4SB, Juggernaut method, texas method, bill star 5x5, starting strength 5x5
Eat healty food. It’s not that hard. Here is a simple plan:
At every meal, eat the following, in this order:
Large portion of meat or eggs
A serving of vegetables
A piece of fruit
A carb source, IF you're still hungry
Wash that down with a glass of milk
Eat 3-4 meals a day exactly like this. You can have a "cheat meal" once or twice a week.
Finally, do some conditioning. Sprints, prowler/weighted sled, strongman conditioning, bodyweight circuits, or whatever else. Make sure it’s hard. Don’t just go jogging on a treadmill.
Sounds like you have two competing goals. That is fat loss and strength gain. Figure out which one is more important to you now, and chase that one. SS will not make you thin, and doing cardio with SS will compromise strength gains. If it was me I would do the ten weeks of strength training. You might surprise yourself with what a change that will make.
[quote]mlupica wrote:
Sounds like you have two competing goals. That is fat loss and strength gain. Figure out which one is more important to you now, and chase that one. SS will not make you thin, and doing cardio with SS will compromise strength gains. If it was me I would do the ten weeks of strength training. You might surprise yourself with what a change that will make.
[/quote]
He can gain strength while losing fat as long as his deficit isn’t really big.
[quote]BuildingUP wrote:
He can gain strength while losing fat as long as his deficit isn’t really big.[/quote]
What does that mean? If you take in enough calories to build muscle, but nothing more?[/quote]
There’s an on-going “feud” of sorts on this site about whether or not you should eat just enough to build lean muscle while putting on fat as slowly as possible versus just fucking eating to build mass.
Thibs and a lot of other contributors to this site advocate eating slightly above (10% above or so) your maintenance Calories, while a lot of others basically take the stance that you should shut the fuck up and eat.
Here’s the thing, though: as a beginner, you can (and probably will) put on at least 20 or 30 pounds in a year if you’re training and diet is dialed in. The more you concern yourself with small stuff as a beginner, the more you’re going to fuck yourself over.
I spent the first couple years of my training wasting time trying to figure out if I should bulk, cut, recomp, whatever, and at the end of the day, I really just stressed myself out.
TL;DR: Find a program that you can stick to (5/3/1, Starting Strength, Madcow, etc., etc., etc.), lift heavy shit, and feed your body. If you’re working your ass off, you’re not going to be 20% body fat even if you’re shoveling the kitchen sink into your mouth.
[quote]BuildingUP wrote:
He can gain strength while losing fat as long as his deficit isn’t really big.[/quote]
What does that mean? If you take in enough calories to build muscle, but nothing more?[/quote]
No he felt he had more bodyfat than he wants to carry around, with that being said, he can continue to gain strength while losing bodyfat-by not having a drastically reduced diet- personaly I can gain strength and drop fat slowly by eating a 200ish calorie deficit on a daily basis–will he gain muscle? idk, maybe a little, but not really anything of significance.
To answer your 2nd half of the response-its really difficult to put just enough nutrients into your body that builds muscle and NOTHING more but like Obsidian said, its debatable if you should have a small surplus like 10% over to stay as lean as possible, or eat more than that to gain mass, which CAN tend to lead to more fat gain-depending on genetics/how your body handles the extra nutrients…etc.
I’ve been gaining strength while losing fat since I started posting; I’m down about 15 lbs since I started posting here, and I’ve gone from repping 205 on deadlifts to 245, and 135 on OHP to 150. I’m certainly not getting as much weight loss as I could if I was only focusing on weight loss, but since I don’t want to wind up just skinny and weak that’s fine with me. I’ve also cut about 1.5" off my gut line.
I think it’s easier if you have a fair amount of fat though; I imagine going from 10% to single digits it wouldn’t work but the OP isn’t in that boat.
I want to ask a question; I see a lot of reference to starting strength 5x5 but I’ve got that book, and it only ever has you doing 3x5 working sets (for squats and pressing) or 1x5 (dead lifts)…never 5x5, so what’s up with starting strength 5x5?
[quote]BuildingUP wrote:
He can gain strength while losing fat as long as his deficit isn’t really big.[/quote]
What does that mean? If you take in enough calories to build muscle, but nothing more?[/quote]
He means if OP has a small daily defecit of, say, 300 cal, he may notice small increases in strength. if he has a large deficit, say 700-800 cal, his strength wont be increasing