Hello all.
So, this summer I dieted down and started lifting. I went from 200+ to 178. The scale I have says I’m at like 18% body fat. Is it normal for the ribs to come out like that? To me it looks like I’m a starving child. I want to continue to drop body fat, but I don’t want to look like I’m anorexic… Any thoughts?
You have no level of muscle built to show so yes you will show bones . Now stop the cut, work damn hard for a few years and cut again and have muscle protecting those ribs
phill
the reason you look like you’re starving is that you don’t have any muscle. lift more and dont diet. Diets don’t ever work. Find a nutritional philosophy you can follow the rest of your life. Start here by reading everything in the nutrition articles.
You don’t need to lose fat. You need to add some muscle.
Work on adding muscle for a while and then when it’s really time to cut, the fat will come off easier and you won’t look like a starving child either.
ok cool. I’ve been reading on this site for a little while now, but mostly about fat loss, because I used to be huge.
I go back up to school in a week where I can start going to the gym and I’ll be living off campus so I have full control over my diet.
As far as lifting, I never got into it until this summer. I messed around with weights when I was younger but never knew anything about it or got proper information. So I’m starting pretty fresh. Can someone point me in the direction of a good all-around beginner routine? I followed the total-body workout on the beginner page for this summer and kept track of all my numbers.
As for nutrition, I ate pretty clean this summer to drop weight. I tried to get around 200g of protein per day, had my flaxseed oil ,olive oil, and kept my carbs low. I know I have to eat more to gain muscle. I’ll look around the sections here tonight and tomorrow to find information, if anyone can post stuff that would be great.
Thanks guys.
Should I not have cut down in the first place this summer?
The bottom set of photos is what I started at in june, weighing a little over 200 and around 27% body fat. The top set is early august, 180 at around 18%.
So, I want to clean bulk for a looong time starting when I get back to school. Most of what i’ve seen has said not to worry too much about macronutrients, just eat a lot of clean foods and see what my body does and make changes accordingly. How exactly do I measure the effectiveness? Of course my lifts should be increasing, as well as my weight, and body fat. But I have no idea how much each should be increasing so I know what to adjust. Is this the wrong way to go about this? Any comments appreciated.
[quote]korykk wrote:
Hello all.
So, this summer I dieted down and started lifting. I went from 200+ to 178. The scale I have says I’m at like 18% body fat. Is it normal for the ribs to come out like that? To me it looks like I’m a starving child. I want to continue to drop body fat, but I don’t want to look like I’m anorexic… Any thoughts?[/quote]
Technically you are a starving child. Just kidding, good work on following through on your goals. It shows determination. Now just start lifting heavy and then muscles will pop out instead of bones.
Cutting down I think was a good idea. Regardless of the other people saying all you should have done is gain more muscle, I think maintaning ~15% or less should be law when it comes to gaining weight. I know you’re a bit higher then that but At least you have a better Idea of what you have accomplished and now you know how much you need to gain before you should bother getting into the lower percentages. And the fact you’re probably in better cardiovascular shape, and much healthier at a lower bodyweight.
Try an upper/lower/upper/lower or reverse split or a 3 day A/B routine
Look up rippetoes or just figure out which compounds will give you the biggest bang for you’re buck.
Goodluck.
That’s what I found so far.
Week 1:
Monday - Workout A
Wednesday -Workout B
Friday - Workout A
Week 2:
Monday - Workout B
Wednesday - Workout A
Friday - Workout B
Etc.
For the actual workouts read below:
Note: This doesn�??t include warm-up sets
Means this is OPTIONAL
Workout A
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press
1x5 Deadlift
**2x8 Dips (if you cant do these or no assist machine then do Decline Dumbbell Bench Press with your hands Facing each other)
Workout B
3x5 Squat
3x5 Standing military press
3x5 Pendlay or Bent Rows (or power cleans)
**2x8 Chin-ups (recommended mainly if doing the cleans)
Is there anything lacking from this that I should incorporate? I would like to start putting a routine together so I can get into the gym as soon as I get up to school. Any thoughts appreciated.
If I were you, I would hit the weights hard and gain some muscle. I’d also lose the gyno(bitch tits).
korykk
I have been training for a month myself and am inerested in what people are doing / being advised.
I have looked at your routine and was wondering how often are you aiming to increase the weights / get new PRs. For me, this kind of routine with all big lifts on the same day is too difficult to do well. When I first started training last month, I also did squat, bench and deadlift on the same day, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But found it too hard to concentrate on 100% max effort all the time and keep my rest time between sets to 1-2 mins or less. So i decided to cut volume (i.e. sacrifice the bench press) and keep Monday and Friday only for heavy lifts. Now I keep Wednesday for other fitness related stuff, e.g. I do pull-ups and some short sprints.
I’m thinking I probably couldn’t handle all three big lifts on the same day because I’m relatively untrained and underweight at 130. Perhaps you would fare better since you have a larger frame? You be better accustomed to carrying more weight for longer periods.
GetJACKED - yeah, thats my plan for the next few months. I should also lose the gyno? Can you actually tell if its gyno? I havent been to a doctor or anything about it, it was like that when i was fat and its still like that a little, but im still at 18% fat. i’m not too concerned. it looks a hell of a lot better than it did at 28%bf.
Bluegreyhound - I havent started this routine yet. I plan on starting it in a week or two. That was what I found when I looked up rippetoes. I have never deadlifted before, but I did all the other lifts on the same day when I was doing total body workouts and didnt have any problems. As far as increasing weight and setting new PR’s, im not too sure about it. I’m guessing i’ll add a little whenever I think I can.
If anyone else has any ideas on this, comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
[quote]GetJACKED wrote:
If I were you, I would hit the weights hard and gain some muscle. I’d also lose the gyno(bitch tits).[/quote]
I don’t know what kind of bitches you date, but thats not a set of tits. and by the way, how would you suggest that he lose the gyno?
[quote]tveddy wrote:
GetJACKED wrote:
If I were you, I would hit the weights hard and gain some muscle. I’d also lose the gyno(bitch tits).
I don’t know what kind of bitches you date, but thats not a set of tits. and by the way, how would you suggest that he lose the gyno?[/quote]
Why are you asking me what he should do about it? I’m not a doctor. I just call it as I see it.
Probably because you suggested he simply “lose the bitch tits” I think tveddy’s point was proven 100% by your response.
[quote]GetJACKED wrote:
tveddy wrote:
GetJACKED wrote:
If I were you, I would hit the weights hard and gain some muscle. I’d also lose the gyno(bitch tits).
I don’t know what kind of bitches you date, but thats not a set of tits. and by the way, how would you suggest that he lose the gyno?
Why are you asking me what he should do about it? I’m not a doctor. I just call it as I see it.[/quote]
Because every time you tell a kid to “lose” they think they need to go on a calorie restriction. However he obviously needs to try to bulk up and fill out. So all you did was call it like you saw it without tryin to give him some kind of helpful advice.
So… As i was reading about rippetoes starting strength program, it was mentioned you should drink a gallon of milk a day on it. Is that for real? that’s an insane amount of milk. I could see adding a few extra glasses of milk when bulking, but 1 gallon seems like way too much. What are your thoughts?
I drink about a half gallon a day of skim.
The other thing that came to mind,
When i was dieting to lose weight, P+C was morning P+F was at night. Should I be more inclined to drink milk in the evening and PWO, or any time of the day will do.
I drink a gallon of whole milk a day, in addition to my other meals. And if I skimp out on my other meals for a few days in a row I’ll actually lose weight.