Skinny but fat.. No muscle

radiotrickster wrote: »

Did you do any exercise or did you lose weight through diet?

I found jogging very quickly pulled my stomach in a lot and gave me definition (noticeable after two weeks of jogging three times a week).

I‘ve been doing core and ab workouts as well lately and it’s all made a difference. But honestly, I’d recommend you start looking at jogging first as it gave me a quick change. Try slowly jogging 1k (go slow enough that you don’t lose your breath) and then work your way up to 5k over the course of a month or two. If you can go out a few times a week, you’ll improve quickly.

You want to build muscle, OP, so absolutely do not follow this advice. It's terrible, to sum up nicely in one word.

Look in to recomposition. Building muscle with strength training and eating for that goal.

OP I was roughly where you were a few years ago. I have a skinny frame but I had a lot of body fat and very little muscle naturally without training.
Regular resistance training and eating a proper balanced diet ‘most’ of the time is the way forward.

I will say that I wasted about 18 months faffing around in the gym doing a bit of this and a bit of that initially, no structure and minimal progress. Do not fall in to this trap! I was a bit afraid of the free weights section and mainly stuck to machines.

The game changer for me was getting a personal trainer to show me the compound lifts and set out a structured programme. I cannot stress enough what a difference this made to me. If you are not already familiar with using a barbell / free weights I’d highly recommend booking a trainer or joining an S & C class.

Going by my experience you are probably looking at 3-4 months of sustained consistent effort before the results are very noticeable and people start to comment.

Watching your diet is equally important, lots of good info on here if you search. You probably need to maintain a small calorie deficit until that excess body fat is gone, presumably that is your goal? You can then be a bit more relaxed about your diet.

carzony wrote: »

Thanks for the replies lads.

I was never what you would describe as heavy, my max weight was 12 stone 7 but still had the heavy appearance around the body.

In the last few weeks I began a diet program and the weight has fallen off me dramatically( 7 pounds in 2 weeks). My main goal is to build some muscle to give me a little strength, to get rid of the love handles and belly.

I'm no looking for miracles but a normal fit physique would be good.

I went on a fast for a week also..I ate nothing and just had a huge intake of water everyday, which made me feel good and helped shift a lot of the belly.

In terms of diet I may follow this guide: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/26-muscle-building-foods#section3

That fast would have been a waste for about 5 of those 7 days I'd say. The weight that fell off ya would be mostly water, some fat but also muscle. So in terms of building muscle you're probably starting further back the grid than you would have been.

Patience is key. And also knowledge from the right places and from the right people.

That article isn't a diet per sé. It's a list of beneficial foods to incorporate in to your diet.