Maybe someone can give me advice here or atleast confirm if my thought process is correct.
I currently weight 77,6 kg, 175 cm (male) and I am skinny fat. Meaning I am very skinny, have barely fat on my arms and legs but stored fat belly/ chest area.
So I calculated my kcal a day at about 2300 kcal. If I want to gain weight (muscles) with weightlifting I need a 200-400 kcal surpluss.
If I want to lose fat, which I also do (belly and chest) I need a deficit of 100-200 to maintain or gain slowly muscles while workout without losing muscles.
So I need 2200 kcal (maintain muscles, lose fat) to 2600 kcal (gain more muscles, not lose fat) a day to see gains everywhere and fat loss in belly/ chest area?
What is the best approach here? Lose fat in chest/ belly area first meaning going down to about 65 kgs first and then build muscles back to 75 kg or build muscles and lose fat later?
Obviously with the approach of going for 2200 kcal I might see slower muscle gaines but also fat loss, but also slower. I can’t do both very fast if I don’t commit to losing fat first or gaining muscles first.
So if I add cardio to my training programm I would have to eat all my kcal I have lost in the cardio session + the 2600 kcal surpluss resulting in about 3100 kcal a day to see gains. In other words: if I have problems eating a lot of food, which I do, I should avoid cardio currently?
Hey,
Congratulations on deciding to get healthier!
You have one very critical flaw in your train of thought:
All calculations are based on averages or standard humans and so on.
And all calculations you’re doing are within 20% of each other, even slight deviations in any of the theoretical figures to your non average body would screw you over.
That means something simple though: no, don’t skip cardio. You will get more hungry the higher your calorie deficit would become. And cardio is simply healthy if it’s not overdone!
You seem quite similar to myself in so much as you seem to have a very analytical and theory driven approach to things. Here is how you can use that to your advantage: track.
Base all your analytics on true “you” data instead of calculating theoretical figures.
This means heart frequency zones, body fat and muscle percentages.
Heart frequency is a direct proxy for training intensity, the other two for how your body composition changes.
The kcal are just a bonus on top to adjust your total mass. That will follow with a better muscle to fat ratio anyway (usually!).
Good luck! ❤️
Well I am currently doing a Push Pull Leg routine with 1 rest day in the week.
So Push Pull Leg Push Pull Leg Rest.
For Push day my workouts are all 4 sets with 8 reps
- Benchpress with Dumbbells
- Incline Benchpress with Barbell
- Shoulder Press with Dumbbells
- Flys (cable)
- Triceps Pushdowns // Skull Crushers, I swap every Push day between these two.
- Leg Raises
Pull:
- Lat Pulldowns
- Seated Rows
- T Bar Rows (laying down on bench)
- Biceps Curps with SZ Bar
- Cable Crunches
Legs:
- Leg Press
- Leg Extensions
- Leg Curls (seated)
- Sit Ups
- 30 Minute incline walking
Well I am training basically like that kind of.
I do 6 minutes warm up on treadmil and at the end of workouts I do 20 minutes incline at a heartbeat of 135-145, if I go above 145 I reduce incline a bit.
Thats basically all the cardio I do currently. I should probably jog but I like incline walking it’s so easy
Your body doesn’t really care what drives it into cardio mode from what I know - if incline works for you then don’t put Preston you to do what others prefer!
So basically try to stay in zone 2/3 cardio no matter what gets me to 135 to 145 hbm?
Yeah exactly.
It’s literally your heart that you’re training after all!
Don’t overthink the “calories burned in cardio”. Once you subtract your resting metabolic rate you’re going to come up with a number that’s probably disappointing. The additional fatigue may cut down on your non-exercise energy output as well.
You don’t need to do cardio to lose weight. Do cardio to make your life better and live longer.
All these numbers are estimates. There are ways to calculate your actual total daily energy expenditure using spreadsheets, inputting your caloric intake and weight on a daily basis. Personally, I find it a lot easier to use MacroFactor. No relationship, but it is really a great app. It starts with an estimate and with daily tracking will give you weekly updates to adjust caloric intake to meet your goals.
If you haven’t trained before, and given your weight which isn’t terribly high, you don’t really need to adjust calories significantly to gain muscle 100-200 calories is reasonable, at first at least. But you need to adjust the macronutrient composition to ensure that you’re getting enough protein.
You don’t need to do cardio to lose weight.
Spend 30 min a day doing some straight compound lifts (strong lifts 5x5 is a simple starting point) and 30 min doing some low impact cardio. Really, that could be walking at first. Optimally, you want to separate your cardio from lifting, but that’s a bit more towards the top of the pyramid of priorities than the base. Similarly, isolation exercises (like a bicep curl) is less of a priority than compound movements like a pull-up (or a lat pull-down).