Looking to do recomposition..recommendations

[TheManMasenko]

Hello gang,

I'm 5'6, 160lb, and looking to gain more muscle mass and remove fat.

Can you give me some insight?

I recently started doing 5x5 in squats/bench presses (I benched for the first time in months, maybe years today).
I used to do isolation workouts about 5 times a week.
I currently eat about 1200 calories/per 100g of protein a day. I go with this ratio because it helped me to lose weight when I was 200 lb (yikes)

What do you recommend I do more of? Any changes?

I hope to have my body transformed by the end of the year. I'll post the results on this forum too.

Here's what my current body:

http://imgur.com/a/sRva02E

 

[BackInTheGame78]

1200 calories is way too low, your BMR is somewhere between 1650-1700 calories. That's literally what your body needs just to operate on a daily basis of you laid in bed all day and did nothing. You are not gaining any muscle like that, likely burning muscle as your body wants to get rid of anything requiring calories since you aren't getting enough to begin with and muscle is metabolically active.

You never want to go below your BMR for long periods of time or you are damaging your metabolism and having your body go into a mode where it tries to store fat as much as possible.

First thing is you need to up your calories to around 1700-1800 minimum per day, if not higher.

If you are working out, say 4x a week your BMR is around 2350, meaning you can drop 300-500 calories from there which puts you in 1850-2150 range.

The next thing you need to do is to read up on how the body actually works because your understanding of it is lacking and until you learn more your results will be mediocre at best

 

[TheManMasenko]

The next thing you need to do is to read up on how the body actually works because your understanding of it is lacking and until you learn more your results will be mediocre at best

Any book or website recommendations?

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Any book or website recommendations?

This is a good start. Honestly looking at your pics you need to gain muscle a lot more than lose fat. You are skinny fat right now.

T Nation Content

Discover a more intelligent approach for getting bigger, stronger, and leaner.

www.t-nation.com

 

[Murk]

Search body re comp on YouTube, bump up the protein and train hard. As long as you are not eating junk and sugar everything will fall in to place if you’re consist with protein and training.

Any book or website recommendations?

 

[Stanley]

Hey you took my advice on the 5x5s nice. Bro splits suck. If you're going to do the stronglifts 5x5 they have an app for tracking now worth grabbing. Jeff Nippard on youtube has a lot of content around recomp.

Anything this dude says @BackInTheGame78 you should listen to. He knows his ****

 

[Murk]

I do PPLrestPPL six days a week and it’s working wonders. Just turn up every day and make **** happen.

 

[Plinco]

First, fix your posture.
Second, clean up your diet. Based on how unhealthy your skin is, your liver is having trouble processing toxicity.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

I do PPLrestPPL six days a week and it’s working wonders. Just turn up every day and make **** happen.

You can get away with this in the beginning, after 6-12 months this will just eat away at your gains. Muscles grow when they are at rest.

Too many people think more is better but it usually doesn't work that way at the gym.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

First, fix your posture.
Second, clean up your diet. Based on how unhealthy your skin is, your liver is having trouble processing toxicity.

TUDCA, Milk Thistle, Dandelion Root Tea and NAC all help with liver issues.

 

[TheManMasenko]

TUDCA, Milk Thistle, Dandelion Root Tea and NAC all help with liver issues.

You really think it's a liver issue? And how many days a week you recommend for working out?

 

[BackInTheGame78]

You really think it's a liver issue? And how many days a week you recommend for working out?

Helping your liver out is never a bad thing with all the pollutants and toxicity in the environment that we take in every day. All of that must be processed by the liver, along with many other functions it handles. The liver is also responsible for burning fat so if it is not running at peak efficiency you will have issues in that domain.

I personally don't like doing more than 4 lifting workouts a week but also add in a Pilates day to maintain flexibility(but is also damn challenging in its own right in a different way than lifting weights).

Something like Legs-Chest-Off-Back-Shoulders/Arms-Pilates-Off

 

[Plinco]

TUDCA, Milk Thistle, Dandelion Root Tea and NAC all help with liver issues.

You really think it's a liver issue? And how many days a week you recommend for working out?

In addition try fasting and juicing leafy greens. Avoid sugar, alcohol, and vegetable oil

 

[EyeBRollin]

Any book or website recommendations?

Yes. Read this.

 

[TheManMasenko]

In roughly two weeks of posting and eating a high calorie diet for about 10 days consistently...I beg to ask?

When am I going to see results (lose fat/gain muscle) and start lifting heavier weights?

 

[Stanley]

Strength? In a few weeks if you are doing progressive overload. Noticeable changes in the body? much longer with consistent routine.

 

[EyeBRollin]

In roughly two weeks of posting and eating a high calorie diet for about 10 days consistently...I beg to ask?

When am I going to see results (lose fat/gain muscle) and start lifting heavier weights?

add 5-10 lbs per exercise per workout. The recomp happens as the weight gets heavy. Usually we’re talking 200+ lbs minimum on the bench / squat / deadlift. The process takes 3-6 months to see the first noticeable results and at least a year to really build your physique (if you are natty).

 

[Murk]

add 5-10 lbs per exercise per workout.

Or increase the reps with same weight, and reduce rest time. As long as you are progressively overloading each time you will get results. Took me 3 months of hard dieting, lifting and walking to see results. Weigh yourself and take pictures weekly if not daily. Take your measurements monthly with a tape measure, biceps, chest, waist, hips, thighs, calfs. In a recomp your weight won't be the best measurement when you get to a certain point. I'm 6-7 months into religious training/diet and look like a new man. More weights/reps each workout and sticking to it.

 

[EyeBRollin]

Or increase the reps with same weight, and reduce rest time. As long as you are progressively overloading each time you will get results.

Increasing weight vs increasing reps as a strategy actually cause different adaptations. Fitness at its core is a biological adaptation so the body can retain homeostasis. In this case, increasing reps will the muscle better resist fatigue, rather than increasing contractile force.

Took me 3 months of hard dieting, lifting and walking to see results. Weigh yourself and take pictures weekly if not daily. Take your measurements monthly with a tape measure, biceps, chest, waist, hips, thighs, calfs. In a recomp your weight won't be the best measurement when you get to a certain point. I'm 6-7 months into religious training/diet and look like a new man. More weights/reps each workout and sticking to it.

It is overall good advice. I would add people should have a defined non-aesthetic goal for their training. Aesthetics are the by-product of being fit. As a stand-alone goal, it is ambiguous.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

add 5-10 lbs per exercise per workout. The recomp happens as the weight gets heavy. Usually we’re talking 200+ lbs minimum on the bench / squat / deadlift. The process takes 3-6 months to see the first noticeable results and at least a year to really build your physique (if you are natty).

Typically you also should be able to deadlift more than you squat and squat more than you bench.

So deadlift > squat > bench press