I'm 19, 5'6, 170ish pounds. I have a VERY stocky frame, really wide shoulders, thick legs, etc. Probably the Polish in me. I have fat around my stomach and slight moobs and I have fat in my face but that's genetic (I had it when I was really skinny).
From my experience, I wouldn't get caught up in the genetics myth. Most of the time the stuff is made up by people who are giving up on their weight loss goals or who don't understand the fundamentals. I will explain more shortly. Lol, just because my dad was FAT doesn't mean I am nor I have to be. What a myth.
I used to run XC and track in HS so I'm used to working very hard (we were a state champ team in XC though I was back of the pack in JV races I still worked out really hard). I still want to race occasionally, but getting muscle and getting more attention from the ladies is more important to me now.
Great so you are used to Cardio.
So, what should I do first, cut to get rid of the fat I currently have or just start bulking up then cut it all later? I'm VERY weak right now though I'm in decent cardiovascular shape since I run at least 30 mins a day. My legs are pretty large but my arms are very small.
Well this is just my take. There's no such thing as only doing ONE at a time (cutting or building muscle), because if you have a complete and comprehensive program you should be building muscle and burning fat at the same time. Plus the more lean muscle you have the muscle itself starts to burn off fat.
I have a thread out right now where I post my current diet:
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=165232
Once you get the fundamentals right then you can start to get more advanced. I would:
> Change your eating lifestyle
> Change the way you lift weights or do resistance training
> Change the way you do cardio
> Get the right supplements and vitamins
In my opinion those are the fundamentals. Now, what specific foods should you eat? What specific weight exercises should you do? What types of cardio would work best for you?
Those questions I think you will come up with through your own personal experimentation.
Where I would start is to read the ABS Diet from Men's Health to get the basic overview of how to eat and then you can create your own way of eating that's healthy. I wouldn't focus on DIETS because what's the point of doing something only for a short period of time, and then you get off of it and gain all the weight back? I think the POINT is to change your eating lifestyle not do crash diets.
For example, the ATKINS diet. WHO really can go the rest of their life not eating any carbs or not eating that many carbs?? I mean come on. But surely you can limit the amount of bad carbs you consume and fill up on the good ones, again reading that ABS DIET book from Men's Health will give you the eating basics.
Then you can go to bodybuilding.com to get more information on various exercises. Me personally, for some reason I get better definition and results from resistance training with cables for some reason, but you can experiment with which exercises work the best for you.
Same with cardio. Now some people are against doing alot of cardio cause they say it burns off muscle, well for me personally, my cardio doesn't burn my muscle off I just get more defined. I do interval cardio, where I go fast for a minute and then it slows and then it goes fast again. I do this on the Stairmaster, one of the most difficult cardio machines there is. I go for 1 hour and my average speed is about 55-60 mp which is PRETTY fast for the Stairmaster. I've been going for one day a week but I'm kicking it up to 3 days.
For supplements, I think the best quality and priced supplements are at Vitamin World:
www.vitaminworld.com and Vita Cost
www.vitacost.com. GNC is very expensive even considering their Gold Card program. You will get more quality, more bang for your buck at the two I recommended. I don't think you need fat burners or anything like that, what I would get is:
> A good men's multi-vitamin
> A good omega 3 fish oil
> A good green tea extract
> A good protein shake (pay attention because some of these shakes are junk. I use bodyfortress:
www.bodyfortress.com)
I wouldn't count calories if I was you because again, it's about changing your lifestyle NOT crash diets. Are you going to count calories for the REST of your life? Probably not. But of COURSE you can eat about 5 meals a day and majority of those meals being nutritious grilled meals that you enjoy with perhaps one small bad meal a day.
Those are the fundamentals in my opinion from my experience in doing this.
>> You build muscle and You burn fat
>> You change your lifestyle so you can KEEP doing this for the rest of your life and not some crash diet or exercise program that you can't stay on.