Building Muscle &Getting Ripd without Going in to Bear mode?

[bagusbagus]

Long story short, my health was totally fukd (still kinda is,but getting better) from being in-active and eating crap for the past decade & and having a sky-high Bloodpressure at age of 27 was no fun,
Have been doing outdoor Calisthenics for a few months and have gone from 90kg to 78kg with a decent diet (I'm 6'1).

I'm now to a point where I have lost most of the fat I wanted to loose,while greatly improving my strength and most probably keeping most of the muscle.
What do I do next Now?
My longterm plan is to get more Leaner& loose the remaining fat around my belly and gain some more muscle/strength ( I'm still kinda skinny-fat).
Ideal : regular Calisthenics guy body you see on YT (not massive, but just lean,agile and ripped as f )

I'm aware that the suggested way is: Train hard, eat as a bear, put up massive weight&muscle in the process and than start to cut down to a level you want,rinse&repeat.
Is there a way to get to the same goal without putting back large amounts of weight? My Previous prognosis from a doctor was a most probably stroke before I'm 35... I do not want to go back there...

[CrouchingWayne]

losing fat and gaining muscle is difficult/rare to do simultaneously in my experience. You may need to decide which one to prioritise first. Be aware that when gaining you will put on fat as well as muscle, and when cutting you will lose some muscle as well as fat.

There is a good thread on here for posting training logs - plenty in there will be able to help. I think Chris W cut weight off and has built himself up while staying quite lean subsequently. May be worth a PM if he is keen to help (which I'm sure he would be)

[ORD]

I dont really follow, OP. Why would gaining some muscle be unhealthy? You dont have to go on a "dirty bulk" - just eat slightly more of the healthy food that you should be eating.

And you will definitely be able to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, especially given your age.
The idea that you cannot gain muscle and lose fat in the same time period (measured in weeks or months, rather than days) is perhaps true of very big and/or lean bodybuilders. It is not true of a skinny fat 78kg 6'1 man.

Bodyweight exercises will work for you (at least for a while), but resistance training would get you the same results a lot faster.

Bear in mind that those YT stars you like are (1) probably taking all sorts of drugs that you wont be and (2) probably lying about the exercise regime that built the muscle that they show off.

[Crumpet]

bagusbagus said:

My Previous prognosis from a doctor was a most probably stroke before I'm 35... I do not want to go back there...

With a weight of 90kg, height of 6’1” and a BMI of 27, why would a doctor say you’re due a stroke at age 35? Presumably you have an underlying health problem as a crap diet and sedentary lifestyle describes a large chunk of the population and they’re not all dropping dead at 35.

I can’t really help much with the gaining muscle / losing fat advice. All I can say is that at the moment I’m in the process of shifting about 20kg of blubber and have done so by doing 5x5 StrongLifts combined with a Keto diet. My shirts and trousers still fit the same round the shoulders, chest and thighs but are like tents round my belly and waist - so my assumption is that I haven’t lost muscle.

I also have all my clothes from when I had dropped to this weight before from purely doing cardio and zero weights (and a low fat calorie counting diet). None of those clothes fit round the shoulders and are too tight round the thighs.

So, my best suggestion is 5x5 StrongLifts and a low carb diet.