Lost weight now need help building/define

[Ben-imhe8]

Hi

So I’m 6 foot 1, Around 2 years ago I lost over 3.5 stone over the course of 4/5 months on a low calorie diet, and since then I’ve been fluctuating from high 12’s to mid - high 13’s, currently 13 stone 6.

I’m now much happier although I feel too scrawny almost, especially my arms, and the mrs has told me she doesn’t find my school boy body attractive

I’m looking at joining the gym, my aims are to get fit and to build and then define muscle, I do not want the bulky body builder look, instead I want the toned/defined look with abs, but first I need the muscle to define.

I say I have another stone of body fat I’d like rid off (mainly around my Stomach, would it be best to lose this first or will I lose this fat whilst proceeding for my new target, or will any new muscle sit behind the fat further empathising the fact it’s there?

Second, what do I do about calories? I’ve used to being in a deficit (1500cal), how do I ensure any surplus is going into rebuilding my muscles and not getting stored back as fat?

One other thing, I’d like to stay as light as I can, as I have hobbies which weight comes as a disadvantage although my main priority is being happy within my own body, so although I know gaining muscle will make me heavier, I still have fat weight to lose so I’m hoping losing one and gaining the other will balance things out slightly.

[Ben-imhe8]

My diet so far has obviously been weight loss motivated, so I’ve focused purely on calories and not the nutritional content, fully aware this will need to change for my new goal.

Also I do not mean to offend the body builders, of course I won’t accidentally slip into that sort of physique, I just meant that I want to start with the correct techniques/ plan for my goal
from the outset and not go down the wrong route only to then have to backtrack if you know where I’m coming from.

[Ben-imhe8]

Thanks for the advice so far

Joined the gym tonight, looking forward to going tommorow.

Before I made the thread I had this mind this for a plan

Mon: Back + biceps
Tue: cardio
Wed: chest + triceps
Thur:cardio
Fri: legs + shoulders

However I see deadlifts and squats have been mentioned

Also I noticed the recommendation to not use shakes, was this tongue in cheek or serious, I thought a protein (not creatine) shake post workout on the weight days would be useful, could even have it as a snack those days

[Ben-imhe8]

Douglas Quaid said:

You won’t have enough frequency training each body part once a week. A proper beginners full body 5x5 routine would be better as a beginner then change over to push pull legs or something once you’ve exhausted all your beginner gains.

You’ll get a lot more benefit from squatting and deadlifting than bicep curls and tricep pushdowns.

Edited by Douglas Quaid on Monday 27th June 22:06

Sorry if obvious, what is 5x5? is that 5 reps 5 sets?

Like I said that was my pre thread plan, thanks to yourself and others I have advice which I will follow, I’ll have a look online for good form for those, I know having a personal trainer has been mentioned, but I just can’t really afford the £50 an hour fee, although perhaps I could just use a session to learn then go alone

[Ben-imhe8]

mcelliott said:

What are you actually eating, if you're not eating the right food to optimise your lifting then then your progress will soon falter.

Breakfast - weetabix

Lunch - chicken sandwich

Dinner, chicken + rice, salt + pepper chicken, steak + rice, steak + veg

snacks- I was thinking banana + protein shake

Like i said, bulking diet I’m completely new too, I’ve always used MyFitnessPal so my plan was to use that and keep an eye on the protein consumption aswell as the cals.

Speaking of which, apologies if I’ve missed it but what calorie intake should I be aiming for, the online calculators say my maintain rate is 2600cals, my weight loss target has always bene 1500, should I keep to 2600 but with cleaner food and more protein, or more?

[Ben-imhe8]

SlimJim16v said:

Why a split routine? You're a beginner, one exercise per body part, you can train your whole body in an hour, do it twice a week.

Don't forget stomach, which you haven't listed.

So will this perhaps give me better results to begin with, or will this be too much cardio, if such thing exists?

Mon - full body workout I.e squats/ deadlifts
Tue - cardio
Wed- cardio
Thur - full body workout
Fri - cardio

[Ben-imhe8]

Strudul]advice [/url said:

Thanks

Regarding the lack of vegetables etc, I know my diet isn’t where it will need to be, but today is the first day I’m beginning my new goal so aswell as starting the gym later today I’m also modifying my diet.
I was thinking of making extra at dinner and having some for lunch the next day, so I can do away with the sandwich and have some meat, rice and some veg mixed in, if I’m upping me calories by 500 I should certainly have the allowance.

With cardio, I did mention “my aims are to get fit and to build and then define muscle”

I asked if it was too much cardio because unlike losing weight and getting fit, which kind of come hand in hand with exercise, I wasn’t entirely sure if there were issues with trying to add muscle building with a lot of cardio.

Took photos last night so I can track any progress, as the scales won’t tell the full story anymore

Thanks for the link, very useful

[Ben-imhe8]

Back from the gym.

I did free weights exercises for biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, legs and back.

I was subtly observing others Performing deadlifts/squats, as advised I’m going to research those more before I attempt and injure my back or something.

can certainly feel the burn in my biceps and triceps already, struggled showering, my biceps look like theve nearly doubled in size already . Shame that effect won’t last, not so much in my other muscles so unless their sore in the morning I mustn’t of worked them too hard, I’m thinking that I perhaps worked out the various muscles in the wrong order, because by the time I got to some of them my biceps were already shot to pieces

[Ben-imhe8]

I’ve been back at the gym today, didn’t have as good a workout mainly because my biceps and tri’s are still very sore and generally felt quite weaker, will stay off the weights to rest and get into the routine on Monday.

We’ve had no oven/hob this week due to a kitchen refit so we’ve been stuck with the microwave,will have use of the oven/job from
Saturday, so my diet the last few days has consisted of this.


Breakfast

3 weetabix, semi skinned milk


Mid morning

Grenade protein shake

Lunch

Chicken sandwich
2 boiled eggs

Dinner
2 jacket potato
1 Tin of beans

Snack after dinner

Grenade protein shake

Total 1980 cals
Protein 116g
Carb 252g
Fiber 32g
Sugar 69g
Fat 49g
Sat fat 23g

[Ben-imhe8]

spikeyhead said:

No veg, no fruit, no protein at breakfast, wheat for two of the three meals...

Have a check to see how many vitamins are in the food you've listed.

I’ll have the veg included in my dinners from Saturday, I like a
Poster aboves idea of protein powder with oats so will have a look at that, as for fruit I’m going buy some bananas, I’m not a massive lover of fruit.

[Ben-imhe8]

Question.

Had my 4th session at the gym yesterday, next is tommorow, for a couple of days after my first session I was very sore, the 2 sessions I’ve had this week I’ve only felt a little discomfort, although it’s still a struggle to lift my arms high in the shower etc.


Does this sound about right, is the fact I’m eating way more protein easing the muscles, or am I just not pushing myself hard enough, should I be “wrecked” the next day

[Ben-imhe8]

Strudul said:

That's expected. As I mentioned in a previous reply, you will stop getting sore, as your body adapts to the stresses you are applying.

Soreness may become apparent again if you either take a break for a few weeks, or work a muscle extra hard (e.g. drop sets).

Ok thanks

[Ben-imhe8]

V8covin said:

If you can't lift your arms I'd suggest a bit more rest between sessions.
Are you doing warm up sets before the actual workout sets ?

I’m currently on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine, full body workouts, I did originally plan on certain muscles per session but was advised this wasn’t necessary to begin with.

No I haven’t been doing warm ups?

[Ben-imhe8]

V8covin said:

You don't go straight into your working weights, do a couple of sets at say,50% and then 75% of your working set weight 1st.Do some googling for more information,some people will do a lot more,it gets your muscles primed and you'll be able to lift more and have less chance of injury

Ok thanks for this

[Ben-imhe8]

So just under 2 weeks since I began, I’ve had a weigh in this morning and I’ve gained 3.5lbs, I can certainly feel a difference in some muscles, from looking on the internet it should be impossible to gain more than a pound a week in muscle, therefore it’s safe to assume I’m gaining in fat also, which is a little alarming as my aim is to lose it aswell as gain the muscle, besides I am in a calorie deficit so I’m a little confused, unless you can gain more muscle mass in the early stages than the 1lb a week stat suggests?

Here is my nutrients log, does anything stand out as wrong, I’m drinking 1.5 litres a day of water, plus than whatever I gain from food.

1
Cal 1650
Protein 102g
Carb 220g
Fat 33g
Sat fat 18g
Sugar 54g

2
Cal 1985
Protein 116g
Carb. 252g
Fat. 49g
Sat fat 23g
Sugar 54g

3
Cal 1787
Protein 92g
Carb 243g
Fat. 42g
Sat fat 18g
Sugar 61g

4
Cal 2024
Protein 117g
Carb 234g
Fat 65g
Sat fat 31g
Sugar 83g

5
Cal 1802
Protein 145g
Carb. 168g
Fat. 61g
Sat fat 32g
Sugar 82g

6
Cal 2100
Protein 141g
Carb. 187g
Fat. 87g
Sat fat 38g
Sugar 93g

7
Cal 1959
Protein 154g
Carb. 193g
Fat. 64g
Sat fat 25g
Sugar 78g

8
Cal 2053
Protein 147g
Carb. 233 g
Fat. 61g
Sat fat 27g
Sugar 68g

9
Cal 2010
Protein 189g
Carb. 218g
Fat. 45g
Sat fat 21g
Sugar 53g

10
Cal 1987
Protein 189g
Carb. 194g
Fat. 53g
Sat fat 22g
Sugar 45

[Ben-imhe8]

Yeah like I said I didn’t think I put that much muscle on, just a little alarmed incase it’s fat!

In any case I will continue how I have been for another couple of weeks so that I have Will have had a month to see what’s what, unless there’s something someone can see as being detrimental to my target in my nutrients.

Like I said I’m not after the muscle competition look, just want to lose some more fat and the schoolboy body I currently have

[Ben-imhe8]

popeyewhite said:

Ben-imhe8 said:

So just under 2 weeks since I began, I’ve had a weigh in this morning and I’ve gained 3.5lbs,

Your muscles are storing more energy (glycogen), glycogen attracts water. It will stabilise.

MC Bodge said:

NB. I went a Chinese meal a few years ago and my weight rose by 4lbs, dropping back over a few days. I've not eaten Chinese since.

Salt is the culprit here. Chinese food is notorious for its high salt content, but salt attracts water... .

I love black bean sauce but there's a ton of salt in it. Once a month treat.

So is this because I’ve recently started lifting weights, or will this glycogen water retention happen medium-long term also?

Interesting what you say about salt, as the last few days I’ve had salt + pepper chicken with rice