Transferred from -600 deficit from maintenance to +250 surplus from maintenance, the scale keeps going up and I’m scared if it’s from me eating too much, but some people say it’s normal transferring from a cut to a bulk is this fine? 10-21 159.2 10-22 160.8 10-23 160.2 10-24 ? 10-25 162.4 10-26 161.2 10-27 161.8 10-28 60.4 10-29 ? 10-30 160.6 10-31 161.2 Nov 1 - 162.0 Nov 2 - 160.0 Nov 3 - 160.6 2 WEEKS (realized I was eating little below my 250 surplus at about maintenance and fixed it the next day) Nov 4 - ? Nov 5 - 162.8 Nov 6 - 163 Nov 7 - 163.4 Nov 8 - 166 Nov 9 - 163.6 Nov 10 - 164.2 Cut: 1950 Main: 2550 Bulk: 2800

All else held equal (same number of lifting and HIIT sessions, consistent caloric deficit), would adding a 20 minute walk in every morning help in my quest to get leaner? Or would the affects be minimal?

Any other things you’ve noticed has really helped in your journey to lean-ness?

I’m trying to burn body fat while building muscle, this is my current plan and I’m wondering if it’s good or needs tweaking

6’0 180lbs Male 2400-2500 calories 200+ grams of protein (Whey, Meat, Fish) 250-300 grams of carbs 1500-1800mg sodium 60-70 grams of fat 20-30 grams of sugar

I do a Push-Rest-Pull-Rest schedule:

Sunday: Pull Monday: Rest Tuesday: Push Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Pull Friday: Rest Saturday: Push

I’m trying to improve strength and look bigger but I’m trying to target body fat in the face mainly and body too.

Simple question really. I'm 5'5 110, so pretty small. I also have a desk job, so while I'm not over weight, I'm very out of shape. I want to do simple stuff while working like curling iron, squats, etc. but really my question is, can I get stronger without getting bigger? It's not that I don't want to get bigger. It's moreso that I have a very hard time eating more than my minimum calories in a day due to gerd; overeating causes a lot of trouble so bulking isn't really an option.

Hey everyone! About three years ago, I did a body scan to document my starting point before committing to a consistent workout routine. Yesterday, I decided to do another scan to see how much progress I’ve made after years of hard work. To my surprise, the results show that I lost a total of 5 lbs of pure lean muscle mass.

For context, my weekly routine consists of hitting legs twice a week, upper body twice a week, and walking as much as I can for cardio. I’ve been pushing myself consistently, and while I’ve seen significant strength gains, this scan result definitely caught me off guard.

Strength-wise, I’ve made solid progress:

•	Bench press went from 95 lbs to a 225-lb 1-rep max.
•	Squat went from just the bar to 275 lbs.
•	Pull-ups went from barely doing 1 to now being able to do 12.
    •       I don’t train deadlift however last time I tried, I was able to pull 275lbs.

My diet generally includes rice, 2-4 eggs, chicken, steak, veggies, and a protein shake if I feel like I am not eating protein. I skip breakfast and typically eat only lunch and dinner, with each meal being a large portion. I don’t consume sugar and don’t count calories, but I make sure my meals are filling. I’ve also been taking creatine, though I’m not sure if that could interfere with the body scan results.

While I’m super proud of my strength gains, I’m a bit confused about the muscle loss. I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar? Could it be diet, recovery, or something I’m overlooking in my training? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading.

2021 body scan: https://imgur.com/a/maRz37F

2024 body scan: https://imgur.com/a/K7V1FJQ

Edit: Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond, I truly appreciate all the feedbacks and advice. Looking back at old pics, I realize I haven’t gained as much muscle as I expected. I believe this is partly due to my diet, which hasn’t been as balanced as I thought. I plan to keep working on that, as well as improving my sleep. Over the past few years, I’ve been averaging 6-7 hours of sleep a day. Here are some before and after pictures I found from 2021.

https://imgur.com/a/Cpg4pNx

I eat animal products mostly eggs-yoghurt and want to use pea protein powder to reach my goal on top of it. Since I partly get my protein from animal source do I have to worry about ''complete protein''

I am 15 and looking at creatine I bought this one and I’m wondering if it’s safe it has

• Creatine Monohydrate
• UVA and URSI
• Cranberry Extract
• Dandelion

I don’t know any of these ingredients and I’m wondering it it’s a good creatine to take

Hi all, I'm 5'9", 146 lbs and have a skinny-fat physique.

Here are some pictures: https://imgur.com/a/skinny-fat-physique-146-lbs-59-O8jFGDD.

I was working out consistently for the equivalent of about ~8 mos, while maintaining/slightly bulking from ~153-158. However, I recently took a break from working out for about 6 weeks and happened to drop 12 lbs (diet dropped and I have a really fast metabolism). Naturally a good amount of this ended up being muscle loss, and I've started working out again to rebuild it.

Question 1: Now that I'm down to 146, should I just keep dropping until my belly fat is gone so I'm no longer categorically skinnyfat, and then lean bulk from there? What I'm worried about is that I will just keep losing too much muscle and look way too skinny. I'm also worried that once I lose the belly fat, I'll gain it back once I start lean bulking again.

Question 1.5: If I do choose to keep dropping until I lose the belly fat, when should I stop dropping? What weight or body fat % should I stop at?

Question 2: What body fat percentage do I currently look like?

Thanks!

Should I use creatine I’m starting to work out at 15 and I don’t know if it’s safe to use and if it actually helps. please help

For context I have dipped in and out of RPT over the years. I use the rept app but don't like how the sets progress independently.

In Martin's blog The Reverse Pyramid Training Guide (https://leangains.com/reverse-pyramid-training-guide/)

He actually says progress dependent on the first set AND that whilst reps should go up as you drop weight - set 2 & 3 should have the same goal reps as set 1

This "set 2 & 3 should have the same goal reps as set 1" - how did I miss this all these years?

Is this how it should work, because this goes specifically against the diagram for RPT he shares.

Hey, I'm male 22, and 175cm, I currently weigh 61kg as of this morning.

I have been training in the gym for about a month now progressively overloading and have seen noticeable growth albeit small but it is there and I am going up in weights every other session. I am mostly contributing this to newbie gains. However I'm unsure with to do with my diet, I'm 61 kilos and somewhat lean I do not have any of the skinny fat characteristics (I will insert an image. I would like to get leaner whilst still putting in an okay amount of muscle I'm not interested in putting on as much as possible as fast as possible. I'm unsure if I should cut or maintain it. Or bulk? If I maingain and steadily put muscle on at this weight will I appear to get leaner or is only possible to get leaner through cutting? Any advice and suggestions on what direction I should take I'm quite unsure, I did read that I should get down to my ideal body fat percentage and then leanbulk from there. Not sure if that answers my question tbh lol however I would like could have some reassurance on what to do thanks!! Current physique

So as I have readed martins latest answers on bulk on how he ate 4500 cal for 84 days and gained 7kg in 3 months span his idea of cutting after bulk is to over feed on training days and eat 1300-1400 calories on rest days which I understand ‘ buy what do you guys think I should do to cut without loosing too much muscle and strength I have gained during the cut and how should I cut ?

I think all the extra energy from food has me not needing much sleep to crush it every day

So, the short version is I take a medication that is rendered ineffective when ingesting (even small) amounts of citric acid, which unfortunately is in quite a lot of things including every preworkout drink I have ever purchased. So far I've had no luck in finding anything new, so I'm hoping someone here may know of one.

Hey everyone,

First time I'm making a concerted effort to bulk, before I continue I'll say my main form of fitness is CrossFit but I'm very much cherry picking the workouts atm to focus on the more heavy lifting and barbell type stuff, as well as doing accessory lifting throughout the week hottong all muscle groups with typical bodybuilding work.

I've been weighing myself everyday to make sure things are moving in the right direction and overall it is but should my weight vary this much day to day?

BW

21/10/24: 76.5kg

22/10/24: 76.6kg

23/10/24: 78kg

24/10/24: 78kg

25/10/24 : 76.4kg

26/10/24: 77kg

27/10/24: 78.2kg (post breakfast)

28/10/2024: 79.3kg

29/10/2024: 78.6kg

30/10/2024: 78.4kg

31/10/2024: 77.5kg

As you can see it moving in the right direction but a few days ago I was close to 80kg and now back down to 77.5kg.

I weigh myself same time of day etc, calories are around 3100-3200 everyday, sometimes more but I always make sure I'm over 3k.

I went through a 3 1/2 months surplus and gained about 7 lb and out of those 7 lb None was muscle. I know this for 2 reasons, the obvious one because I see it now that I cut (short easy cut- did not loose the muscle here). And 2. Because I got a body scan avery couple of weeks all throughout ny bulk and saw a steady trend of fat going up while muscle stayed the same. Why did I not build any muscle in my bulk. -I was progressive overloading: tracking my workouts sticking to one program and always progressing my lifts with either sets or reps. Taking my lifts close or even to failure at times. • something I could have done better is slowing down the eccentric. Which ai will focus on controlling the reps more now. - I was sleeping a good quality 7-8 hours of sleep -Tracking my macros and had my diet on point. (Always hit my protein, never ate out, controlled surplus) water intake good etc. • I was doing a PPL split variation SO Legs, push, legs, pull, legs. Never felt under recovered (may have been dont know). Now that I have cut those 7 lb I put on I see that it was all for nothing since I built literal no muscle and based on my scans I may have even lost a little bit. Did I just waste 4 months to go up and fat and then cut it? Why didn't I build any muscle??? I understand there is a few things I could've done better such as controlling my reps. Focusing on mechanical tension, but this can not be the sole reason I legit built O muscle. I am starting another surplus in a couple of weeks and I want to make sure it is a successful one and I want to undersi what I did wrong since it was my first really dedicated bulk and I thought I really locked in.

Stats

I've been reading a little bit about RPT since i've been searching for a way to really supercharge my fat loss and am curious what anyone thinks about my current plan and if the RPT approach would be a good plan for me...

• 5ft11" male 42 yrs old
• Started out at 252lbs June 2024
• Starting body fat 37%
• Started taking tirzepatide June 2024
• Started taking testosterone replacement June 2024 since my levels were pretty low - like around 110. Recent tests shows i'm back up to about 700
• Current weight 215lbs, current body fat 28%
• Have been stuck at 213-215lbs for the past 4 weeks, can't seem to lose more.
• I weight train 3 days on, 1 day off, 3 days on, 1 day off. Most of my exercises I try to do high weight and low reps to where I fail on the last rep of the last set. I use the same weight for eat set (which i know per RPT is different)
  • Day 1 PUSH - flat smith bench press, incline dumbbell bench press, single arm cable side lateral raises, seated smith machine military press, tricep pushdowns, close grip smith machine bench press
  • Day 2: PULL - rack pulls, single arm dumbbell rows, bent over barbell rows, reverse pec deck flyes, preacher curls, alternating dumbbell hammer curls, dumbbell shrugs
  • Day 3: LOWER BODY/core - leg extensions, smith machine back squat, leg press, lying leg curl, seated calf raises, weighted ab crunch machine
  • Day 4 - rest
  • Day 5 Push - a different set of exercises than above
  • Day 6 - pull - a different set of exercises than above
  • Day 7 - lower body - a different set of exercises than above
  • Day 8 - rest
• I try to eat around 200g of protein, less than 100g of carbs, about 70g of fat and around 2000 calories.
• My diet has been ok for the most part. I do have the occasional day or two where I might eat a slice of pizza or something I normally don't eat - but I never binge eat like a box of donuts or bag of burgers.

I seem to have reached a weight loss stall to some degree. I know i'm putting on muscle as i'm stronger in the gym and my arms are getting bigger, but i'm not seeing my weight come down at all. I figured i should still be losing at least 1lb per week. Either way, my interest is losing body fat - not necessarily weight on a scale.

A few questions..

• Will adding an IF day help kickstart weight loss again? I've done a 24 hr fast before once and it seemed to get me back into weight loss mode, but not sure if that was a fluke or my body was just losing muscle instead.
• I will for sure read the lean gains site and recommended books, but for feedback on if this program has worked for others in a similar situation looking to maximize fat loss.
• Does having too much of a calorie deficit hurt weight loss efforts? If I'm supposed to target 2000 calories per day but only consume 1000 what could that potentially do to my body? Will it slow down metabolism or something that will slow down weight loss?
• What are the overall thoughts on eating meat vs fish vs chicken etc? The one thing i really like are these jones organic chicken sausages from costco. They have a lot of protein and are minimally processed. They don't have any msg, nitrites/nitrates, hormones, etc. I rely a lot on chicken and not so much red meat, but i'm wondering if i should have a diet that is a mix of red meat, chicken and fish.

21 M / 6’ / 175 lb (Newbie)

Any recommendations for workouts or meal planning/prepping would be great

Need help with workout plan. I was thinking pretty much upper body and then lower body the two days and then maybe if I do a third day adding in some “accessory” work outs. My only issue is I don’t know what those specific work outs would or should be.

I am not looking to be insanely low body fat but I would like to maintain body fat while gaining muscle (losing body fat would not be a problem either)

Recently lost about 20 pounds semi-accidentally, I am looking to go to the gym at least 2 times a week per week maybe a 3rd day.

I plan on switching my diet over to almost strictly beef, chicken, raw vegetables, and half cup of rice per day.

I am wanting a plan for working out but I am lost. I have never been a gym person at all.

In the book Martin touts the seal row as being a super-effective back exercise. Done on a normal bench I get little to non ROM. My arms are above average in length. Most benches also have stuff "under there" that tens to be in the bar path. So is there some special bench or other equipment that helps make the seal row a good exercise for larger individuals?

Just finished reading Martin's book and i made a routine based on the RPT. Very similar to the one in the book but with a few adjustments:

Monday • Deadlift - 3 x 6 • Barbell row - 3 x 8 • Weighted dips- 3 x 6

Wednesday • Bench press - 3 x 8 • Overhead press - 3 × 8 • Dumbbell lateral raises - 3 x 10 • Pinwheel curls- 3 x 10

Friday • Squat - 3 × 10 • Weighted Chin-Up - 3 × 8 • Hip thrust - 3 x 6 • Hanging leg raises - 3 × 10

Is the volume okay? Any exercises i should add? Thanks!

M19. 170 lbs Been working out for 2 years. Over the 2 years I’ve lost a lot of weight (around 50 lbs) and went from 30% body fat to around 15. I’ve been trying for the last few months to get down to 10% but nothings working. I do cardio and im in a calorie deficit but it’s like even though I lose weight there’s no change. At first I was losing weight and dropping the fat quickly, but everything’s slowed down and the fat has become very stubborn, despite me maintaining the same habits I had before. I’m honestly so lost right now and I don’t know what to do, like I just wanna get abs. I’m thinking about lowering my calories even more. What should I do ?

https://imgur.com/a/CIufUfB

I think i may be suffering from fuckarounditis and just need somebody to tell me which of these 3 day splits are better, or if they are any good at all.

Workout 1

Day 1

Pushups (3 sets)

Bench press (3 sets)

Rows (3 sets)

Dips (3 sets)

Rear delt flyes (3 sets)

Day 2

Barbell squats (3 sets)

Romanian deadlifts (3 sets)

Calf raises (3 sets)

Neck curls (3 sets)

Hanging leg raises (3 sets)

Day 3

Pushups (3 sets)

Overhead press (3 sets)

Pullups/Chinups (3 sets)

Dumbbell curls (3 sets)

Lateral raises (3 sets)

Workout 2

Day 1

Incline bench (3 sets)

Barbell bench (3 sets)

Dumbbell curls (3 sets)

Tricep pushdown (3 sets)

Lateral raises (3 sets)

Cable crunches (3 sets)

Day 2

Leg press (3 sets)

Leg extension (3 sets)

Hamstring curl (3 sets)

Calf raises (3 sets)

Dips (3 sets)

Lateral raises (3 sets)

Rear delt fly (3 sets)

Day 3

Overhead shoulder press (3 sets)

Pullups (3 sets)

Chinups (3 sets)

Dumbbell hammer curls (3 sets)

Pushups (3 sets)

Lateral raises (3 sets)

Rear delt fly (3 sets)

Hanging leg raises (3 sets)

Im worried that the first might be under training and the second might be overtraining. Im so confused. In short, here are my questions.

Are these viable workouts?

Which one is superior?

Is the first one under training?

Is the second one over training?

Sorry if i havent made things clear.

Hi! I'm an 18 year old female and I just started my journey into body recomposition. There's a couple of questions that I had about it that I couldn't find clear answers to and I was hoping for some advice! To preface, I am 5'5" and at a healthy weight so I am looking to maintain and not lose or gain at all. I also changed my diet a couple days ago to eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight and to eat as many whole foods as possible. Also, I read the FAQ but I couldn't quite understand some of it so sorry if some of these are answered in it! 1: Will using machines instead of lifting with regular weights make the process of building muscle slower? They are much less intimidating as a beginner but I want to make sure I'm still going to make progress. 2: If I workout five days a week, how should I split that up between leg days and arm days? 3: What is the best way to avoid bulky arms? Everyone seems very divided on this. I see people say to lift as heavy as possible, lift light, don't do arm days at all, or replace it with pilates with weights. I have no idea which path to go! 4: Last question! Will it build more muscle to make the weights as heavy as I can, even if I can only do 2 or 3 reps, or should I lower the weight to something where I can do around 8 or 10 reps? Sorry if these questions are asked all the time. Thanks for reading and I hope this makes sense! I just started my journey and I don't really know what I'm talking about.

22m 5’7 155lbs. I have some muscle tone but hold some fat too. I started going to the gym in July doing PPL & heavily focused on progressive overload. I’ve gotten a lot stronger over the last 3 months.

Will I see muscle gain if I’m focused on a high protein diet (150-185g/day) not really focused on calories. If anything I’m typically in a low deficit on accident.

I’ve been reading that the most a person can gain in terms of muscle per month is 1KG or 2LBS.

Doing a little math, 275 calorie surplus a day is 1925 calories a week and 7700 calories a month which exactly equals 1 KG.

Is this the ideal amount of calorie surplus? I’m planning on a lean bulk soon, just trying to find the perfect surplus amount to gain muscle with minimal fat.

I need a little more protein to hit my goal, just wondering any recommendations for a daily protein snack to add into my day that's at least 10g of protein!

EDIT - Appreciate all the responses! Ended up grabbing 0% Fat Fage Greek Yoghurt!

Been working out for 1.5 months now dropped from 171 to 152

Im 21 5’7

Calorie intake is 1,300 a day which is about 1,000 calories less than what i should have for maintenance

So far its made me lose weight and fat extremely fast i only eat plain chicken plain rice and plain broccoli everyday once a day

This is mentally strenuous and im dying to find out how to properly go about looking leaner and more muscularly toned

Aspiring for a ryan reynolds physique, currently id say my lower abs are there and v line is comming but not nearly enough

Muscles appear small to me as well but its not insane just decent

How can i eat more and how much do i cut my calories down to lose fat but gain muscle???

I've been in the gym for a year now using RPT and have been happy with the results.

For my chest workout I always start with incline dumbell and stay away from Smith machine because I just dont like the feel.of it. So my question is I've hit the max dumbells of 75lbs and im repping those 12 times. Should I be as many as possible on my first set and see how many reps I can achieve over time? Just seems like I should ne going up in weight but I just can't because planet fitness. How should I approach?