I'm skinny-fat. How do I remedy this?

Bobo Jackson wrote:

Serious responses only, please.

I was actually being serious when I said "Bulk and Cut". Think of it - if someone is skinny fat and would like to continue running solid times, they will want to develop muscle before getting rid of excess fat.

How to do so? Bulking: Lift in the gym, limit the cardio to at least half of what you were doing and watch the details of your diet (I'll let the nutritionists explain this one).

Cutting: Ramp up your running and other forms of cardio, be careful how you are lifting (don't neglect other forms of anaerobic activity though), and watch the details of your diet to ensure you are cutting down on your body fat %.

In general, your body fat % should be lower after the bulk due to an increase in muscle, then lower again after the cut because your overall goal is to cut down on your body fat %.

I used to be skinny fat. Now I do a lot of training (I fight MMA) and do some racing (Spartans etc.). The skinny fat melted right off.

James May wrote:

Are you lazy? That's probably 45 min-1 hr each session, not hard at all. Much quicker than going on a 10 mile run every day.

El G might beg to differ.

hills.

Just F%&&ing run more you lard a55

I hear HGH is easy and a good way to 'melt' the fat right off ye

Eat a good amount of food and run more. Speeds up the metabolism and burns off the fat.

For real wrote:

Eat a good amount of food and run more. Speeds up the metabolism and burns off the fat.

Oh. You didn't clarify which one you wanted to remedy.

If you want to remember the fat part, move around alot and don't eat as much. If you really want to overachieve eat a decent amounts of fruits and vegetables.

If you are trying to remedy the skinny part, eat a ton of food all the time. If you are going for muscly-fat then you can combine eating a ton with regularly picking some heavy shit up and setting it back down.

Best of luck

Bodyfat percentage is determined by hormonal signalling. Ever wonder why you can get a teenage boy who sits on his ass all day drinking Red Bull, playing xbox yet still has a six pack? It's because his endocrine system is completely healthy. Compare this to the 50 year old man who trains 20+ hours a week for Ironman, stuffs his face with 'healthy whole grains' yet maintains his pot belly. His endocrine system is broken.

Trying to manipulate bodyfat by restricting calories is fighting a losing battle. You're acting against biological imperatives. It's like using willpower to try to override the urge to take a leak; it works temporatily but your body always wins eventually.

To decrease your bodyfat decrease the stress on your endocrine system. The main stressors are usually (but not always) too much fructose and too much carbohydrate. Try to limit fructose to less than 20g per day and carbs overall to under say 150g per day initially and adjust as per your running dictates. You might get tired whilst figuring this out. Cultural fear of all dietary fats often gets in the way of getting the calories in.

Alcohol is very stressful too but I'm going to assume this isn't an issue for you. Other endocrine stressors are a stressful life in general (school, work, kids, relationships), poor sleep, some medications, the list goes on. If you're a generally relaxed person then you should probably look to your diet.

Another route is to do a little bit of maximum intensity work every week. All out sprints for example create strong signalling for leanness.

Also, try to get your carbs from real food. Processed crap often means the carbs are acellular i.e. they are no longer contained within cells. 10g of fructose from a soft drink hits your body a different way to 10g from an apple.

Sex change

Go vegan. Run. Lift perhaps once a week.

yupperz wrote:

I've decided that crossfit is the exact polar opposite of Fight Club because the number 1 rule of crossfit is to not shut the f*ck up about crossfit

Ha! Tough mudders are in the same boat.

What's the hardest thing about a touch mudder? Not telling everyone about it.

James May wrote:

Lift 4x a week:

Upper body push (bench/military/push press/etc., triceps if you want)

Lower body Push (squat, jump squat, etc., calf work if you want)

Upper body pull (row, chin-up, etc., biceps if you want)

Lower body pull (DL, RDL, clean, KTB swing, etc., glute bridges/extra glute work if you want)

Eat good food, try to stay away from junk food. Lots of fish, chicken, veggies, steak, potatoes. Enjoy treats when you have them, just don't over indulge.

Do sprinting instead of distance running.

Great advice but hitting the major muscle groups only once per week is not enough in my opinion. Aim for 2.5 times per week. In other words: Monday: Upper, Tuesday: Lower, Wed off, repeat.

AnswerProvider wrote:

supplement w/ more lean proteins, veggies, and healthy fats

Moron.

Why not just combine lean proteins and healthy fats and eat healthy animal fats like a nice fatty steak from grass fed cows?

Or is that too natural for you? Oh, I understand, you would rather eat mass manufactured chicken breast. Enjoy.

BUMP

I suspect your diet is awful. I was running 70 miles per week and still had that skinny fat look because I was drinking cokes and beer, eating M&M's, cookies, and pizza a couple of times per week.

So, I cut out the crap food and did get a little faster, but not enough to justify 70mpw on what little talent I did have (17:15 5K PR). Plus, I looked like sh!t.

What I did was...

1. Run 40-50 miles a week, including some sprint hill repeats, and strides

2. Lift 3-4 times per week because I had time to kill after cutting miles.

3. Cut carbs. Eat lofts of veggies, chicken, fish, steak.

I still ran just as fast.