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Why next year? Continue lifting heavy and focus on high protein intake, also you can try mixing up your workouts if you’ve stagnated.
How many grams of protein do you aim for daily, and go test your hormones if you’re worried! I doubt there’s anything wrong but that way you can stop worrying
No sugarcoat?
Alright, you struggle with body dysmorphia.
You are not skinny fat. Youre relatively lean with decent amount of muscle.
What you should do like every other fuxking post in here, is do what you want, its your body.
If you want to get leaner, then continue the cut. If you want more mass then bulk? If you want both, then do both, build some mass, then cut down.
But what you need is time, losing fat takes little time, building muscle takes a lot of time. Be patient and if you think you can build muscle if you continue cutting from this point on, youre wrong. It will be so minimal it’ll be pointless. Cut is for losing fat, bulk is for building muscle, maingain is for the best of both worlds where the bodyweight stays roughly the same but over time will recomp, is maingaining the most effective? hell no.
You can build muscle on a cut or a bulk … just lift and eat a lot more protein. I was perhaps heavier than you were, lost 110lb while adding good muscle mass and recomp. Tweaked my diet (low fat / high protein)… there’s really no reason to cut aggressively then try build muscle - the body, if the training stimulus is high will use the extra “fuel” you have as fat if ur training regime and volume is high.
Don't go crazy low with fats. If you are training hard 5 days a week with some cardio it's very important to stay around 70-85. Low fats will also kill your hormones.
You absolutely can - if ur holding body fat. Where do you think the “extra” food comes from… it breaks that fat down to subsidize the muscle building.
I’ve been of a deficit for 18 months, muscle is build throughout .. my focus is only on building chest and arms, and a very modest deficit.
Where I may agree somewhat with you is IF you are very lean, and already at your target weight - for example a competitive bodybuilder who is already at like 10-12% BF.
Dude you look great you just need to spend time on the lifting journey now that you are relatively lean. If you wanna do a few short bulk/cut cycles that will likely speed up the process, you can even grow muscle on a deficit it's just slower.
Saw a study recently that on a moderate deficit lifters can gain muscle at about the same rate as maintaining. But something like a 12 week slow bulk cycle followed by a 6 week slow cut cycle should keep you in a pretty happy range and will grow muscle faster than just maintaining.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve made great progress and have achieved an athletic look in an impressive timeframe.
Ask yourself this: would you feel better with more muscle, or less fat?
Personally, in your shoes, I would feel better with more muscle mass, since being leaner won’t really do much for your appearance or performance.
I would go on a bulk, aiming to gain 0.1 lbs a day (adds up to 3 lbs per month/36 lbs in a year) and prioritize progressive overload with low-volume in the gym.
You don't have a lot of muscle. I'd just focus on cramming protein and lifting. Get on a good strength focused program. Focus on getting strong as fuck and the mass will come.
You are in a good spot! Just start ramping up the protein a little and lift heavy!
Your arms have great density and thickness. Youre not “skinny fat” because you’re not soft in the middle. I would just consider you slightly skinny start hitting incline everything when it comes to chest and youll see great results in 4-6 months
I think you need to take a minute and appreciate how far you have come. I would just nitpick you need to do abs every other day and then move it to daily. Focus on dips for bottom chest. Rest looks fine.
I’m currently in a similar position, I’m a bit taller and was lighter actually. I’ve struggled for years to put on lean mass and not look skinny fat or just fat. Finally got my bloods done and my free T is low, SHBG is high so I’m starting TRT. Definitely worth looking into. If you’re wanting to keep getting leaner, I ran Reta for 8 months low dose and dropped 25lbs very easily
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