KingOfRome
Pig Disgusting Coomercel
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I could rehash the same points about how low body fat makes your face look good and it's better for overall body aesthetics, but there's more than enough of that out there for you to read already. In fact, if those points haven't convinced you already to pick fat loss, you're probably not overly concerned with looks for the time being. All I'll do here is show you the benefits of cutting first from a sheer time investment perspective.
The example I'll use is a male at 160 pound and 20% body fat. Let's say he wants to be 160 lbs at 10%.
Recomping is a meme and joke for reasons laid out by people far more experienced, knowledgeable, and credentialed than myself, such as Dr. Mike Israetel and Dr. Eric Helms, so I won't bother touching on that. You can look further into it yourself if you like. I'll just say if our skinny-fat guy tries to recomp, he'll be lucky to get to 18% in two years without stepping into the celtech buffet and gorging on trenbologna sandwiches.
Let's say our skinny-fat guy wants to gain muscle first. That means he'll be eating to gain weight i.e. bulking. According to the Lyle McDonald model, a novice lifter can expect to gain somewhere around 22 pounds of muscle in a year. This is in ideal conditions, mind, one such ideal condition being an adequate energy surplus. To make sure he gets this, he will be wise to eat slightly more than necessary rather than less due to the inaccuracies involved in tracking energy input and output. In general, a 1:1 ratio fat mass to lean mass gain is considered acceptable during a bulk. Assuming this happens, our skinny-fat 160-pound man will become a fat 204-pound man. His lean body mass increased from 128 to 150 while his fat mass increased from 32 to 54. His body fat percentage also increased from 20% to nearly 26%; he has become clinically overfat and obese. Not healthy, not athletic, and certainly not good-looking. He will need to lose 50 pounds to get to 10% body fat.
Now, let's say that our skinny-fat guy, not wanting to face the brutal diet he'll need to lose that much weight, goes back in time and injects IQ. He decides to cut first. With a lower body fat percentage and a lower weight in general, he will only need to lose 25 pounds to get to 10% body fat.
When he bulks later, and gains from this quite scrawny state the same 44 pounds that he did in the previous timeline from his skinny-fat state, his lean body mass will have increased from 121.5 to 143.5, and his fat mass from 13.5 to 35.5. He is now 179 pounds at 20% body fat. To get back to 10%, he will only need to lose 28 pounds.
Keep in mind weight loss of 2 pounds per week is considered healthy and sustainable according to mainstream wisdom, and even though it's possible to lose faster, our skinny-fat guy will never need to spend more than 4 months dieting if he sticks to an average weight loss of 2 pounds per week.
His rate of muscle growth will go down as he gains more lifting experience, but our former skinny-fat guy should only need a couple more bouts of bulking and cutting to reach his goal of 160 pounds at 10% body fat. This is also assuming he spends an entire year bulking, which he doesn't have to do if he doesn't want to go above 15% or so. This only means he has shorter and more frequent bouts of bulking and cutting.
To conclude, if you're skinny-fat, cutting first will save you time, preserve your looks, and is a healthier approach in the long run. Bulking first will just make you obese, and you won't have anything to show for it without a brutal diet that will take the better half of a year.
The example I'll use is a male at 160 pound and 20% body fat. Let's say he wants to be 160 lbs at 10%.
Recomping is a meme and joke for reasons laid out by people far more experienced, knowledgeable, and credentialed than myself, such as Dr. Mike Israetel and Dr. Eric Helms, so I won't bother touching on that. You can look further into it yourself if you like. I'll just say if our skinny-fat guy tries to recomp, he'll be lucky to get to 18% in two years without stepping into the celtech buffet and gorging on trenbologna sandwiches.
Let's say our skinny-fat guy wants to gain muscle first. That means he'll be eating to gain weight i.e. bulking. According to the Lyle McDonald model, a novice lifter can expect to gain somewhere around 22 pounds of muscle in a year. This is in ideal conditions, mind, one such ideal condition being an adequate energy surplus. To make sure he gets this, he will be wise to eat slightly more than necessary rather than less due to the inaccuracies involved in tracking energy input and output. In general, a 1:1 ratio fat mass to lean mass gain is considered acceptable during a bulk. Assuming this happens, our skinny-fat 160-pound man will become a fat 204-pound man. His lean body mass increased from 128 to 150 while his fat mass increased from 32 to 54. His body fat percentage also increased from 20% to nearly 26%; he has become clinically overfat and obese. Not healthy, not athletic, and certainly not good-looking. He will need to lose 50 pounds to get to 10% body fat.
Now, let's say that our skinny-fat guy, not wanting to face the brutal diet he'll need to lose that much weight, goes back in time and injects IQ. He decides to cut first. With a lower body fat percentage and a lower weight in general, he will only need to lose 25 pounds to get to 10% body fat.
When he bulks later, and gains from this quite scrawny state the same 44 pounds that he did in the previous timeline from his skinny-fat state, his lean body mass will have increased from 121.5 to 143.5, and his fat mass from 13.5 to 35.5. He is now 179 pounds at 20% body fat. To get back to 10%, he will only need to lose 28 pounds.
Keep in mind weight loss of 2 pounds per week is considered healthy and sustainable according to mainstream wisdom, and even though it's possible to lose faster, our skinny-fat guy will never need to spend more than 4 months dieting if he sticks to an average weight loss of 2 pounds per week.
His rate of muscle growth will go down as he gains more lifting experience, but our former skinny-fat guy should only need a couple more bouts of bulking and cutting to reach his goal of 160 pounds at 10% body fat. This is also assuming he spends an entire year bulking, which he doesn't have to do if he doesn't want to go above 15% or so. This only means he has shorter and more frequent bouts of bulking and cutting.
To conclude, if you're skinny-fat, cutting first will save you time, preserve your looks, and is a healthier approach in the long run. Bulking first will just make you obese, and you won't have anything to show for it without a brutal diet that will take the better half of a year.