# advice on leaning out, adding muscle



## Elivo (Apr 16, 2018)

Currently i am on the 5/3/1 program for my lifting, im sitting at 5'8 and about 235lbs currently. quite a good bit of that is still body fat, id say around the 25% mark but i couldnt honestly say for sure.  My weight doesnt bother me, i could weigh that much or more, its cutting down the fat that i am most concerned with at the moment.  
Not doing anything as far as a cycle, ill wait till im in a better place to get the full benefit from that.  

I keep seeing that you need to focus on either losing the fat or building the muscle, and that doing both is not something to shoot for. 

My current plan is 2 days upper body and 2 lower, bench, mil press, squats and deads for the big compound movements for those days.
Add in some back and arm work on the upper body and abd work with conditioning on the lower body days.  

The 5/3/1 program ( as im sure most of you are very well aware) is a progressive routine that gets heavier each week/month youre on it.
Do i need to ditch this and just go balls out heavy and condition everyday?

Conditioning is KB complexes and on the off lifting day HIIT followed by about 15/20mins of stead state cardio.


I know this all probably sounds like very noobish questions, and while i have been lifting for a good part of my life, ive never lifted or worked out with a specific goal in mind other than to just get bigger.  Now that i actually want to get my body looking as good as i can, im sort of at a loss as to the  best approach to go about doing it.

Diet is much improved as i know that plays a huge part.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!!


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## Viduus (Apr 16, 2018)

Spongy and some of the other guys on here will swear by a recomp and that it’s possible to gain *some muscle* while cutting.

In my experience it comes down to how much you’re focusing on cutting. This has been my goal and my focus has been to maintain strength while seriously leaning out.

At one point I was pretty damn exhausted and really felt the strength decline. I jumped on a spongy diet and it really helped me get my energy back. (Lost more weight as well)

Ive been able to greatly improve my conditioning though. My 2cents is to pick the goal you want most and work to maintain the others. Others on here have a lot more experience and I’d defer to them if the recommend otherwise.


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## Chillinlow (Apr 16, 2018)

People always talk about this but pease tell me how you guys are actually monitoring muscle gains losses etc? You can gain muscle and cut fat and still have actuall shrinkage in size of per say your arms and that’s what gets most people.


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## Spongy (Apr 16, 2018)

Chillinlow said:


> People always talk about this but pease tell me how you guys are actually monitoring muscle gains losses etc? You can gain muscle and cut fat and still have actuall shrinkage in size of per say your arms and that’s what gets most people.



BF% vs weight.  If weight stays static but BF% goes down it's just a matter of doing the calculations to figure out how much fat you've lost vs how much lbm you've put on.


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## BRICKS (Apr 16, 2018)

Chillinlow said:


> People always talk about this but pease tell me how you guys are actually monitoring muscle gains losses etc? You can gain muscle and cut fat and still have actuall shrinkage in size of per say your arms and that’s what gets most people.



Don't really care about "size" if it's fat.  A 16" shredded arm looks a lot bigger and better than 20" fatceps.  And like Spongy said, if you are losing bodyfat but your weight stays the same then you are gaining lean mass.  Yes, you will occupy less space, and yes you will actually look bigger.  And you  should be gaining some strength.  Don't get hung up on numbers.   People get so lost in all that bullsh*t.  Look in the mirror.


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## John Ziegler (Apr 16, 2018)

BRICKS said:


> Don't really care about "size" if it's fat.  A 16" shredded arm looks a lot bigger and better than 20" fatceps.  And like Spongy said, if you are losing bodyfat but your weight stays the same then you are gaining lean mass.  Yes, you will occupy less space, and yes you will actually look bigger.  And you  should be gaining some strength.  Don't get hung up on numbers.   People get so lost in all that bullsh*t.  Look in the mirror.



Great post .....



Elivo said:


> Ive never lifted or worked out with a specific goal in mind other than to just get bigger. Now that i actually want to get my body looking as good as i can



That is a good goal to have imo, but I too have recently been shooting for a leaner & better symmetry appearance.

saw a dude walk in a place that I work the other day, could tell he was bigger and prolly stronger than me but that belly and obvious layer of fat size

coupled with the fact that he was out of breath just walking from the car to the door .......

Fukk that !


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## Elivo (Apr 16, 2018)

I agree, i dont want to be the big guy with the huge gut walking around, right now that is like all i see when i look in the mirror is that gut.  I know it has improved but i need that shit to go away big time.   
I can tell a big difference with my workouts and just walking around at work and shit in general, i dont get out of breath, my resting heart rate has improved and i need to get new scrubs for work cause my pants are damn near at the point of falling off, but there is still such a long way to go, and im an impatient ****er!!!   
I know and ive heard it before, "you didnt put on that fat overnight, you wont take it off overnight"  but damn shit just needs to be gone!


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## snake (Apr 16, 2018)

Your ability to be able to put on muscle, get stronger and reduce fat will depend on your starting point. Still, I think you should be able to do a good job even without gear. 

I'm wondering about how your back is doing with all that work? All that cardio and leg training 2x/wk.... something has to give. 

As for the gut, depending on how "Big" you were before, some skin may stick around.


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## Elivo (Apr 16, 2018)

It was a bit sore after my DL day, but i also never did deadlifts all that much before, regret it now cause it feels like it really works just about every damn thing lol


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## DF (Apr 16, 2018)

Before I go thru a cut. I count my cals for 2-4 weeks.  My Fitness Pal is a great app for this purpose.  Once I know my TDEE I can cut cals from there. I also take a belly measurement using the belly button as a land mark.


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## Wildcat32 (Apr 26, 2018)

BRICKS said:


> Don't really care about "size" if it's fat.  A 16" shredded arm looks a lot bigger and better than 20" fatceps.  And like Spongy said, if you are losing bodyfat but your weight stays the same then you are gaining lean mass.  Yes, you will occupy less space, and yes you will actually look bigger.  And you  should be gaining some strength.  Don't get hung up on numbers.   People get so lost in all that bullsh*t.  Look in the mirror.


Fatceps is now my favorite word ever lmao!


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