21M, 5'7", 153lbs
So for most of my life I have been pretty active and athletic, playing soccer competitively up until going to college in fall 2018. I usually hovered around 150lbs, but I always carried a little extra weight around my waist that I could never get rid of (due to poor diet habits at the time). After heading off to college I pretty much stopped being active and found myself around 168lbs this past Christmas. So I made it my goal to fix this and lose weight/gain muscle. I have been eating better and working out regularly for the past 3 months and managed to drop around 15lbs. The goal for me is to get leaner to about ~10% body fat and put on some muscle.
I have been able to lose weight mostly due to my diet and maintaining a caloric deficit. I'm kind of doing a mix of OMAD/Intermittent fasting and it has worked relatively well and I am comfortable/happy with it. I try to avoid carbs and focus on vegetables/fruits and proteins for the most part, but I do not track my macros. I currently exercise pretty much everyday doing quite a bit of cardio as well as body weight exercises like pull ups, chin ups, push ups, various core exercises, and squats. There is not much variation to my work outs at all really.
I am currently around 13% body fat and I figure I could lose around 8 lbs of fat to get to as lean as I would like to be. I would say I have a pretty good natural physique, however I definitely want to build my chest/shoulders/arms especially. Like I said, I have been in a caloric deficit for the past few months but I am not sure whether or not I am being inefficient. I have heard I need a caloric deficit to get rid of the fat but I have also heard I need a caloric surplus to put on the muscle.
I want to know what the best way to approach my goals are. Should I continue to cut my weight down until I lose those 8lbs and then start a caloric surplus and real weight training? Should I stop with all the cardio/bodyweight stuff now and start real weight training, and does that mean I should go into caloric surplus or continue with deficit or do maintenance? If I work on building muscle now, will I also burn fat in the process? Should I start tracking my macros?
What is the best/most efficient way approach to burning those last few pounds and start building muscle? Any advice at all would appreciated!!
[link] [comments]
source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/g3hzbn/do_i_need_a_caloric_deficit_or_a_caloric_surplus/
No comments:
Post a Comment