Bodybuilding Forums

Hi
I'm quite new to all this so your help would be most welcome, i would like to bulk up but at present i am in the skinny fat range, so i need to loose weight but still want to bulk up on muscle, please can you tell me what diet would be most effective for me?
Your help would be most appriciated!!!

Hi Chris,

I've been enjoying great success with losing bodyfat on Mark's MANS diet over a very short period of time. To put you in the picture I'm 6'4", 35yrs old and have always had a fast metabolism and as a result been naturally skinny (at age 25 I weighed less than 150lbs which for my height is pretty damn thin!). This slowed recently and I put on a little more weight reaching 190lbs - but all bodyfat, i.e. I wasn't working out at all.

5-weeks ago (at 180lbs and 18% bodyfat according to my bodyfat scales) I started exercising daily at home - push-ups, crunches, etc and three weeks ago I discovered Mark's blog and read Total Anabolism 2.0

Once I'd read every article on the blog and followed up a lot of Mark's sources etc (like him I have to understand that something has some peer-reviewed emprirical data and scientific study behind it before I'll believe it). I joined a gym (3-weeks ago), working out 5-days, resting at the weekend. I committed strictly to the MANS diet a fortnight ago. I also started supplementing with whey protein and l-glutamine (only started 5-days of loading creatine four days ago).

In that fortnight I've found it easy (though expensive) to follow the diet - all it took was a couple of trips to the supermarket checking out things that were high fat/high protein but low-carb and a search online for some low-carb recipes to find things that were quick and managable to cook. I eat scrambled eggs (sometimes bacon/sausage too) every morning for breakfast, snack on walnuts, almonds, peanuts, cheese between then and 11.30'ish when I eat a slightly smaller lunch than I used to, usually some steak, salad with caesar dressing and cheese or corned beef, cheese and a vegetable ratatouille. I'll typically have the same again mid-afternoon and then dinner at 8pm ish (snacking in between). My bodyfat is now at 12.5%, my abs are showing like never before, I weigh 177lbs now and have stayed at that weight and bodyfat for the last three days. I've also swapped the fat that had gathered on my chest for muscle (and I'm pleased to see it looks a little bigger than it did already).

My only concern is whether I'm getting enough carbs. After a fortnight (which may be too soon to judge) I'm thinking I might need to up my daily carb intake a bit to ensure that enough protein is getting carried to my muscles to maximise growth as I think I've been too strict in cutting the carbs out and have possible experienced muscle breakdown or restricted growth as a result. It may just be me being impatient. I'll keep you posted as to how it progresses with a small increase in daily carbs.

Hope this helps