How can I transform myself from skinny fat to fit? Can I get lean and ripped if I am skinny fat?
People who are cursed with skinny fat physiques commonly ask these types of questions. If you are one of those then this is the correct place for you. Here’s the complete skinny fat transformation guide along with the workout and diet plan.
You can definitely transform yourself if you stick to the plan with complete devotion, though the journey is not easy. So let’s get started.
How Does ‘Skinny Fat‘ Look Like?
Firstly you should check that you really fall into the skinny fat category. Let’s look at what it actually is.
‘Skinny fat’ – though it’s a contradictory term in itself. Like how can someone be skinny (thin) and fat at the same time? But this is possible and very common.
A skinny fat person looks thin with the clothes on but has a high body fat percentage, a pouchy belly with love handles, and a layer of extra fat under the skin.
They may look fit and decent with the clothes on but not when they are shirtless. Here is a picture of a skinny-fat individual.
This may be because of genetics which is not in your control. Apart from genetics, poor eating habits, a sedentary lifestyle, and silly training mistakes can also be the reason for skinny fat appearance.
Whatever the reason, there is a solution for skinny fat. So don’t worry if you look like this, with some willpower and a scientific approach, you can go from skinny fat to fit within several months.
How Can You Go From Skinny Fat To Fit
Here is the complete transformation guide to going from skinny fat to fit to ripped.
Bulking or Cutting: What should you do first?
As you come into the skinny fat category that means you are not too thin to start bulking nor you have too much fat to do fat loss. So from where should you start?
If you start losing fat then you’ll become more skinny and if you start bulking then you may end up getting more fat.
Skinny fat is a very broad category hence there’s no one size fits all. So to decide where to start, first calculate your body fat percentage.
For that, simply use an analog body fat caliper. It’s cost-effective and easily available on amazon.
If your fat percentage is low (below 15%) then start bulking, otherwise focus on losing some fat first.
However, if you are a beginner, then I recommend you do body transformation. That means losing fat and building muscle at the same time.
Read more: How To Gain Muscle & Lose Fat at the same time.
Skinny Fat Workout:
The first and foremost thing in the transformation from skinny fat to fit is to gain a decent amount of muscle mass. You have a low muscle-to-fat ratio therefore focusing on building muscle is the key.
So how a proper workout plan for the skinny-fat individual should look like?
Focus on resistance training
Resistance training or weight training is probably the best way to build your muscles. Without resistance training, you can’t grow your muscles. Things to remember while lifting weights:
1. Master your form first: Make sure you are lifting with the correct form and technique.
2. Do proper warmup before the workout: This will help in preventing injuries and boosts your workout performance.
3. Focus on progressive overloading: If you keep providing the same resistance over and over, your muscles won’t grow. You have to give them a reason to grow by gradually increasing the resistance.
4. Mind-muscle connection: While lifting weight or performing an exercise, put your complete focus on the active contraction of the target muscle. This significantly results in more muscle growth.
5. Focus on compound exercises: Must add the major compound movements like bench presses, deadlifts, squats, overhead presses, etc. in your workout routine.
Related posts:
- How To Do Warmup Before A Workout
- Progressive Overload Training Principle 101
- 5 Way To Improve Mind-Muscle Connection
- Compound vs Isolation Exercises: Which are better & Why?
Build strength and hypertrophy
Strength and size go hand in hand. If you are not getting stronger in the gym then you won’t be able to increase muscle mass.
So plan your workout to build strength and maximize muscle hypertrophy. Here are the things that you need to consider for this:
1. Train each muscle twice a week with enough intensity. Studies show that increasing training frequency helps in increasing muscle growth.
2. Lift moderate to heavy weights without compromising your form.
3. Do most of your sets in strength and hypertrophy rep range (5-12 reps).
4. Do about 4-5 exercises for each muscle group with 10-20 sets/muscle/week.
5. Take 1-3 minutes rest between sets. Less for small muscles like biceps or triceps and more for big muscles like legs or back.
Related posts:
- What is Muscle Hypertrophy & How To Maximize It?
- How Many Exercises Per Workout should you do?
- Rep Range for Strength, Hypertrophy, & Endurance
- How Many Sets Should you do for Muscle Gain?
- How Much Rest Between Sets for Muscle Growth
Avoid doing too much cardio
This is the most common workout mistake people do while going from skinny fat to fit. To burn fat,, some people do hours n hours of cardio which may lead to muscle loss.
However, cardio is important for cardiovascular fitness and helps in burning some extra calories but too much of it can affect you negatively.
A 15-30 min of cardio, 3-4 times a week is enough for skinny fat individuals for getting fit and ripped.
Alternatively, you can replace steady-state cardio with HIIT (high-intensity interval training). HIIT saves time by burning more calories in less time.
One more thing to remember is that never do cardio before weight training. This hampers your workout performance. As you won’t be left with that much energy to hit weights. So always do cardio after weight training or in a different session altogether.
Skinny Fat Diet:
No matter how hard you train, you won’t get desired results unless your nutrition is up to the mark. To go from skinny fat to fit, workouts and diet go hand in hand.
So in transforming from skinny fat to fit, how should you approach your diet?
Set up your calories first
As your goal is to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously, you can’t afford a big calorie deficit. This won’t let you gain any muscle mass and you end up being more skinny.
Going on a small calorie deficit is very crucial for a successful skinny-fat-to-fit transformation. A high-calorie deficit (above 500 calories) will obviously help you lose fat but you’ll lose your muscles too.
Hence, a 5% to 20% (150-500 calories) deficit of maintenance calories is a sweet spot for a skinny fat to fit transformation.
One thing you need to remember is that your weight might remain the same or even increase during this transformation. This is because you are losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time and muscle weighs about three times more than fat.
So don’t rely on a weighing scale to measure progress. Instead focus on body fat percentage, your strength in the gym, and how you look in the mirror.
Keep your protein intake high
Protein is the building block of muscle, so a low protein intake is a disastrous mistake while gaining muscle. Despite being in a caloric deficit, enough supply of protein is necessary to build muscles.
But how much protein do you need for skinny fat transformation?
According to a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Sports Medicine,
0.8-1.2 grams of protein per lb of body weight is enough for skinny fat to fit transformation.
Related: 13 High Protein Foods for Lean Muscle Gain.
So for a 150-pound guy, 120-180 grams of protein is sufficient. Going beyond this range won’t give you any extra benefit. As more is not necessarily the better. However, going below this range can affect you negatively and your muscle-building rate would be slower.
In 2018, a study was done at Schoenfeld to see the effects of high versus low protein intake on body composition. They showed that “subjects on a high protein diet (~1g/lb of bodyweight) gained muscle while losing a kg of fat. Whereas, subjects on a low protein diet (~0.4g/lb of bodyweight) still lost fat but some of them also lost muscle or didn’t gain any muscle“.
Hence, skinny fat transformation is more feasible with a high protein diet.
A sample skinny fat diet
The first thing to get is the daily calorie need. For this, calculate the maintenance calories and cut 5% to 20% calories from that number. Then the second important thing is protein requirement. For this, take 0.8-1.2 gm protein per lb of body weight. At last, sets the rest of the macros (carbohydrates and fats).
- For example, you are a skinny-fat individual who weighs 150 pounds. Now as per your body measurements and activity level, you got your maintenance calories online. Let’s say 2500 calories.
- Now with a slight calorie deficit of 200 calories, you fix your daily calorie intake to be 2300 calories.
- Starting with 1 g/lb of bodyweight, take 150 grams of protein daily.
- Take ~20-30% of fat and at last, fill the rest of the calories with carbohydrates.
Now by taking reference from this, you can easily set up a skinny fat diet plan for yourself.
In A Nutshell
So this was the article explaining how can you successfully do skinny fat to fit transformation. Here is the takeaway:
- Focus on a proper weight training program with limited cardio sessions. Make sure you remain disciplined with your training as consistency is the key to skinny fat transformation.
- Instead of following the pump, focus on getting stronger in the gym because strength and size go hand in hand.
- Lift with proper mind-muscle connection and never ignore the main compound lifts.
- Set up a slight calorie deficit of 5%-20% to prevent muscle loss.
- Take a high protein diet with 0.8-1.2 gm/lb of BW, 20-30% of fat, and the rest carbs.
In the end, just stick to the process and you’ll definitely achieve desired results. Thanks for reading I hope you found it valuable and got your queries resolved.
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