Gaining muscle or keep losing fat

Hello,

I’m 21 years old weighing around 67.4kg (148 lbs) and standing 172cm tall (5 foot 6/ 5 foot 7). I have been struggling with my physique for some time, I’ve always been a skinny dude and from August to March I have been bulking gaining around 6 - 7kg (13 - 17lbs) until I was 71.5kg (157lbs)and then I started cutting to the weight I am now. Now my question is could you give me your opinion on what you think if I should start (lean) bulking again or keep cutting. I will attach some pictures of me. The problem I have is since I’m not a big guy with large muscles there isn’t really a lot of definition. Currently I’m doing a 2000 cal diet which is 500 below my maintenance, not doing any or low-fat diet, just tracking everything and eating healthy. Maybe I started cutting too early and should have kept bulking to get some more gains I’m not sure. Would love to hear your opinion in this matter.

I hope this is the right forum to post this.

If you want to lose fat, gain muscle. When I get real muscular and get to around 215-220lbs. I can’t get fat no matter what I do and I start shedding fat off even eating 4-5k calories a day.

Calories don’t mean a lot, this always bothered me about diets. They don’t understand what you eat for calories and when you eat is the key. Not the amount of calories. I used to lose weight eating McDonald’s 2 times a day because it doesn’t have the right nutrition for me to maintain weight and i don’t eat frequently. I have a fast metabolism naturally and I need to eat frequently to fight off catabolism.

I bet you can eat 2500 calories and lose a lot of weight if you have your nutrition right and time your eating.

And it’s far easier for someone your size to get ripped. Imagine maintaining over 200lbs. You need to eat, but eat right and eat all the time. Most big guys don’t get ripped because it’s hard to eat for their size.

Some people do the keto diet, I’ve heard good things and seen good results and it’s actually a good diet for building muscle and loosing fat. @finley might want to add something, he knows more about that than me.

I personally like carbs, I find it useful for a big guy like me. If I cut it out, I look very flat and muscles don’t look full and I can’t lift as much. I shuttle carbs well into my muscle from my observation. It’s hard to maintain things once you are reaching 220lbs. Too much carb and you bloat and too little and I become flat.

I personally fast for 12 hours and do some cardio in the am with coffee to burn fat and speed up my metabolism. And then eat multiple time throughout the day. I do tend to over eat which is not good. But you can get away with it more if you’re young and have a fast metabolism naturally and have enough muscles to burn excess energy from food. I lost so much fat after getting a bit fatter this way after eating junk in Malaysia. And I eat 3500 calories a day at least. And don’t work out that much anymore.

How strong are you?

OP you aren’t mentioning any exercise regime. Are you lifting weights? Are you running? What kind of body profile do you want?

I am aiming for the large Bear profile :wink:

Jesus, I’m 90 kgs and rising. I was a petite 70 kgs when I got here.

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That’s positively emaciated for a bear.

I think you started cutting too early. Maybe you never should cut if this means immediate loss of much of the muscle gains you made. I would step back from all the numbers and just look at yourself and see how you feel you look the best. 67 kilos for 172cm seems too skinny, unless you’re a runner or maybe a cyclist that likes mountains. Some men end up looking good with some muscle and without being cut like the way they are in the magazines.