CUT OR BULK FIRST "newbie"

[ONDEZNTS]

I am a newbie into this wonderful world of bodybuilding, and have a question wheater i should cut the fat off me or bulk up first. Right now it is October and guessing i would say my body fat is up around 20-25%.
i have been working out 5 day a week for the last couple months and really starting to feel good although i am still pretty chuncky. I believe my diet is pretty clean and i have been eating around 4000 calories a day. i take fish oil caps, multi vitamins,and amino acids. I am approx 5'11 and weigh 220lbs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[texasRUSH]

you tell us...you want to put on more weight and diet down once or diet down..gain weight again to pack on more size then start all over? 

20-25% though that's kinda high 

[Overload]

what is your MAIN goal?

look and feel good?

from your post i can tell you want to be lean. drop calories to around 2500 and do some light cardio a few days a week in the morning or after your weight lifting. see how that works for about 2 months. you should drop some weight very well if you stick with the diet.

[Conan Stevens]

Being a newbie you are in the enviable position of being able to gain muscle and loose fat at the same time.

At 20-25% bodyfat you have been eating rubbish - clean your diet up. Natural foods only, nothing processed, no soda pops or colas or fruit juice, and nothing that is manufactured.

You will be surprised how good you feel once you drop a bunch of that fat, keep your protein levels up (with food not drinks) and you'll see impressive strength gains over the first 3 months.

Train with weights 3 days a week do cardio 4 days - train HARD when you are in the gym.

Stick at it, in 3months you'll feel a difference, in 6 you'll see a major difference. Stick at it 20 years and you'll be a monster

[AVBG]

First decide on what you want to do, setyour own goals and then stick to it.

Anyway, 25% BF is too heavy. cut down to 15% by cleaning up your diet and eating smaller frequent meals 5-6 per day and limiting the rest between sets to no more than 30 secs to 45sec.

Then when you are lean enough focus on mass building routines (5x5 or HST type training) and increasing marginally the rest between sets to ensure you can progressively get stronger, more importantly dont be concerned about putting on weight for the sake of weight.

[JPM]

Wonder if you mean by 'bulking up', adding pure muscle mass or more body fat. If your guessing your body fat is around 20-25%, than that may be a wild guess. Try to get a true reading of the percentage of that extra fat. Then you know where you really stand. 4000 calories is very high, so you may want to drop them to the range of 2800 to 3000 a day, enought for maintence, muscle growth and general health reasons. Also drop the carbs to around 100 grams a day while on this lower calorie level. Fairly easy when flour, pasta, etc are taken out of the diet. Get a carb counter book. You should never feel hungry if you plan your meals correctly.

You didn't say how you were working out five days a week; weights,set's, reps, body parts, cardio, etc. As a rule of thumb, three day's of BB'ing and two or three day's of some type of cardio, of this type of program, should give the results you are seeking. Change around you cardio workout with things, like running, power walking, treadmill, bike, steppers, etc. One way to fight boredom. Cardio sessions can be from 20 to 30 minutes, nothing more is not needed. Might also do a search for the Tabata and other interval cardio training methods. Good luck.

[Old_Rooster]

I am a newbie into this wonderful world of bodybuilding, and have a question wheater i should cut the fat off me or bulk up first. Right now it is October and guessing i would say my body fat is up around 20-25%.
i have been working out 5 day a week for the last couple months and really starting to feel good although i am still pretty chuncky. I believe my diet is pretty clean and i have been eating around 4000 calories a day. i take fish oil caps, multi vitamins,and amino acids. I am approx 5'11 and weigh 220lbs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Ride out the winter and keep eating and lifting.  Don't worry about leaning up til about 1st of february....and btw, 20 to 25 percent isn't extremely bad for winter.  Put muscle on while its cold, big sweaters cover guts, people always seemed to like me off season, big, whether i was soft or not.   winters muscle time though, eat, eat, eat, heavy heavy heavy.

[Old_Rooster]

I may be just older and i know everyone likes to keep a clean diet year round but its not practical.   i think you doom yourself to failure if you try to eat clean all year.  hell eat some crap in the winter......enjoy it.   just get in your protein and lift heavy.  but you want mashed taters eat em, mac&cheese, eat it.  Don't overboard til its burgers & fries every meal and sausage biscuits for breakfast, but diet hard in summer, show those rips, but have a few months of the year to enjoy life and that includes eating what you want. 

[Saskbb]

I am a newbie into this wonderful world of bodybuilding, and have a question wheater i should cut the fat off me or bulk up first. Right now it is October and guessing i would say my body fat is up around 20-25%.
i have been working out 5 day a week for the last couple months and really starting to feel good although i am still pretty chuncky. I believe my diet is pretty clean and i have been eating around 4000 calories a day. i take fish oil caps, multi vitamins,and amino acids. I am approx 5'11 and weigh 220lbs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Cut, the max you should on any bulking cycle is 14% bf.  Get yourself into shape because if your 25% right now you are not.  Once you get down to around 7% see what you look like and than bulk.

You need lots of cardio and a clean diet.  Try not to loss more than 2 pounds a week.  Also stay away from HITT cardio as all you will do with your level of conditioning is burn muscle.

Good Luck

[ONDEZNTS]

Wow i just re-read this post from a year ago and man what a change i've done it the past year. right now i am approx 15-17% bf and don;t plan to cut anymore till feb/ march. Thanks for everyones advise it worked.

[Bluto]

that's good to hear! 

[PANDAEMONIUM]

I am a newbie into this wonderful world of bodybuilding, and have a question wheater i should cut the fat off me or bulk up first. Right now it is October and guessing i would say my body fat is up around 20-25%.
i have been working out 5 day a week for the last couple months and really starting to feel good although i am still pretty chuncky. I believe my diet is pretty clean and i have been eating around 4000 calories a day. i take fish oil caps, multi vitamins,and amino acids. I am approx 5'11 and weigh 220lbs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

I'm no bodybuilder by any stretch so take what I say with a grain of salt, but at this point I think your best bet is to pack on as much muscle as possible and not to stare at the mirror every 2 seconds and worry if you start to gain a LITTLE pudge.  Go to the gym, hit the weights HARD, no pussy shit, just you and the iron.  When you walk out of the gym, you should feel like you're going to die.  Then go home, eat TONS of good food.  You will learn in time, and with experience, how much food is enough to put on quality muscle while gaining only minimal fat.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

[haider]

I'm no bodybuilder by any stretch so take what I say with a grain of salt, but at this point I think your best bet is to pack on as much muscle as possible and not to stare at the mirror every 2 seconds and worry if you start to gain a LITTLE pudge.  Go to the gym, hit the weights HARD, no pussy shit, just you and the iron.  When you walk out of the gym, you should feel like you're going to die.  Then go home, eat TONS of good food.  You will learn in time, and with experience, how much food is enough to put on quality muscle while gaining only minimal fat.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Wow i just re-read this post from a year ago and man what a change i've done it the past year. right now i am approx 15-17% bf and don;t plan to cut anymore till feb/ march. Thanks for everyones advise it worked.

HTH, dumbass