Skinny fat is a bit of a mean term really isn’t.
For so long skinny was what everyone wanted to be.
But then people started getting too thin, and then all of a sudden if you were a slimmer build you were being told to eat more.
Being overweight has never really been as up and down as skinny.
But the word fat definitely gets thrown around a lot more loosely.
People get called fat just for gaining an extra pound which is ridiculous.
But now the two words have been jammed together and it’s confusing both sides of the equation.
No longer are we at risk of being skinny or fat.
But you can now be a mix of both?
How can you be skinny and fat?
It was always one or the other.
Skinny people want to gain weight, fat people want to lose weight.
So what does a skinny fat person want to do?
Because you can’t lose weight and gain weight?
Can you even build muscle and burn fat?
So we’ve established that it seems a little weird to be both of those things.
So what is it?
Skinny fat is when you don’t appear to be overweight.
You technically have a healthy weight for your height.
But, you don’t have much muscle on you.
Your skinny little limbs are soft and lacking tone.
You may even have a little potbelly.
The first thing I do with skinny-fat clients is work on building muscle again.
Unfortunately, when you don’t have much muscle on your frame and you go and burn a lot of fat, you end up looking very skinny.
So to avoid this we make building muscle the first goal, and once the client starts to feel stronger and more solid we switch to fat burning.
This whole process can take as little as 6 months, it can also take years.
No matter what the goal is, it takes time to transform your body.
So you have to commit to and trust the process.
And the great news is you can do this with or without a gym!
You don’t need to lift heavy weights to build muscle, bodyweight exercises are also great for building lean muscle.
One thing you will have to do no matter where you are training though.
Eating in a calorie surplus.
What do I mean by this?
You need to eat more calories than your body is burning. Otherwise, you won’t gain weight.
Should I Do Cardio If I’m Skinny Fat?
During the first stage of our transformation, it’s probably best to do limited cardio.
When we are trying to build muscle we need to be in a calorie surplus, and cardio makes it hard to do that.
Cardio training is burning calories, so the more cardio you do the more food you are going to have to eat.
So at least for a few months, I would stick to light cardio, probably just in your warm-up and cool down.
Remember it’s a process, first we want to build a little muscle so that when we start burning the fat there’s some meat underneath to give you the toned look you’re after.
No one is chasing the definition of a skeleton, so build some muscle first then cut back the fat later on.
Once we’ve had a few months of this routine though we can start to mix it up a little bit and bring in higher intensity workouts.
By doing a form of HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) we can carry on building strength while we start burning fat.
By doing circuits of our bodyweight movements we can keep our heart rate up while still stimulating the muscles.
It would be a bad idea to do a few days of lower intensity strength workouts, combined with a few days of high-intensity circuits.
Check out this great example below of a HIIT workout you can do at home!
Skinny Fat Workout At home
Ok, let’s break it down into how it could all work at home.
Our skinny fat muscle building at home could look something like this.
Squats – 4 sets of 12 reps. Lower yourself down into your squats for 5 seconds, hold at the bottom for 2 seconds, and then 3 seconds back up.
Rest 1 minute between sets.
Single leg RDLs – 4 sets of 8 reps on each leg.
Use the same tempo as above. For more resistance, lift a backpack full of clothes.
Push-ups 4 sets of 10 reps. Follow the same tempo as above.
Table rows – 4 sets of 10 reps. Follow the same tempo.
Now if we wanted to make the workout higher intensity we could do something like so.
4 rounds. 1 minute on each exercise followed by a 30 rest.
- Jump Squats
- Bicycles
- Jumping Lunges
- Push-ups
- Supermans
Training at home is so easy these days, especially with my favorite piece of gym equipment.
Resistance bands. So, download your FREE copy of my EBook Train wherever the f*ck you want, you’ll learn everything you need to know about training at home, at the beach, at work, anywhere!
Skinny Fat Transformation Diet
The most important part of any transformation is getting your food right.
Calories in vs calories out.
And to start with we want to be building muscle so we need a slight surplus.
So we need to figure out how many calories we need to maintain our current weight, and then add 200-300 calories.
Next, we need to make sure we’re getting enough protein in.
So we need to figure out our lean body mass and work out our protein-based on that number….
It’s a lot to think about right? Surely there’s an app that can do all this for us right?
Myfitnesspal has got you covered.
It works all these numbers out for you.
All you have to do is start logging the food you eat.
It’ll even tell you how many calories, carbs, fats, proteins, and all the other nutrients you just ate.
I really recommend getting onto this app, or one like it.
There’s plenty out there now.
These apps have made it so easy to get your diet right.
And if you’re clever you’ll take note, and remember the numbers in food.
Because at the end of the day, once you understand how food works and what your body needs you’re most of the way to the new body you’re after.
Training from home is a lot easier than you think.
Especially with the Grizzly Online Gym! Workouts you can do when you want, where you want!
Click here to check it out now!