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17 and Stressed Out. Bad Conditioning, Need Advice

I’ve been lifting for just over a year now and haven’t made much progress. I have never bulked before because I used to be a lot fatter even though I still am I think. I really want to build muscle and get big but I’m scared to put on more fat than I already have and not put on muscle. Please give me advice thanks!

What did your program look like before hand? Is that all you been doing is lifting do you do any other type of physical activity?

My program is PPL x2 then an off day on Sunday, so 6 days per week. I try to do cardio every now and then by walking to school and back but honestly not much. I start my workouts with a compound movement for low reps high weight and do a few isolations after

Two questions… Since Im not 100% familiar with the program your using

  1. have you gotten stronger from when you started for a given rep range on the movements you are using?
  2. Are you trying to eat at least half way healthy?

My 1RMs are:
Bench: 90kg
Squat: 115kg
Deadlift: 125kg
OHP: 60kg

I have increased in strength but not 100% sure what my maxs were before sorry.
I’ve been trying to eat somewhat healthy, but it could be cleaner I guess.

I just don’t know what to do because I’m scared that if I bulk I’ll just gain more fat than muscle because I’m fat already, and if I diet I don’t wanna feel insecure and weak (even though I am lol)

“somewhat healthy” that’s the answer, I had the same thinking and guess what I was completly wrong. 17 years old working out and looking like this cant eat healthy.

Don’t know if I mentioned I used to be clinically obese a couple years ago, weighing 230lbs, but I’m now around 180. I still haven’t lost all the fat thoug. i know I’m not healthy

Cut down it will get you mentally better.

Thanks man. I know it would mentally be a lot better to diet down first then slowly bulk. I just got to get over the worry of losing the little strength I have lol. Any suggestions on how much of a defecit I should go? And by a real diet you mean like rice, chicken eggs veggies etc? Thanks

Yes rice, chicken etc. No sugar. If you drink cola switch to zero, worked for me. And deficit depends on your activity, dont go crazy about it too.

Thanks, I’ll definitely diet down with a real diet and will have to post progress pics in the near future. I’m more of a pepsi guy so pepsi max will be good haha! Thanks for the advice

So I can bet you had a lot of sugar. Just dont drink and eat anything with sugar for a month, you will se miracles happening.

Yeah I’ll do that too and eat real clean and train hard. Definitely needed the words of motivation, thanks

Add 50+% to all these lifts and you will see a difference.

You’re not eating enough. You’re not training heavy enough. You’re not lounging around enough.

Read Dan John’s “Big 5 of Getting Big” here on T-nation.

If you want muscle and strength, guess what? You’re gonna put on fat. Otherwise, progress will be slow and frustrating. You are 17 years old. You are far too skinny to be doing any more losing weight.

Lots of PR’s and strength/muscle come from a McDonalds bag. Just don’t go crazy with it. Getting big is a cycle.

I read about and talk with guys like you often and they all tell me they eat a lot. But if that’s the case, why aren’t you gaining weight? Nothing worse than training your butt off and nothing to show for it because you’re afraid to lose your abs…which is their problem with trying to make progress not saying its your issue.

Fact is: you gotta eat big to get big.

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I’ve been told by 2 people to cut down and lean bulk, and told by 2 people to bulk up and get stronger despite me being already overweight. I’m pretty confused with what to do now. I know I have no muscle and I’ve come a long way with dropping fat but I heard it was harder to build muscle when your bodyfat is high and I will gain more fat :confused:

You dont look fat at all, you look like a skinny kid whos been in the gym for six weeks. You actually have a reasonably fat stomach. If you cut down you will have the abzz and the rest of you will look scrawny as all hell.

Anywayyy… at your age just train balls out in a proven program and dont eat junk/sugary crap etc and you will put on muscle fast as well as lean out.
Any of these work well:

Bulking is something stupid kids on the internet do. No one is telling you to bulk. You are being told to eat well enough to facilitate muscular growth. You have to eat to recover from hard training, and you have train hard to grow muscle.

The Dan John and Jim Wendler routines posted have all been awesome. If you want an idea of how to eat, this is a great one.

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If I eat like this will I gain much fat compared to muscle? I’m really worrried about that because I’m already self-conscious about myself as it is :confused:

So if I don’t do a controlled diet and just eat clean but more food I’ll lose fat anyway while getting stronger? I really am just worried about feeling shit about myself if I gain too much fat cos I’ve already got a good layer of fat everywhere especially my stomach and if I build muscle there will be even more fat covering it