Recently I have started to get serious about being healthy. I have struggled with being fat my whole life although through puberty and jogging, I have managed to maintain my weight and therefor appear thinner because of my growth in height. So, I did some research and have found some very useful information but am confused on what I should be doing.

I have heard many of the popular fitness youtube channel's say that you should bulk to get a good foundation so that when you lose weight, you don't look like a stick. So I was wondering what I should be doing first because I'm not skinny fat, I'm just fat.

Also should I be doing cardio and training in the morning on an empty stomach or in the afternoon when I've already had breakfast and lunch and maybe a little snack after school then work out and have dinner after? Years ago when I started jogging, I was told to jog on an empty stomach so that I was burning pure fat. However, it seems that people are telling me to do cardio after I've eaten because if you're hungry, which I usually am in the morning, my body will use whatever muscle I have as energy and not the fat around my body. Keep in mind that I have school and need to be out the door by 8:20am and I get home around 4:00pm.

What I've been doing for a while now is waking up at 5:40am and be outside jogging by 6:00am for 30 minutes and then get back and do a little strength training so build strength, not muscle. I usually do HIIT training in between jogging days just to spice things up. I don't count macros because I eat whatever my mum cooks and don't want them to spend more money buying seperate groceries for me. I do however, count my calories and have followed Scott's calorie calculating video and workout that I need to eat the minimum of 1670 calories to lose weight. I've also been wondering if it is a good idea to be eating less calories to lose weight during puberty and during the last few months where I'll be getting my last growth spurt because I have also heard that I won't growth taller if I don't eat much.

To sum it up: (I'm 17 years old turning 18 this year by the way)
1. Should I be bulking up first then losing weight or the other way around?
2. Do I train in the morning on an empty stomach or during the afternoon after I have had breakfast and lunch?
3. Will eating less calories stun my height growth?

Also I have linked pictures to show you how much fat I have. Be warned that there is a picture where I try to bunch it up to show the amount of fat better. I also happened to just finish watching Scott's Stomach vacuum video and did a few during the video so I may appear a little thinner than usual. Also I'm embarrassed so I cut out my head. Hope you don't mind.

Many thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond,
-Andy

Andy,

I will try to keep my answer simple as it is apparent you have used many of the resources like the meal plan to calculate your daily caloric needs. First off, hormones are on your side :-) At 17 and still not finished with puberty, you are a testosterone and growth hormone producing machine. This is the only window (13 - 23) you will have in your life when this is the case naturally (outside of using steroids which you NEVER want to do). As to your questions:

1) You want to add "clean" size and lose body fat. At your age, you can achieve this much easier than older individuals like myself. #1 is to maximize your protein intake to at least 1 gram per pound of LEAN body weight. Scott's video on meal plan preparation shows you how to calculate this. You can go to a max of 1.5 grams/lean pound. Protein is used by all your hormones to help your body grow as well as put on muscle and burn fat.

2) Make sure you're eating plenty of GOOD fats - olive oil, nuts, fish (tuna, salmon, sardines, mackeral), coconut oil, egg yolks. All your hormones are made of cholesterol and fat. Without them, your growth and leaness potential will be stunted. Remember it has to be GOOD fats. NOT fat from fast food, fried food, fatty beef, etc. Even though you are young and may be able to burn some of this off, it will not help you lose body fat. Only strict clean eating will do this.

3) Watch your carb intake and keep it to natural carbs like fruit, brown rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, whole wheat breads and pastas (not refined white flower), etc. Stay away from junk food like cakes, pastries, candy, soda (diet and non-diet), white breads and pasta, french fries, all junk food and snacks. To lose body fat and gain muscle, you need your protein high, then your good fats, then the rest of your calories fill with clean carbs.

4) Don't train on an empty stomach as you will burn muscle to fuel your workouts not carbs and fat. Cardio on an empty stomach in the morining is fine but don't do HIIT - keep it low to moderate intensity to burn fat and preserve muscle. Lift weights when you feel you have the most energy. I lift in the evenings. Some people can do morning or afternoon. Just remember to have at least 1 meal with protein, carbs, and fat an hour before you workout. Cardio after workouts, especially HIIT, is very effective in burning body fat.

5) Reduced calories will not stunt your growth. Your height and weight potential are genetically pre-determined. This is why you still sometimes see tall people in poor countries with rampant starvation. Calculate your daily calories at rest and in motion on SHF. Take the average of the two as your daily caloric goal. 250-500 extra calories per day to this goal will help produce "clean" growth. Reducing 250-500 calories a day from this goal will help fat loss.

6) You can't have strength AND size when natural. The more calories you take in the stronger and bigger you will be but less lean and the less calories you take in the "smaller" and leaner you will be but less strong. Muscular size is an illusion - a person who is 170 Lbs at 7% body fat will "look" bigger than a 195Lb person at 14% body fat regardless of height.

Hope that helps......

John

Thanks so much for the information. So to clarify, it is ok for me to jog in the morning on an empty stomach or is that considered high intensity?

I also don't lift weights as I don't have time at the moment to go to the local gym due to the high demand in studying this year and therefore can only do body weight training such as push ups, pull ups etc.

This will be my plan after reading your reply:

1. Wake up at 6:30 (Getting 40 more minutes of sleep) and do some body weight training
2. When I get home from school, eat a small meal consisting of protein, carbs and fat then go for a jog or HIIT
3. Eat another small meal as dinner.

Also should I be aiming to great a better foundation or getting leaner?

Thanks again for the response!

Andy,

Jogging is moderate intensity so fine in the morning on an empty stomach. You should aim for both a solid foundation and getting lean. Diet helps with both but you really need to try to find some time 3 days a week to pump some iron. However, doing the body weight exercise is a great alternative to the gym. Again, at least 3 days a week for 30-60 minutes. Try to add variety in the exercises if you can.

John

As John has already said jogging on an empty stomach is fine but I always like to get a few BCAAs down me before I do anything first thing in the morning.

Good point.......I forgot to mention the importance of BCAA's for maintaining muscle :-)

John

Hey man, I have the same tight school-schedule like you do (08:00 - 16:10) and I have just spent a year doing bodyweight exercises only as well. I'm 18 years old and I just recently started working out in a gym with equipment. I'll share what helped me build up a good foundation for working out and getting a lean and healthy body (I currently reside at around 13.5% bodyfat which I am content with).

I didn't bulk nor cut, but what I did instead was that I started eating more often and clean - just like what the other guys already mentioned. Fortunately for me, my mother cooks meals that suit my diet, but before I convinced her to do that, I just made my diet fit together with whatever she dished up. One way to do this is to ask you mother every morning "Hey mom, what's for dinner?" to get some sort of idea of what you should eat the rest of the day (Are you gonna have a lot of carbs? Alright, cut down on it during the day

and so on).

For me, I need to constantly eat small meals to keep my stomach satisfied and what helps me do that is that I eat the same things every day (except for dinner, which is a joker-meal that depends on my mom!).

My eating schedule looks like this:

1) Breakfast.

2) Snack.

3) Lunch.

4) Snack.

5) Pre-workout snack.

6) After-workout.

7) Dinner.

8) Night munchies.

Now, I don't like having my diet too strict at the moment, because anything can change and I need to be flexible in regards to my schedule, so instead I say that breakfast is carbs, lunch is protein and dinner is protein. The snacks are usually something small like a few vegetables, a piece of fruit or maybe a can of tuna. That way I ensure that I get the building blocks that I need to grow, stay healthy and get rid of excess fat.

My biggest help at the moment though, has got to be my notebook. I write down every meal I eat and which time I ate it, that way I can review every week and see what has changed and what could have made that change (Did I get leaner the past few weeks? Oh it must be because I cut out this food).

And finally.. Sleep. Get your sleep. I'd say a minimum of eight hours every night - At the moment I slack a bit here (stupid me) due to finals etc. but I can always feel if I've had enough sleep in terms of how my body looks and how much energy I have. You can look up the countless benefits of a good long nights sleep, but in regards to getting rid of the excess fat then sleep plays a huge role!

Get your workouts in and eat cleaner and you'll soon see results! I know I did, so I'm sure you can too!

I hope that helps!

Great information in this thread everyone!!

My English is not so very good and maybe some one said it already... I have hears that it's better to start with workouts with weights and after that doing cardio like jogging. It seems that starting with weight exercises and joggingafterwards will in grease to burn fat... Some one of you heard this also?