Hey… I weight 76 kg, started at 83,8 kg in december 2024. Am 175 cm tall and eat about 2500 kcal and 1,6 gramms and more per kg bodyweight since december. Haven three days with less than 120g protein.
But my weight training sucks. I stsrted with 7,5 kg dumbbell presses and now I am at 12,5 kg. My barbell incline press was 2,5 kg each side now 7,5 kg so in total with barbell 35 kg.
Dunno what I am doing wrong? Doing Push Pull Leg 6 days a week, once I did PPL UL cause of time.
I feel so bad. Im doing everything I can
Flip your mindset. What you just told me is: “I’m motivated so much that I workout 6 days a week with a solid routine and I’m making gains in the weightroom. Here’s where I started and I have improved my strength in just 3-4 months.” To me that’s a huge win. Congrats on getting in the gym and starting your journey.
Fitness is a journey for everyone and you’re at the beginning. Keep going, you’re doing great!
What are your goals?
I read this exactly as you did.
I see commitment. I see improvement. I see weight loss. The slider is going in the right direction.
Same here
I weight 76,7 kg.
My goal is actually 74 kg but with a bit more muscles and less fat. Like maybe 15% body fat?
Right Now I guess I am at 18% fat and no muscles. I am skinny fat.
So I actually have no idea if I should lose weight or gain muscles first or how much to eat or not eat. I just try to get my protein in, work out hard and try not to eat to less and too much.
If the goal is to lose body fat, you can focus on that. DO make sure you get your nutrients, as you eat less you don’t want to also end up losing out on any vitamins or minerals that you need for function.
Whether you build muscle or lose fat, first, doesn’t matter too much, as long as you don’t push for super low body fat percentages in ways that come with problems.
Building muscle and losing fat at the same time, is possible, it’s just slow.
You obviously have some muscles. How visible they are, is relative. Some people just have bodies where they show up more, others store fat in ways where a high percentage still allows muscle to be seen. Or a low one still makes you look “unmuscled”.
If you don’t know your muscle mass, you could find out. And tracking it in relation to water weight, bone mass, and fat, can give you a better idea of what works and what doesn’t.
The fastest way to gain muscle is to eat a lot and gain a lot of weight. You’ll put on both fat and muscle as long as you’re lifting weights.
It’s why body builders spend a lot of time putting on weight followed by a “cut”.
The problem people have is they try to do both and it’s almost contradictory. Like you said it’s slow. It’s really difficult to pack on muscle weight while at the same time lose fat weight.
Do one or the other and you’ll see a lot more success.
I know.
And OP already mentions they aren’t sure whether to build muscle or lose fat, first, so I assumed they knew, too.
I mention it, because it sounds like OP might have landed into essentially trying tl do both at the same time. So my point is that while what they are doing will eventually get them where they want to be, it’ll be slow, and that it doesn’t really matter if they start with losing fat or gaining muscle. As long as they pick one, and commit to eventually switch to doing the other, they’ll be on their way.
(Sure, it CAN matter, but usually whichever feels more immediately important to the person, comes with the most motivation)
Working out should be about being healthy and giving your body what it needs to thrive.
Looking at exercise as “my gains” is the worst mindset to be in. It’s the number one thing that will make you give up because eventually you’ll say what’s the point.
The point is to be healthy, not to lose weight or pack on muscle.
Drop the mind set and drop the measuring tape. Commit to a lifetime of health not comparison.
When you start, you will progress rapidly, because you’re not actually building muscle, you’re just getting the muscle you have, used to doing more work.
Once you reach the peak of how much the muscles your already had can do, your progress takes a nosedive.
This is completely normal.
What’s the actual goal for you? More strength? Better health? Less fat? More muscle mass?
If you feel horrible, like sick horrible, you need to look at what you’re eating and when, possibly your sleep, and especially how hard you’re working out and when.
IMO the worst thing you can do is train so hard that you have no time to just feel good in-between. Instead you’re always putting yourself through the wringer the second you feel recovered enough.
Whats the point of being fit, if you can’t enjoy the benefits of it, because you’re always recovering from your most recent session?
I know for sure weight training every day would just not work out for me. Even at my peak I was hitting the gym only every three days or so. Sometimes I’d go two or three days in a row, but only if I felt particularly good. Otherwise, I’d wait a few days between sessions.
If you’re just disappointed with your progress, don’t be. How fast you can get your body to change depends a lot on your genes, and once you’re past the initial burst of instant improvement, it can feel slow as hell.
The point should not be endless gain. The point should be a good balance that you feel you can keep going with forever. Once you find that balance, you can settle in and be consistent. If you just want to maintain what you have, keep going. If you want to go further, make adjustments.
But always maintain the sustainable pace.
Your training should hopefully be a life long marathon, not a sprint. Be patient and consistent and gains will come. As you’ve described in your post, you are objectively making progress, so don’t stress it.
Other than that, if you’re on your own home made exercise program, I’d recommend you to jump on a program made by someone experienced.
You can try different routines. Here’s something I did that helped, mainly because it permitted me to try heavier weights within my program:
- Old routine: 1 warm up set followed by 4 sets of 10-12 reps.
- New routine: 1 warm up set followed by a very hard set of up to 5-6 reps followed by 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps.
You didn’t really specify the details of your program, but maybe this will give you something to experiment with.
Edit: also if you’re at the gym 6 days a week, you might need a break.
I don’t feel like I need a break. I am barely exhausted and can’t wait for the next push, pull or leg day after I did it.
My exercises are low because I never really trained. I want my body to get use to it first.
I do 5 exercises each day. Pull day I do 6 (reverse curls) for my thin forearms.
Push:
- Bench Press with dumbbells (3x12)
- Incline Bench Press with barbell (3x8)
- Shoulder Press seated with dumbbells (3x12)
- Triceps Pushdown with cable
- Leg Raises 3 Sets each to failure
Pull:
- Lat pulldown (3x12)
- Cable rows seated (3x12)
- T Bar rows (assisted on a inclined bench) 3x12
- Biceps Curls with SZ Bar 3x15
- Reverse Curls with SZ Bar 3x15
- Cable Crunches 3 sets to failure
Legs:
- Leg press 3x12
- Extensions machine 3x12
- Curl machine 3x12
- Calf raises with dumbbells 3x15
- Sit Ups 3x to failure.
Rest day (Cardio)
Repeat.
So I do PPL Cardio PPL Cardio and so on.
Sounds like you’re doing pretty well then. Somehow it didn’t click me how short time you’ve been at it yet, so just keep doing what you’re doing. The results will come in time.
At this point you should probably be aware of burning out or getting bored after a while since your training frequency is so intense.
Also, if you feel like you don’t need rest, you might not have enough weights, or your technique needs improvement.
Do you think the exercises I chose are okay?
I am planning on doing a Push A, Pull A and Leg A and seperate from Push B, Pull B and Leg B cycle.
Like one week I do A and the next week I do B.
Push A, Pull A and Leg A would be the exercises I wrote above.
For the B version of all PPL days I’d remove one bigger exercise with a bigger calisthenics exercise. Instead of Triceps Pushdowns and Leg Raises on Push Day I’d take those two out and do Dips instead. Instead of starting with Lat pulldowns cable I’d do as many pull ups and negative pull ups as possible and then finish my lat on the machine with lighter weights. Instead of Cable rows I’d do Australien Pull Ups. Instead of Leg Press I’d do Dumbbell Squats in week B for leg day.
You know what I mean?
Yeah sounds like you’ve got a good plan. I’m far from being an expert, so can’t unfortunately give you deep insights.
Just be mindful of the burnout. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. That, and doing reps with good technique. Once the technique is not there anymore, it can be considered a failure and you can stop.
