The “skinny fat” body is instantly recognizable. It is characterized by having a skinny body with no appreciable amount of muscle mass while still maintaining enough body fat to look soft without a shirt on. This is an all too common look and one that needs to be changed starting today.

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In this video, I’m going to show you the best way to fix a skinny fat body type.

Though both nutrition and training changes are going to be needed to solve the problem, it will become clear which one is the best way to go very quickly.

To start, let’s discuss the skinny fat body again. It is often times marked by having skinny arms, skinny legs and narrow shoulders. This comes from having a lack of muscle development in these key areas. At the same time, there is likely very little chest muscle and back muscle development. All the while, the midsection looks not only soft but can be a bit doughy too since there is still body fat accumulation that keeps the lower abdomen looking bad.

The root problem underlying this entire condition however has to do with the overall lack of muscle across the body.

Not only will adding muscle make the body look much better even if the body fat levels stay the same, but the additional lean tissue will help to elevate the body’s metabolism making it easier to lose fat along the way.

So as is often the case when it comes to tackling the solution to being skinny fat, you have one of two choices. You can start by focusing on getting rid of the body fat problem or you can focus on building muscle tissue. Doing the former is never a great idea. The reason for this is that as you lose the fat you have done nothing to fix the lack of muscle. What you are left with is a body that looks just plain skinny.

Most often, when the skinny fat person diets down even further to get rid of the last percentage points of body fat they are left looking sickly and extremely skinny. In this state it actually becomes harder to build new muscle mass even if you shift your pursuit at some point in the near future.

For this reason it is always best to instead focus on building more muscle through making the right changes to your workouts. That said, nutrition is and always will be helpful in supporting your pursuit of muscle. This is specifically true when you consider your daily protein intake. You have to make sure that you are at least getting in .75 to .8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight if you want to support adding new lean muscle tissue.

If you have to count your grams of protein over the course of 12 days to get a sense for how close you are to doing this then by all means do so. If you find that you come up short, it is easy enough to simply swap out some carbs for protein since they are the caloric equivalent on a gram for gram basis at just 4 calories per gram.

When it comes to training you have to start. You may think that you are but if your approach to working out is casual and noncommittal then you are likely exercising and not training. Training is defined as following a specific progressive plan with consistency. Heading to the gym a few times a month is not going to cut it. While any activity is better than inactivity for staying healthy, new muscle tissue can only be forced to grow by giving your body no other choice not to through planned progressive training.

Within your workouts make sure that you are including the big lifts and progressively getting stronger in them. The squat, bench and deadlift are compound exercises that incorporate a lot of muscles together into the lift but can still be complex for some people. Learn how to perform these correctly and take some time to address any underlying postural or mechanical flaws in your body to make sure you are building on a solid foundation.

The accessory lifts can be used to focus on additional volume for creating hypertrophy as well as building the mind muscle connection that is necessary for adding muscle.

If you are looking for a complete training plan that comes with meal plans as well to help you build muscle while also keeping your ripped, be sure to head to athleanx.com via the link below and check out the ATHLEANX programs.

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