<p>The people who say eat more are right, but as you start working out you'll eat more food naturally probably. The only dietary change you might need to make is more protein.</p>
<p>
[quote]
5'8" and 140.
Oddly enough, I get compliments all the time. I'm guessing this is because I probably have about as little body fat as you can have and still survive haha. All 140 pounds is muscle, so even though I'm pretty light (and definitely not BIG), I'm cut.</p>
<p>I've tried gaining mass, but I just get more defined, not bulkier. It's the curse of my skinny body type <em>shrug</em>
[/quote]
5'8 140 isn't that bad, really. I'd say it's a decent to pretty good physique. Really depends on everyone and I was sort of being shallow to judge based on one's weight (although generally it's the case that you can get a basic picture of how it's like), as a general guideline.</p>
<p>I'd put that on the skinny side, but then I have nothing to say (lost a lot of my muscle from not exercising/eating candy/junkfood for a while...now I'm at only 150 pounds lol).</p>
<p>lol I'm 5'7 and been 120 for the past 2 years. </p>
<p>It does come in handy for competitive swimming though. Now that I'm done though I wish I wasn't so skinny :P</p>
<p>haha i weigh 180 and bench 260, but what i really wish i could do is SWIM. I have 4.4% body fat and when I jump into the pool and get gassed after a few laps it's SO DISAPPOINTING. Don't be like me- train both aerobically and anaerobically.</p>
<p>I'm 5'7 and 115 pounds..been that way for almost 3 years.</p>
<p>L-O-L</p>
<p>CC is by far the best place to post this. Obviously everyone is going to know about how to get jacked.</p>
<p>haha tomjones you're just like me! </p>
<p>two years ago, I went on a 3 week backpacking trip at Philmont Boy Scout Rance (170 miles). I trained hard for it, by carrying 50-60 pound packs around nearby mountain preserves for several weeks (at 120 lbs myself, that's like half my body weight). When I completed the trip, my weight was a whole 121 pounds LOL</p>
<p>bulk = bad. Build muscle, but make sure you keep the fat off. Once you stop working out, it will turn to fat within 2 months, trust me. I'd recommend you do 3 days a week of lifting, with alternate days doing cardio.</p>
<p>I'm 5'8-ish and 140. athletic build-ish. (taekwondo)</p>
<p>im 17. 6-1. 165 and like 7-8% bf...make sure to run too, it's better than any ab exercise for abs. and take protien shakes</p>
<p>Ewww, don't do those protein shakes and crap.</p>
<p>Please. Eat real food, good, healthy real food. The nutrients in food (and I'm talking about the natural stuff when I say food) act in ways that humans have not yet discovered. So, even though you're getting protein through those shakes, you're not getting the full nutritional value of say, chicken or soybeans.</p>
<p>I get that for top atheletes things might be different (ok, I think they're really not, you should just be eating MORE real food, but I'm not an expert on athlete's diets, so w/e), but you're talking about pretty basic working out, for which real food will serve just fine.</p>
<p>(Also, in reference to the posts a while back, wasn't there a Sports Illustrated study that said chocolate milk was better to drink after workouts than Gatorade? Random, but interesting.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
haha i weigh 180 and bench 260, but what i really wish i could do is SWIM. I have 4.4% body fat and when I jump into the pool and get gassed after a few laps it's SO DISAPPOINTING. Don't be like me- train both aerobically and anaerobically.
[/quote]
I haven't LOL'd more than this yet on this forum in a long time.</p>
<p>
[quote]
im 17. 6-1. 165 and like 7-8% bf...make sure to run too, it's better than any ab exercise for abs. and take protien shakes
[/quote]
</p>
<p>man, I even wonder if the people on here know what a 7~8% body fat means. I won't 100% say that it's impossible, but I'm seriously surprised at some of the posts here...about how bs it is.</p>
<p>^ agreed with Invoyable. Kenyan marathon runners probably have around 8%, I would say.</p>
<p>Hahahahaha 4.4%? That's like completely emaciated.</p>
<p>Many people assume they have low body fat simply because they don't "look" fat, or simply don't understand what body fat % really is. This one guy I knew seriously thought he had 0% bodyfat.</p>
<p>hahahahaha tell him that if he had 0% body fat, he'd be a skeleton.</p>
<p>There is a tremendous amount of variation in the body fat of different groups of people, in particular, of athletes. In athletes, the percent body fat can range from 5 to 20% in males and from 10 to 20% in females. The difference is highly dependent upon the specific sport or activity. Athletes competing in sports where body weight is at least partially supported in the environment, such as diving, swimming or rowing, tend to have higher levels of body fat. Athletes involved in very high intensity anaerobic activities such as track short events or endurance events in track, basketball, or wrestling tend to have semewhat lower body fat levels. Having more or less body fat can be an advantage or a disadvantage depending upon the particular athlete's activity. Having more body fat can be an advantage for contact sports such as being a lineman blocking in football, oriental wrestling or playing rugby. Having less body fat is an advantage when the main goal is to propel the body through space, as in distance track events or other endurance events. </p>
<p>this is a classification of body fat and fitness level</p>
<p>Classification Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential Fat 10-12% 2-4%
Athletes 14-20% 6-13%
Fitness 21-24% 14-17%
Acceptable 25-31% 18-25%
Obese 32% plus 25% plus</p>
<p>this is typical body types for different precentages of %body fat</p>
<p>Body Type Female Male
Athlete 17% 10%
Lean 17-22% 10-15%
Normal 22-25% 15-18%
Above Average 25-29% 18-20%
Overfat 29-35% 20-25%
Obese 35+% 25+%</p>
<p>so ya..... people who are super atheltic....pro athletes are around 8%</p>
<p>i did the calculations and i have ~12% Body fat
im about 5'10" and i weight about 155ish
i used to be around 165 but i stopped lifting weights and i stopped swimming...so i have lost a lot of muscle mass
i do a lot of road biking now...so body fat isnt really that much of a concern...i would say i am in pretty good aerobic shape</p>
<p>yeah, when i tell people im 14% bf, 180, there like, no way, you dont look like you have a 25 pound stomach. If your talking about that 14% of fat distributed over a 6'1" frame... that 14% is keeping me alive, ty. 10-15% for HS kids is on the lean side, but people think for some reason being lean means your like 6%. ...</p>
<p>I'm not lying! ..or emaciated! A sports medicine physician came to our school to do a study on our football team. He had this machine that send electrical pulses through our bodies when we gripped these metal handle things. We took the test once after our first scrimmage, when I was calculated as having 4.4% body fat, and once after our last game, where I was calculated as having 6%. My body fat percentage increased over the season due to a lack of weight training and a poor in-season diet. </p>
<p>Oh well, I still suck at swimming.</p>
<p>^Ok those things really suck. Taking a shower will make a 5% difference. I am anywhere from 11-17% on those things. In reality I'm 12%. 4.4%? No. <5% cannot be maintained for more than a couple days reasonably. You do realize that during competitions, very lean bodybuilders are ~2-4%, and they have done it by using a lot of thermogenics as well as dehydration? Get real. Anyway I recommend you buy Rippetoe's starting strength vol 2. Do it, do it the right way.. This thread is filled with horrible advice (except a couple...guy who said don't bulk, build muscle, etc). Oh and don't worry about protein shakes before you get a solid diet going. Supplements are just that. They supplement your program.</p>
<p>Errr, the number the bioelectrical impedance thing give you also varies with hydration, lol. You might have been dehydrated that second time around.</p>
<p>Protein shakes aren't nearly as effective as Creatine. I noticed a huge improvement in my endurance after a couple weeks of drinking a water and creatine powder solution.</p>