[aren]

Long story short (which I've posted before I believe) I weighted around 150lbs sometime last year. I got into working out, gained a little bit of weight, then stopped working out. However, I started working out again (forgot what my weight was, I think probably 155), and now I've finally reached my goal at 180. I'm 5'11/6' and I'm 18 years old.

Even though my diet mainly consisted of sandwiches, chicken, steak, fish, egg whites, oatmeal, peanut butter, protein shakes, etc., I still did eat junk food from time to time but rarely.

I realize now that I have a major gut. I work on my abs everyday, and it does have definition, but it only shows if I suck my gut in. I'm assuming I have to do cardio or fix this problem, or am I mistaken?

Also, since I reached my goal, should I continue to bulk or should I cut now? I don't know my BF%, but it seems like I do have a lot of fat on me. What route is the smartest way to go now?

I've but on a lot of weight and people do say I've gotten big (in a good way), but not much of it is muscle.

[lil_big_junior]

simple bro, all you have to do now is diet

[skeptic]

cosign^^

[firecrakjack]

some AM cardio and figure out your BMR to identify the number of calories your body needs in a day... then eat that. i think there is a post somewhere in this forum that tells you how to find it using mathematical calculations..

[monkeybiker]

Training abs everyday will not make you loose your gut. Ab training is to strenthen the muscles, train them the same as other muscles.

If you call pull your gut in and your abs show I would say quite a bit of the weight you gained would be muscle.

Reduce your calories so you loose about 2lbs a week if you want to get leaner.

[glutestriation]

Agree with mokeybiker, you should train abs twice a week, tree times as a maximum... As for diet goes, cut carbs (oatmeal, bread, pasta, etc..) and up with cardio

[aren]

What kind of diet should I do? Bulk or cut? My lifts are very minimal due to the fact that I can't bench press because of a surgery done to my right shoulder. I don't lift at all with my right shoulder/arm. Thanks for the help so far everyone.

[firecrakjack]

stated earlier... cut.

cut out fatty meats and high GI carbs (unless eaten post workout)... keep low GI carbs to the mornings and lunchtime...

snack on protein shakes / broccoli & celery / cottage cheese

[aren]

If I cut, do I lose weight? I really don't understand the concept of cutting too well.

[firecrakjack]

if your diet is right, then you lose fat making your muscles sharper and harder.

if your diet is wrong, you lose muscle and fat making you appear flabby and squishy.

[aren]

Is there a generic diet I could see of a diet that accomplished the losing fat and making your muscles sharper and harder? Also, does this diet make you lose weight or keep it steady? Thanks.

[Beefcake]

Check out the nutrition forum some more, there's plenty of articles and threads with some excellent diets.

[monkeybiker]

Originally Posted by aren

Is there a generic diet I could see of a diet that accomplished the losing fat and making your muscles sharper and harder? Also, does this diet make you lose weight or keep it steady? Thanks.

When you first start training it is possible to gain muscle and loose fat. However after a while you should focus on either one or the other.
While cutting you will probably just be maitaining your muscle so if you loose bodyfat you will clearly be loosing bodyweight.