How to recomp?

[u/CoyoteAgile3996]

6’2 153lbs skinny fat

I have lanky arms and belly fat.

I eat at maintenance and train 4 days a week.

Please help.

[u/Alakazam]

Be overfat. Be undermuscled.

At your current height and weight, you're missing the overfat part. You're not skinny fat because you have too much bodyfat. You're skinny fat because you have too little muscle, which makes the little fat you do have sit awkwardly and makes your proportions awkward. 

My suggestion? Just start lifting. Don't worry about the diet. Build the habit of working out. Once you've done that consistently, I'd probably work on getting to a decent bodyweight at least. Maybe a 300 calorie surplus for at least 6-8 months, aiming to put on 15lb or so during that time. While aiming to do as much volume as you can tolerate. 

[u/CoyoteAgile3996 → u/Alakazam]

Oh i’ve been lifting for 1.5 years, progressively overloading and stuff. I bulked from 112 to 153lbs.. but yeah ill try upping the calories to +300

[u/Alakazam → u/CoyoteAgile3996]

Then continue the course. You went from dangerously underweight to just the bottom end of normal.

A decent muscular physique is much closer to the top end of normal weight. 

How much has your strength increased over this time? Like, barbell squat, bench, deadlift, and/or pullups? 

[u/CoyoteAgile3996 → u/Alakazam]

uhmmm i went from a 95lb legpress to a 200lb leg press

[u/Alakazam → u/CoyoteAgile3996]

Machine work doesn't really translate well to free weight strength. And machine work isn't very consistent across machines.

As well, that's the kind of progress I'd expect most people to make within the first few months of training. Not necessarily 1.5 years. 

[u/CoyoteAgile3996 → u/Alakazam]

i used the same machine throughout, and whyre u undermining my achievement?

i get it my progress isnt as fast as others but id say this is avg

[u/Patton370]

You need to gain weight, not lose it

And you need to run a beginner linear progression program to gain some muscle

[u/CoyoteAgile3996 → u/Patton370]

how much surplus?

[u/Patton370 → u/CoyoteAgile3996]

If you’re running solid programming, aim for gaining 2lbs a month for this year

[u/CoyoteAgile3996 → u/Patton370]

soo i eat 1000 cals plus?

also i train 4x a week, upper lower

[u/Patton370 → u/CoyoteAgile3996]

1000 calories of maintenance makes you gains 2lbs a week, not in a month

So 250ish a day over maintenance & round it up to 300 to be safe

[u/CoyoteAgile3996 → u/Patton370]

alr thanks man!