Muscle Gain Forum

Always been 'skinny-fat' - no muscle but soft round the middle. Three months into actually training and eating with intent. Posting my progress to stay accountable and because this forum got me started. Down a belt notch and shoulders finally exist.

Classic skinny-fat fix is exactly what you're doing - lift to build muscle, eat at maintenance-ish so you slowly recomp. Three months and visible shoulders plus a belt notch is real, meaningful progress. Keep the log going.

The shoulders thing genuinely shocked me, never had any before.

Skinny-fat to lean is one of the most satisfying transformations because you change shape dramatically without the scale moving much. Are you tracking lifts? That's where you'll really see the muscle being built.

Yeah - bench went from a sad 40kg to 60kg, and I added a proper push/pull/legs. Lifts climbing keeps me motivated more than the mirror some weeks.

Smart focus. For skinny-fat specifically, prioritise protein and progressive lifting at maintenance calories - you don't need to bulk OR cut hard, you need to recomp. You're doing it right.

Following this, I'm in basically the same boat. Seeing someone three months ahead is exactly the motivation I needed. Keep posting the updates.

Will do. Next update at the 6-month mark. Thanks for the encouragement, this community's the reason I stuck with it.