If you are skinny fat one great way to fix that particular problem is to start working out in order to gain muscle. This is what I did  when I woke up one morning to discover I had become skinny fat without realising it over a period of months. If your main goal is to gain muscle and you don’t mind remaining skinny fat for a while as you begin working out, training hard with weights while eating a muscle building diet is the best approach.  As your main goal here is to build muscle you won’t be losing fat. However, as your body becomes more toned you will have the appearance of carrying less fat than you were before, despite not losing any. This is because the percentage of your body that was fat has decreased as the amount of muscle has increased.

However, if you would rather become skinny first and then slowly add muscle to your frame without becoming fat again, you will need to lose the fat first or cut, as it is known, to become skinny.

I went straight down the muscle building route once I’d realised cardio wasn’t taking me where I wanted to go. You might be different and have the patience to reduce your calories and workout with the aim of losing fat rather than adding muscle. But for me I found it easier to concentrate on weight training and letting the skinny fat problem take care of its self once my new muscles had had time to do their work and speed up my metabolism and improve the shape of my body.

The Best Way to Stop Being Skinny Fat

Developing muscle mass is one of the best ways to go from skinny fat to toned , and is really the only way as far as I am concerned. If you are already skinny fat then it means you don’t have much in the way of muscle tone already. Losing the fat isn’t going to make you toned unless you have muscle tone already. As weight training is the best way to develop muscle tone you can see how important it is.

How to Gain Muscle if you are Skinny Fat

To gain muscle you need to eat more calories than you need each day and also lift weights. This is the simplified version and it applies to anyone, whether they are skinny fat or not. Of the three body types, skinny fat people tend to be ectomorphs, which means they find it harder than other people to put on weight, whether it be muscle of fat. This means you will find it harder than your friends, who are not ectomorphs, to put on muscle. This can be hard to take but if you look on the bright side, it also goes some way to explaining why you are skinny fat instead of just fat fat.

Can Ectomorphs Gain Muscle?

Being an ectomorph doesn’t mean you can’t gain muscle, it just means it might take you longer. A good example of someone who was skinny and then gained lots of muscle was the self-proclaimed King of Aesthetics, Zyzz.  Although in his later years he turned to the dark side to build more muscle. He made very impressive gains before he made this decision and there is no reason why you can’t too, if you have the desire to do so.

Workout for Skinny Fat People Who Want to Gain Muscle

If you want to gain muscle and are starting from scratch you might want to spend some time building up a basic level of strength in the gym by using the resistance machines. If you are working out at home then start out with some simple body weight exercises like those I cover in this article on working out at home without any equipment. After a few weeks or months you should be ready to jump into the free weights section and start gaining some quality muscle.

When I first started working out with weights I did it in the gym but you can do a home workout, and provided you have the necessary equipment, can make just as good progress. This site has lots of great home workout ideas so head over to the home weight training category for the index of articles on this topic.

The routine I started out with was called the Ca$hman’s 5×5 Beginners Routine and it comprised of three days a week, with each exercise consisting of five sets of five reps, hence the 5×5. Low reps (1-3) are for building strength and higher reps (8-12) are for building muscle. By using a medium amount of reps (5) one can work on both increasing strength and gains at the same time which is ideal for beginners who have neither. The workout looked something like this and did me very well at the start of my lifting days:

Day One: Push Day:

• Barbell Bench Press
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
• Flat Dumbbell Flies
• Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
• Tricep Extensions

Day Two: Pull Day:

• Deadlifts
• Bent Over Barbell Rows
• Pull Ups
• Bicep Curls

Day Three: Legs:

• Squats
• Stiff Legged Deadlifts
• Calf Raises
• Weighted Crunches

There are many variations on this workout but by splitting the body into three groups, pushing muscles, pulling muscles and leg muscles, and taking at least one rest day between each workout you give your body enough time to recover and the muscles to grow between repeating the day again, you can see great results. Rest days are vital! Don’t make the same mistake I did when starting out and train every day. You will soon regret it.

How Long Before Seeing Results From Weight Training

If you follow this routine for 12 weeks and eat a lot of protein (about 1g of protein per lb. of body weight) you will see results by the end of the 12 weeks. After that you can either stick with this routine and change some of the exercises around or change to a higher rep routine like 3 sets of 12 reps, or something different altogether. Just make sure it’s a tried and tested weight training routine.

If you are serious about no longer being skinny fat and gaining muscle, come back in 12 weeks and let us know how you got on with this muscle gaining workout routine for skinny fat men and women.