So I finally started lifting, I'll post all of my questions here.

Okay, so I'm what you'd call 'skinny-fat'

I look / am skinny I guess, but I do have excessive fat that I want to get rid of. From knees to chest, I have extra fat that I want to get rid of.

So I know I'm new to lifting, but will this fat get replaced by muscle in due time, or should I / am I supposed to be doing additional exercises during my off days to get rid of this fat?

Please advise.

 

That's what I don't understand. You need to eat more to gain muscles which would in turn burn fat. But if you don't eat a lot, you won't gain muscle or burn fat. Hard to comprehend. Please elaborate?

 

This is what BB.com says :

They say to reduce calories you eat, but you ^ and others say you have to eat more.

I'm also struggling to get all of that protein grams in my diet, it's tough since I can't eat chicken breast / steak that often, too expensive. What I've been doing is eating 3 whole wheat sandwiches of either pb&j or tuna which gives me about 50 g of protein, in addition to pasta, which probably only gives 20-30, and then after that, I run out of things to eat to give protein.

 

My goal is to gain muscle and move away from being as scrawny as I am (aside from this extra fat that Im trying to get rid of) , so it sounds like I want to bulk, but I don't want to gain more fat, just muscle.

Which route do you think I should go knowing that I want to get thicker (as in muscle) as well as burning this extra fat.

I weighed / measured myself yesterday when i was at doctor. I'm now 6'2 (with shoes on, probably 6'1.5 without, but I'll just go with 6'2 ) and I weigh 187.

Bulking would put me at over 200 lbs, which I don't want to get to. My ideal weight is 185 lbs. So perhaps I should cut, and therefore eat less calories? I dunno man, I'm confused.

I have a strict diet, so I can only eat halal meat (kind of like kosher) , so its more expensive than your average supermarket meat.

 

^

In addition to that, another Q.

I usually do 3-4 sets on each exercise. All of my sets are 'heavy'

But I heard other people recommend starting off your 1st set with light weight, then 2nd set medium weight, then 3rd and 4th sets with your 'heavy' weights.

What do you guys think? the bodybuilding forum's beginner workout didn't specify this.

 

I don't know why this bothers you so much. I've gone away from the questions pertaining to my knee, so I don't know why you brought that back up.

Others on here have provided me with great answers, so I will continue to ask.

And I have done research. Not much, but I have been reading info.

 

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

I usually don't have time to eat 3-4 eggs in the morning since I'm always in a hurry to get to school, so I have a bagel instead, is that fine? Should I eat one bagel or 2, with cream cheese or without?

Afterwards, I don't eat until I get home around 3 p.m - where I usually have pasta with meat sauce, or rice with meat.

Then I don't eat until night, where I'll have tuna sandwiches.

On days of workout, I take 2 scoops of whey protein (50 grams of protein) . I usually don't take whey protein on off days, because that will get expensive having to buy a 5 lb tub every month or so.

I will take your advice and snack on some peanuts or almonds in between breakfast and lunch. And other protein sources in between lunch and dinner.

Sounds good. 1800-1900 calories a day, with 150 grams of protein. Doing this, I will reduce my body fat as well as gain muscle, correct?

 

In addition, since I'm trying to burn off some fat, does this mean absolutely no 'junk food' - such as an occasional bag of chips, some cereal, etc? Or can i snack on those things once in a while?

 

what's wrong with carbs?

wheat toast- sure I could do that. 2-3 slices of wheat toast will give me about 8-12 grams of protein. Not quite the 20 grams that rezdawg was recommending.