Started lifting a month ago. Almost no progress but it's only been a month and I'm not giving up...

Started lifting a month ago. Almost no progress but it's only been a month and I'm not giving up. What I have got is a lovely new pot belly and love handles, so now I am full skinnyfat mode.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I eat literally nothing but peanut butter, hard boiled eggs, chicken, fish, veggies and occasionally beef, and not very much of it either.

My routine isnt set in stone. Got tired of seeing fad workout routines and decided to go in and just lift heavy stuff. I start with bench presses and curls (because they're fun) then crunches, dumbell rows, incline dumbell presses, dumbell flys, squats every other workout, all 3-5 sets with 5-10 reps. I've been afraid to do much cardio even though I enjoy the stationary bikes, because I'm worried it will adversely effect my muscle gain.

Should I cut for the next two weeks? Hiw do I do that the right way? Am I gonna lose what tiny progress I made? How do I flatten this stomach?

Muscle tension and healing of the muscle is what makes it grow.

The healing requires proteins and calories to grow

So you're either not training hard enough. Eating too many calories that it hides your gains. Or you're not eating enough. Have you seen any strength gains this month?

Should I cut for the next two weeks? Hiw do I do that the right way? Am I gonna lose what tiny progress I made? How do I flatten this stomach?

No don't cut you'll lose both the fat and the little gains you've made. To get a flat stomach you have to move those fat reservoir to your arms and legs by continuing your exercises. Try to hit the same body part every two days. I cant stress enough how important is isolation. Think of building muscle like adding cement. You have to build it inlayers or else each time you flip the pan everything is going to fall off you got to ket that shit dry and heal so you can add more on the third day.
Keep your fats low your carbs high and your proteins almost to a 1:1 ratio to carbs. Write them.them.macros if you need to user.

Kind of? 20lbs dumbells feel quite a bit lighter

Bump

Anyone?

What are your numbers at the start and now? If they're bigger you made progress. You're not really going to see aesthetic changes in just a month

Oh, forgot to mention: I also have chicken legs. How the FUCK has all of my weight gone ONLY to my stomach?

You absolutely have to be adding weight every workout. There is no getting around that. You will not get stronger otherwise. Add more weight. Every. Workout.

No difference whatsoever. A

There are dozens of effective novice routine but you decided to make your own shitty ass one and you wonder why you don't progress

my man wtf

You probably have shit strength progress because of that whacky ass routine plus your cutting, cardio + lifting won't kill gains if you're getting enough calories/protein/rest.

If you've never lifted in your life, no matter what you do you'll see progress at the gym even with a calorie cut. Just keep at it, don't overthink it, keep a calorie deficit, high protein, and workout.

Just sounds like you jumped into this without any research whatsoever.

^^^ this
Follow a fucking routine. Who cares if Veeky Forums calls it a meme? Most of them work well for beginners.

I can't imagin how I'm gonna do that. I'm struggling benching fucking 80 every single time I go to the gym. How many times a week should I work out a muscle? I cannot imagine adding 5lbs to every single workout, that doesn't even sound possible on paper. I need a routine that works but everything contradicts everything else. One source will say doing X and Y will garentee results while others say the exact same things will ruin your work out. I've read the sticky but I still have no idea what I'm doing.

Ignore this guy, you don't NEED it every workout, progress comes in all forms, always try to improve but don't get discouraged if you're not upping weight 5lbs a week, most of these faggots don't push heavy weight and expect their 1 month of progress to be a normal thing.

I did quite alot and frankly it was more confusing than helpful. So low caloris with high protein and carb, add cardio. Keep lifting and find a good routine. Is that right? Got any routines you'd recomend? Alot of routines I see call for excersizes on equipment my gym doesn't have or taking up way more room in my gym than I can.

You can do it every other if you really have to
Anything else is too slow

It's been a month and I'm not really upping anything. Should I try to up it 5lbs a week?

I'm also working the same muscles 4-5 times a week, maybe that's stopping growth?

>I've read the sticky but I still have no idea what I'm doing.
Reading and understanding are 2 different things. And choose ONE routine. thre will be no "conflicting advice" if you follow one fucking routine. And adding 5lbs aint shit. Even at the beginner level. You sound like you dont want to push yourself out of your comfort zone. We've all had to do the roll of shame. Get over it and struggle. You can do all the tricks to muscle growth you want but if your not adding weight it will do nothing.

>And adding 5lbs aint shit
Oh it sure feels like shit. I started at the upper threshhold of what I can handle and when I try to add more I fail on the first rep. I will take your advice and embrace the struggle and failure though. Gonna keep trying.

You have been lifting a month and wondering why you havent made gains shit man try 2-3months to make any noticeable gains which is still minimal at best. It takes time and lots of it.

Pick a decent starting routine, good to hear you're in the gym but your routine is shit do strong lifts or something like that and stick to it! Get some strength and then jump onto ppl or whatever you want.

Cardio wont kill gains its a meme do that at the end of your sessions whilst eating slightly below your maintenance calories and weight will drop off and you will still make gains. Work out how much protien you need and try target that each day dont worry about fats and carbs.

Also research everything fitness related off of Veeky Forums so many shitposters on here and fat neckbeards who dont even lift giving fake crappy advice. Even read starting strength by rippletits its got good advice in it and teaches you the lifts.

Good luck on your journey and Remember the days you dont want to train are the ones you must! else you'll start blowing off work outs and eventually stop altogether and be back where you started

Post your routine, also start tracking your calories.

Low cal, high protein, hit the bike. I'll try it, thanks.

Did in the OP. It's not a real routine, I just hit every muscle I can. I'll start counting calories, thanks. How much of a deficit should I be going for? Also, is there a way for me to calculate my estimated number of "maintainance" calories?