I’ve been lifting serious for about half a year, I started weighing in at 215 at the start of the year and I’m currently sitting at 188. My goal was to hit 180 but I believe I’m going to have to cut down further. I’m starting to look okay in a shirt but shirtless I still look nasty as shit. I’m hairy as well lmfao. I’ve been cutting at 2200 calories, and my protein intake is sitting at 160 grams. I’m considering upping it to 200.
Keep at it buddy. It takes more than a year and a half!
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Thank you for the input man! 
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You might do better upping the calories (as you will with an extra 40 grams of protein, by about 160 calories), maybe to around 2500 cal/day or so. Just add carbs, especially intra workout, an extra 50 grams a day would work. You’d be around 2500-2600 cal/day.
The thing isn’t that you look bad, you just look average Joe on the street who isn’t fat or skinny. What you lack is muscle. You could easily lose another 10-20 lbs of fat and you’d probably look like a junkie, even though you’d be lean AF. You could stay fairly close to your current body fat levels, add five pounds of muscle whole losing a little fat and look a whole lot better than you do now. Except, you aren’t going to do that at 2200 cal/day.
Make sure you bust your arse in the gym for no more than 90 minutes a time four times a week. Hit big compound movements first and add weight as you go, then get a pump with lighter weights. Train you back in some way every time you train. On one rest day, do 10 to 15 rounds of some kind of sprint and on another rest day go for a brisk walk for half an hour or more.
In terms of exercises, it matters relatively little but here are my favourites anyway
Legs
Squat - any kind
Deadlift - any kind
Single leg (split squats or lunges)
Back
Heavy DB rows
DB chest supported rows
Fatman pull-ups
Pull-ups
Pull aparts
Back raises
Chest/shoulders
Overhead press - any kind
Dips
Bench press - any kind
DB rear raises
Hard, consistent work over time is the key, ESPECIALLY with your diet. Remember, it’s generally enough to get things right 80% of the time, if you do that 100% of the time - but training only takes around 10 hours a week, while your diet takes every waking moment.
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That’s funny you say that Mark because I just spoke with somebody who suggested the exact same thing. I’ve decided this week that I am going to up my calories to that amount since I’m close to my 180 mark anyway. I’ve been lifting heavy all semester, I hit everything twice, I currently start my chest routines with a heavy incline dumbbell (70s 5x5) and I’m on my back days I was starting with heavy lat pull downs and then rows but this week I started doing chin ups which I wasn’t able to do before. I’ve seen some size gains but I believe that’s only due to the decrease in fat. My biggest priority has been leaning out and maintaining and or gaining strength and luckily I’m stronger now than I was at 215. I’m also going to include cardio into my work.
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