Best Supplements for Skinny-Fat Guys to Build Muscle and Burn Fat

In this post we cover the best supplements for skinny-fat guys.

You will get a look at the best protein powder, pre-workout, multivitamins and a secret supplement that’s been long forgotten.

The best part is that these supplements actually work.

Most supplements are a waste of money. But there are a few that stand head and shoulders above the rest. And I think these are it – as a former skinny-fat guy I got fit with a good diet, smart training and a few elite supplements. (Which I explain below.)

Diet and training make up 90% of your success in fitness. Supplements might give you a 10% boost. As long as they are the right supplements and if you use them the right way.

That’s what this article is about – This article serves as a guide to clear up the confusion caused by supplements. So many supplements claim to work miracles but they unfortunately do not. If supplements did everything they claim then everyone would look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.

The Problem with Skinny-Fat

Skinny-fat is an issue with body composition. Skinny-fat people have too much body fat and too little muscle mass. In order to improve body composition we need to increase muscle mass and decrease body fat.

Supplements can help with that. Before we get into the nitty gritty, I want to be clear: No supplements will make up for a poor diet and bad training protocol.

Supplements won’t drive you to the gym and lift the weights for you, but they do give you an edge.

The following supplements are scientifically proven (backed by data and research during controlled studies) AND backed by my personal experience using them.

Supplement Rating Criteria

I rated supplements based on the following criteria. And if they meet my requirements.

Quality – Made from the purest ingredients with limited processing.

Effectiveness – The supplement works as advertised for its intended use.

Value – Overall value for the money based on the cost and benefit the supplements provides.

Supplement Benefits

In general, the best supplements for skinny-fat guys provide a host of benefits:

• More muscle mass and more muscle growth
• Increased testosterone levels
• Improved physical performance
• Building lean muscle
• Improve immune system function
• Fat loss and muscle gain at the same time (body composition)
• Improved muscle recovery

Best Overall Supplement for Skinny-Fat Guys – Editor’s Choice

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There is one supplement that gets a gold star, and that’s liver tablets.

Ancestral Desiccated Beef Liver Tablets – Liver tablets are the #1 supplement for skinny-fat guys.

Here’s why:

First and foremost, liver tabs have a host of benefits:

• Liver tabs are loaded with high quality animal protein for building lean mass
• Liver increases your strength, stamina and endurance. Meaning you can train longer and harder without getting tired. They give me energy to train harder, longer and with more focus
• Liver tablets are low calorie and nutrient dense so you gain muscle without adding body fat
• Improve muscle recovery and enhance the muscle building process – The regenerative properties of the liver organ help improve recovery so you see results faster.

As a result of the benefits mentioned above, there are second-order benefits of taking liver tablets

• Boost testosterone levels naturally. Increasing testosterone levels is critically important especially for skinny-fat guys. Skinny-fat guys have catastrophically low testosterone levels, so this is a priority to fix. Beef liver does this a few ways, both directly and indirectly.

Liver is the real deal. And one of the only supplements I truly believe and greenly recommend to anyone. But they are especially good for skinny-fat dudes.

Best Liver Tablets for skinny-fat people

Editors choice – Ancestral Supplements Desiccated Beef Liver – Made from healthy cows from New Zealand. Ancestral Supplements Desiccated Beef Liver tablets come in capsules filled with dried and finely ground beef liver.

Buy Ancestral Supplements Beef Liver tablets here.

Good choice – Universal Supplements brand Uni-Liver Tabs – In terms of quality and effect both Uni-Liver and Ancestral Supplements are on equal footing. These Uni-Liver pills are huge though. You do get more for your money so Uni-Liver might be the best option if you prefer horse-size pills.

Both brands work equally well in my experience.

Best Protein Powder for Skinny-Fat Guys

You need protein to build muscle. Protein powders come in many varieties:

Whey protein, whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, pea protein, vegan protein…the list goes on and on.

Plant based protein powders and animal based protein supplements both work great.

You can get protein from animal or plant sources. Protein powder helps build muscle mass regardless of the source so pick the protein that works best for you based on your dietary preferences. When it comes to building muscle they both get the job done. So get one and get going.

Why do you need protein?

Every tissue in your body requires protein to grow and repair. Protein breaks down into branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) during digestion and gets distributed through your body to repair and rebuild your body tissues.

After a hard training session your muscles need fuel. Protein helps with muscle recovery. The best time to get protein into your system is right after a workout.

There’s a time window after training where your body is primed for muscle growth. An anabolic window where muscle protein synthesis is at it’s peak.

Muscle protein synthesis is the natural process of turning dietary protein and essential amino acids into healthy new muscle tissue.

Best Protein Sources for skinny-fat guys

Most of the protein consumed by skinny-fat guys should be come from all-natural whole foods.

Beef, chicken, pork, fish, eggs, and cheese are all good food sources of protein.

If you’re inclined to eat plant-based protein then lentils, beans, barley, nuts and seeds are good sources of plant protein.

How much protein do skinny-fat people need each day?

A skinny-fat person should get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass per day.

So if a person weights 150 pounds and has 100 pounds of lean body mass, then they should eat at least 100 grams of protein each day to build muscle.

If you are training to build muscle (which you should be as a skinny-fat person), then getting 100+ gram protein per day isn’t always practical.

That’s where protein powder comes in – it’s an easy way to hit your daily protein requirements.

Getting enough protein is essential to grow muscle mass. And muscle mass is essential to fix skinny-fatness.

Why skinny-fat people need more muscle mass

Lean muscle mass increases your metabolic rate. Muscle mass burns calories and in turn burns body fat.

Remember, skinny-fat is a body composition issue (with underlying root causes). Muscle building and burning fat are the two primary objectives.

Muscle turns you into a fat burning machine. Muscle burns body fat around the clock, even while you sleep. And during fat around the clock is a powerful way to beat skinny-fat and achieve ‘escape velocity’ to become fit.

Protein powder can help gain muscle mass weight in a healthy manner. But sorry to say it’s not the golden elixir that turns any saggy bag of bones into a beef cake overnight.

If what the supplement industry wanted you to believe was true we would all walk around looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.

If you expect to achieve Mr.Olympia status by tossing a few hundred bones at supplements then I’ve got news for you, son.

Benefits of Protein Powder

• Muscle building
• Easy way to get more calories if bulking
• Lean muscle growth
• Maximize results – Increase muscle gain potential by making the most of each workout.
• Convenience – You can toss it in your gym bag and gulp it down at your convenience. Protein shakes can be filling so you won’t over eat. Some are sweet so you don’t eat sugary snacks. I are
• Helps hit daily protein requirements – Make the most of every workout and milk it for all it’s worth. That’s where supplements like protein powder shine. Makes whey protein one of the best supplement post-workout.
• Satisfy sugar cravings – Look I have a massive sweet tooth. And I love carbs. It’s a fact that Skinny-Fat guys need to clean up their diet. That’s priority number one. A good way to do that is to reduce sugar consumption. Protein powders are low sugar and provide a sweet snack to keep you sane while dieting.

Why quality protein supplements matter

The environment of a skinny-fat body makes muscle building difficult. That’s why cleaning up your diet as a skinny-fat person, the results will begin to improve.

Low quality protein powder is full of fake ingredients. It’s hard to digest and makes you bloat. You want protein that won’t have negative effects like slowing down your metabolism or making you feel like a whale. Many protein powders have ingredients that hurt your progress. 

That’s why I use an recommend a minimally processed protein powder with pure all natural ingredients and nothing else. Protein shakes might as well be milkshakes if you are working out correctly.

Best protein powder supplements for skinny-fat people

Editor’s choice – The best protein powders for skinny-fat guys is Transparent Labs Protein Powder

Runner up – Naked Nutrition Whey protein

Best plant based protein powder – Naked Nutrition Pea Protein is pretty good and easy on the digestive system. 

Pre-Workout Supplements for Skinny-Fat Guys

Pre-workout is powerful source of energy. You take pre-workout before training for energy, focus, and endurance.

Pre-workout is undeniably effective for getting better workouts. Pre-workout truly is energy in a cup. That being said, there are many drawbacks to using pre-workout if you aren’t careful. The wrong pre-workout, or using pre-workout the wrong way can do more harm than good.

Most pre-workout has a bunch of stuff in it that’s not very good for you – heavy metals, mega-dose of caffeine, and other things that make your system go haywire. No pre-workout is worth losing sleep. Even if you fall asleep you won’t be rested. And you need deep high quality sleep to recover and see results from your workouts.

The caffeine in pre workout can elevate the rate at which your body burns fat temporarily. It’s not sustainable once the caffeine wears off that’s it.

Best pre workout for skinny-fat people

Best Stimulant-free pre workout supplement – The best pre-workout in terms of purity and quality of ingredients and without caffeine is Transparent Labs STIM-Free Pre-Workout

N. O. X-plode – Short for Nitrogen Oxide Explosion which this stuff worked. It’s wasn’t healthy but it worked. I heard they calmed down the formula over the years because it was too powerful. N.O. Shotgun was another great pre work out. Not great for health but very effective for slinging iron. I don’t know if they make it anymore. 

Pre-workout supplements are usually loaded with caffeine. Caffeine does increase fat burning by increasing metabolism momentarily. Pre workout provides more energy and endurance. I typically train with more weight, more volume and more intensity when I take pre workout.

I don’t take pre-workout anymore and would suggest cultivating willpower to train even when you don’t want to. But I gotta say, pre-workout makes me WANT to train and to TRAIN HARD. And the results did follow. Caffeine sensitivity or anxiety when you might want to use a stimulant-free pre workout supplement.

There can be negative side effects to taking a pre workout supplement. 

Pre workouts supplements can make people jittery and restless, making sleep difficult. And without good sleep it’s hard to make good gains.

Best Creatine Supplement for Skinny-Fat Guys

Creatine monohydrate is a supplement that is scientifically proven to increase strength, stamina and muscle mass.

Creatine typically comes in powder or pill form. It is a solid supplement for skinny-fat guys if you want to get stronger.

I personally wouldn’t take it right away though if I was skinny-fat. Instead I would wait to take it until after 6-12 months of solid physical training.

You can take it sooner at your own discretion, but you should know that it does make you hold water weight, so it might make you look puffy.

Creatine fills muscle cells with nutrients and makes the energy utilization process for muscle cells more efficient.

Creatine is best used during bulking. If your goal is to gain weight and get strong as possible, then creatine supplementation can help.

Benefits of Creatine monohydrate

• Build lean muscle
• Increase strength
• Improved muscular endurance

All of which translate into muscle gain potential.

Best creatine supplements for skinny-fat guys

Really not much difference other than purity and price. Transparent labs gets the edge because they are more transparent with their supplement ingredients in general. 

Editor’s choice – Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder

Runner up – Transparent Labs Creatine Muscle & Strength Building Formula

I’ve also used cheap creatine powder I bought at the drug store and it seems to work fine. I couldn’t tell you what’s in it exactly but I did feel stronger while taking it.

You want to stay hydrated taking creatine otherwise you might get headaches or suffer other symptoms of dehydration. Creatine pulls water into the muscle cells so increasing water consumption is recommended.

Branched Chain Amino Acids for Skinny-Fat People

Benefits of Branched Chain Amino Acids for skinny-fat guys

• Keep your hard earned muscle. Shield muscles so you don’t lose muscle mass while in a calorie deficit.
• Preserve muscle tissue and prevent muscle wasting. Digest easily and are absorbed by the bloodstream very quickly.
• BCAAs are good for training while fasting if you are concerned about muscle loss. BCAAs are taken intra-workout. I mix them up in my water bottle and sip while I dip.
• I practiced intermittent fasting regularly as a skinny-fat guy.
• Fasting is a simple way to burn more fat compared to measuring all your meals every day.
• Fasting is known to increase testosterone production, burn fat, and accelerate muscle gain. 
• Preserve lean muscle mass while losing weight. It’s easier to lose weight than it is to build muscle. 
• Preserve muscle mass (especially good when on a low calorie diet)

Best Branched chain amino acid supplements for skinny-fat people

Optimum Nutrition BCAAs

Transparent Labs Intra-workout

Best Multi Vitamin Supplement for Skinny-Fat Guys

Skinny-fat guys are often deficient in one or more critical nutrients. A well rounded multivitamin helps ensures your nutrient baseline is covered: Centrum Complete Adult Multivitamin

Improve the body’s ability to absorb nutrients and be overall more efficient function wise.

Making sure you’re not nutrient deficient is a factor to support weight loss and getting to and maintaining a healthy body weight.

Benefits of taking a multivitamin supplement

• Reduces muscle soreness (Vitamin C)
• Better digestion
• better sleep
• Better recovery

Quick Recap and Supplement Tips

Skinny-fat guys have unique issues to overcome. Like low testosterone, inverted body composition typically caused by bad diet and little knowledge about weight lifting and resistance training.

Skinny-fat guys need to let their body heal, therefore we want supplements with no artificial ingredients so the body has a chance to purge. 

Supplements alone don’t do much on their own but they can enhance the results you get from training if used consistently. And of course, dietary supplements are most effective when used in tangent with a healthy diet with a good nutritional baseline and challenging exercises routine.

Don’t expect supplements won’t work miracles but they should help accelerate the process and pace at which you see results.

What you consume is important, especially if you are a skinny-fat guy. So make sure supplements are pure.

The right supplements can give you an edge or provide a much needed pick-me-up on hard training days.

The rest is up to you.

You Might Also Like:

The Ultimate ‘Skinny-Fat’ Workout and Diet Guide (2024 Edition) The Skinny Guy’s Guide to Gaining Weight, Size, and Building Muscle How to Make Homemade ‘Pre-Workout’ with All Natural Ingredients Body Fat Percentage Demystified: My Journey from 15 to 7% Body Fat (with photo proof)