How can I gain muscle?

[nonsequitur]

It sounds like what you're aiming for is a combination of weight loss and muscle gain and if you start working out, that'll begin occurring naturally. As muscle builds, the fat will burn.

What kind of exercise you want to do, how much you want to gain/lose, how much time you dedicate to this is all up to your dedication and what you want to achieve. Cardio is excellent for weight loss but not ideal for building muscle mass so you'll have to find a balance of cardio to weight training, or begin with cardio and work your way into weight training once you've lost the weight but are ready for the muscle. With fat loss, your primary goal should be burning calories while sparing as much muscle as possible.

You should probably start by determining what body type you have and work with it: endo, ecto, or mesomorph. If you're naturally more round, chances are you're an endomorph, so you need to train for that. Endomorphs need more cardio to see significant fat loss and depending on where you're at, you'd need to do cardio at least 3x a week to see results. If you are an endo, you'll probably also need to continue cardio 3x per week too prevent yourself from gaining fat when eating excess calories, but the good news is that endomorphs have more energy to burn off than the other types.

Anyway, here are some good articles:
Workout According to Body Type
Bodybuilding for Beginners: Training and Nutrition

To add to that, this is the most straightforward guide to diet by body type that I could find: Got A Broken Diet? Fix It With This Simple 3-Step Process [Infographic] — Lean It UP Fitness

Of course, ideally you'd want to eat in a way specific to your training program. But when you start from zero, you'll tend to see improvements regardless. So the main thing is to start with something simple that you can keep doing for months.

Testosterone issues are usually linked to a high percentage body fat in men. Lifting heavy + compound exercises like I mentioned before will aid in raising both testosterone and growth hormone. Before, I thought that you wanted to bulk, which is why I said to eat more. If you're looking to lose body fat, you will need a caloric deficit without starving yourself (starving yourself releases stress hormones like cortisol that cause your body to store more fat and also reduces testosterone and growth hormone).

I'm actually in disagreement here about doing cardio to lose weight before lifting weights (though I know a lot of people who do it that way) - the literature says that while cardio and weightlifting individually will help to reduce body fat within the same period of time, the fastest/most efficient/most sustainable program for weight loss is a moderate combination of both. Over-doing it on cardio raises cortisol levels, reducing your lean muscle mass and making a plateau more likely, and doing weightlifting (unless it's combined with high intensity) doesn't burn many calories on its own.

Basically OP, diet is key because you can't generate enough of a caloric deficit to lose a lot of weight through exercise. Here's an example that I use with my students:
I'm currently training for a marathon and ran 15 miles for my long run on Saturday. On average, we burn 100 kcal/mile, meaning that on my long run that took forever and wiped me out for the whole weekend, I burned 1500 kcal. Let's say that on my way home I stopped by Starbucks to reward myself with a mocha ice blended frappuccino with whipped cream, and ate a medium big mac meal for dinner before going to bed. That's all 1500 calories gone in 1 meal + 1 (small) reward (to lose 1 pound of fat you need a ~3500 kcal deficit). And I spent Sunday, my rest day, lying around feeling exhausted and not wanting to do anything. If I hadn't already prepared my meals I might've ordered in pizza.

That's why it makes no sense exercising to lose weight if diet stays the same. It's just too easy to eat 3,500 kcal and too hard to burn it in the gym.

 

[Captain_Invincible]

Thanks for your replies everyone. Since I am off for spring break, I'll respond to your replies in detail later. I have liked the responses to remind me to do so.

 

[Poki]

I am chubby, big boned and have a feminine-like figure. Is there any way I can lift weights to gain muscle, and lose weight and give my body an overall slimmer, more athletic and muscular figure?

I don't have a lot of tesosterone in my body atm.

Do I have to do cardio also? How long do I have to spend in the gym and what do I have to eat? Yeah, a lot of questions. I know. Any tips/suggestions? I don't have a lot of time during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to work out, given my current situation.

Find 2 full body activities you enjoy. One needs to be endurace based and other strength based...full body. Coud be swimming or anything. Do it 3-4 days a week 30-60 minutes. Push till your tired and a little more.

Eat 3-5 meals within a diet range. 1200 women, 1600 man unless you are wy overweight. Then eat more. If you dont eat 1200/1600 eat more until you hit that range. If your still hungry, eat cleaner food as you will get more food for the same caloric intake. Drink lots of water and stick with it.


Dont over complicate things. Exercise, eat 1200/1600 calories, drink water. Jump calories up when you lost enought weight until you plateau