18% body fat to 12% in 6 weeks

[DAJ90]

Is it possible to go from 18% body fat to 12% in six weeks without going into complete starvation mode? I don't really have a lot of muscle, I am waiting to lose a little more fat before I start building. I've been doing cardio exercises for the past few months, but thats about it.

[LiftHeavy3400]

I wouldn't recommend it .... weight loss at that rate will really slow down your metabolism and COULD trigger more muscle loss than you expect (muscle loss = less lean body mass = lower metabolism)... this will make it very easy for you to put on that weight again

[Cortezji]

Can i butt in your conversation? I too am at 18% body fat. I hit the gym at least 4x a week wanting to reduce my body fat. How long should it ideally take to achieve 12% bodyfat and not losing muscle. Thanks

[BronxParadise]

BUMP...I'm in the same boat..5' 10" 205lbs at 18-20% bf looking to cut to 12% by June/July..is it possible while lifting plus a cal deficit?

[danr1991]

Bump.

[BloutyBen]

It is possible. But not to a recommended healthy extent thats if your body will let you do it. looseing that last couple of mm of fat in order to get realy tonned for anyone (like me) who grew up on the heavy side is very hard to do but can be done through hard work and dedication and will stay off because of this. if it is done to quick as soon as you cheat or stop your body will just put it back on and your efforts will be lost ( i have experienced this befor). something that is a lil lost in todays world because it cant be taught and its not easy AND you need to learn it your self is to lissen to your body know when to obey it and know when to not. and this is more important then any diet or exercise thats why its REALY important to arm your self with as much info as you can on how to do whatever it is (loose weight/ gain weight, lift more whatever)

[itzjoker]

I don't have any experience in this...but after calculating it seems very possible to do so in 8-9 weeks. I'm currently 190lbs at approx 18% BF and for me to go down to 12% without losing any muscle, I'd have to lose 14lbs of fat. If I go for 2lbs a week, it'll take me 7 weeks to go 18%-12% but you have to count in water weight and other factors so 8-9 weeks to go 18%-12% seems much more possible than in 6 weeks.

[ibengals]

Some people might be able to, others may not. There's so many variables to put into this equation it's impossible to say. Sure, it's easy to say: "lose two pounds of fat a week", but chances are you won't. As you approach 12% your weight loss may stall.

If you lose weight as quick as you're hoping for, you're also going to lose a significant amount of muscle. I'll say this, it's possible, but I don't recommend it.

[Cortezji]

Thanks alot guys! I am really learning alot from all of u. I still have alot of learning to do anD its makes it easy when unselfish guys like you who share their knowledge to us newbies. Thanks. More power guys

[itzjoker]

If that's you in your picture, you look more like 1%-16% imo. So getting down to 12% for you shouldn't take too long. I'm just reading alot about cutting currently (nutrition, calories, macros) and you should really read this sticky to learn more:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=133163973

[Cortezji]

I will bro. Thanks so much. Well from that picture i gaine 6kg of mass because i was bulking up. The problem is i want to get back and lose that 4 kg which i think is fat. Im thinking of jogging but im afraid id lose muscle too. Im quite having a hard time watching my diet too. I take protein 3x a day. Upon waking up, right aftr workout n before bed(casein). Should cut down on my protein supplements as well? Im currently using 1/2 scoop assault as pre workout. 1 scoop Xtend for intrawork out. Also, im taking 5 caps CLA1000 and 1 Lcarnitine(500mg).

[Shepherd1125]

took me 3 months to go from 18-12%, I would not rush and take it slow.

[Brayne]

What about 26% to 18%? :p

[Wilcox28]

What about 26% to 18%? :p
You'd need to give yourself some time to adjust. It's not advisable to lose so much weight at such a rapid pace. Gradually enter your diet, or you will doom yourself!

[Mustafam]

Can anyone guess how body fat do i have? I guess its 10%, and do i need to lose more fat to show my six pack
Thanks!

[lvsteven]

I wouldn't recommend it .... weight loss at that rate will really slow down your metabolism and COULD trigger more muscle loss than you expect (muscle loss = less lean body mass = lower metabolism)... this will make it very easy for you to put on that weight again

the metabolism does not slow down as fast as some would think. People make more than this than there is to it.

[wmerte45]

I am 20 yrs old, 240 or so and have 16% body fat. a friend and i would like to drop about 8-10% in 8 months... Possible? or will i get sick doing so? We go to spinning about 3x a week for about 45 mins to an hour, and lift 5 days a week. thanks for any help anyone can give me

[BRONXHEART]

I also want to lose body fat and get my bf% lower. I'm going to go hard for 8 weeks and see where I'm at.







I am 20 yrs old, 240 or so and have 16% body fat. a friend and i would like to drop about 8-10% in 8 months... Possible? or will i get sick doing so? We go to spinning about 3x a week for about 45 mins to an hour, and lift 5 days a week. thanks for any help anyone can give me

[wuballz]

Can anyone guess how body fat do i have? I guess its 10%, and do i need to lose more fat to show my six pack
Thanks!

hard to tell with that picture. If you are at 10% you should be able to see your six pack very clearly especially with darker skin tones. If you cant see at least a 4 pack, you are probably not at 10%.

[wuballz]

If that's you in your picture, you look more like 1%-16% imo. So getting down to 12% for you shouldn't take too long. I'm just reading alot about cutting currently (nutrition, calories, macros) and you should really read this sticky to learn more:




I learned so much from that thread. It literally tuned my world up side down.

Eating 6 times a day doesn't matter?
Post work nutrition doesn't matter?
Simple carbs and complex carbs are the same when it comes to body compositions?

I couldn't believe all the BroScience i believed in the past. Now my diet is the best its ever been in my life and i eat so much more foods i like. Wish i would of known this 10 years ago. Spent 5 month on a Keto diet once... worst 5 month of my life....

But back to the topic. Yeah, diet is the most important thing when it comes to losing body fat. I've herd different numbers but most articles I've read said if you cut between 500 to 1000 from your maintenance calories, you will shed the fat. I've read article that said cutting 1000 wont cause too much muscle loss and I've read article that said you don't want to go more then 600.

**shrug** I've been steadily cutting about 600 my self right now.

P.S. obviously you have to work out hard too.

P.S.S. Fitday is what i use to track calories.

[Houstonh10]

I too would like to butt in on this convo if I could. I started my weight loss journey in July at 242 pounds (I'm 6'0). Through proper diet and exercise I lost 52 pounds in 90 days. Today I weigh 180-185 and am between 18-20% body fat. I want to get my body fat down to 10-12% but I don't want to lose any more weight. The thing that frustrates me is most my fat is held in my belly. I'm not exactly sure how to eat. I know in order to get down to 12% I need to Add muscle and lose fat but I'm not sure how to eat. Do I eat to lose weight or do I eat the right carbs and hit the iron hard? Opinions please!

[Kifazoid]

well im at 16% bf at the moment and started on about 22% been two weeks but ya been working my body hard Monday - Thursday. rest Friday then Saturday hard again and rest Sunday and eating very healthy no sugar, minimal sodium and only Himalayan salt, every day its eggs for breakfast and fruit with some fat free yougart for lunch and small snacks in between more fruits like plums and nuts and peaches. NO Bananas!! and supper must have Meat, or chicken or fish with veg and one egg again been working well for me i must say. my wife is eating same as me except she is on a diet shake and not as intense exercise as i am and she has lost 7kg in these two weeks all because of eating habits

[AaronM1D1]

I'm hopping in on this one too. 219 down to 175 from October to now, and sitting at ~19%BF. I want to be lean, but I don't want to be weeny. I lift three/four times a week, mostly focusing on my upper-body as my legs are already strong enough. I really need to lose fat and gain muscle to counter, so I guess I might recomp. At 6'1", 175lbs is pretty light from what I've heard, so ultimately I guess I'd like to hit 12%BF while losing fat and building enough lean muscle to keep me at a respectable weight.

I guess this is going to take months rather than weeks haha!

[komani86]

...I lift three/four times a week, mostly focusing on my upper-body as my legs are already strong enough. I really need to lose fat and gain muscle to counter, so I guess I might recomp.

I'm an beginner/intermediate, so my advice might be wrong/bs. But my advice is to train legs, its so silly to skip them. You NEED to do squats/lunges/romanian deadlift etc. to target the lowerback/lowerabs/legs. EVERYONE who really wants to get ripped through the gym needs to target legs. If they are strong enough you can try and focus on 15-20reps and 2-4sets.

I'm currently on 18% BF and planning to hit 13% in 5 weeks, with the help of protein shakes (Whey perfection). That way I,hopefully, will not lose muscle tissue while losing fat.

The most recent measurement I did shows that I gained +1KG (~2lbs) in dry muscle and -2KG (~4lbs) in fat in 2 weeks with a high protein, medium carb, low fat diet. I currently weigh in at 78KG (~173LBS) and im 184cm (~6'05). This is on an electrical measurement tool and they are a bit biased, but I am using it for 3 months now, so the results should be trustworthy for keeping track of my progress. I also started using a fatburner since today, mainly because of the positive reviews people left and I can use every bit to lose 5% fat in 5 weeks.

Btw, I do leangains/intermittent fasting. Look it up or check rippedbody.jp if you want to know what kind of diet that is. For me it is really easy to keep the diet up, doing it for 3 months now.

[abean96]

For all the taller guys that dont wanna lose anymore im in the same boat ive asked around semi pros and pros you can clean bulk gain muscle and ur bf will go down ull keep it but ur lean body mass will increase therefore dropping ur bf% and than when u do that you can clean bulk a while if u gain a bit of fat cut again than ull be fairly toned bam :)

[marno]

I'm 15 years old and have 10% body fat im in the hostel and workout 3 times a weak and want to have about 6% how can i achieve my goal????

[marno]

I'm 15 years old and have 10% body fat im in the hostel and workout 3 times a weak and want to have about 6% how can i achieve my goal????

[sirena79]

I've been struggling with fat loss for some time now. I am finally seeing results again but very slowly. could someone please help find out what am I doing wrong. I eat clean eggs in the morning with some natural smoothie or protein shake. Ill have a pbj b4 the gym with my supplements. A protein shake after workout, a couple of hrs later some shrimp, cucumber and feta cheese salad water, green tea over 3-4 cups per day dinner some chicken breast with some green n either potatos or some white rice after that I might have some nuts n more water n tea. N that's it!
I'm running every other day n doing a lean program. I'm not sure whats the problem. I do like Ice cream :)
I'm willing to do whatever it takes to lower my BF to at least 18%.
Any subjection? Thank you

[LilAsianBalla]

You'd need to give yourself some time to adjust. It's not advisable to lose so much weight at such a rapid pace. Gradually enter your diet, or you will doom yourself!
Although most people are right that if you lose weight that quickly, you tend to lose a lot of lean mass. If you're 26% you're pretty fat (no offence) so your body can handle the more drastic caloric deficit. As long as you lift weights and eat lots of protein you can easily minimize your lean body mass loss and that is perfectly reasonable.