Help reaching lower body fat % (Pictures included - before and after)

Hi, im a new member here but not new to working out. Im 23 years old and started to lift when I was 16 with little experience. Over the last years I have been more serious with my training and dieting. But im no pro when it comes to dieting.

I have been "dieting" for 8 weeks now and started when I was at around 162.8 lbs.
When dieting I didn´t measure my food like I´ve done these past weeks, but from measuring now I think my my calorie intake at that time was at around 2000-2500.
With macros looking something like, Protein: 250 gram, Carbs: 150 gram, Fat: 60-70 gram.
I have always eaten clean and measured my food by eye, you guys know what I mean. After so many times you just know how much the meat weighs by looking at it.
But I wanted to know exactly how much I ate, so I started to measure my food on the scale again.
After 8 weeks I have definitely lost body fat as my abs are more visible and I dropped some pounds. However my goal is to get ripped as much as I can by the end of this summer, so I can start on my lean bulk and put on some mass again.

I workout intense 5 days a week, heavy weights even with a calorie deficit. I have gotten stronger while dieting.
Now after measuring and some thinking, I want to go lower on my calories, 1500 Kcal. I have read some threads on the forum about 1500 Cal a day diet and their are many members who dont recommend going that low. But with my height and weight taken in consideration, I think its doable for me. I have done this for a week now and don´t have any problems with working out.

Height: 5´6
Weight: 156.2
Bodyfat: 10-13%? (Judging from other members on the forum).


My current macros are: Protein 205 gram, Carbs 100 gram (60 gram on off days), Fat 45-50 grams.
Calories: 1500 Cal +/- 20%

With 1500 calories I manage to get 5 meals and dont go around hungry.

Whats your guys opinion on this? Should I stick to the 1500 Cal or increase? Any other tips a welcome.

I attach some photos of me when I started the diet and some photos I took recently. (Sorry for the quality, they are taken with different camera phones).


Thanks! :)

Bump, any opinions guys?

my opinion is you look better than i do so just keep doing what you're doing...
id say 10-11%, no way 13

Bro it's obviously working quite well! Your transformation is on par. Keep doing what you are doing and the results will follow!

Thanks, I just wanted some opinions on the 1500 calorie intake a day. Dont want to lose to much muscle while dieting.

Don't go as low as 1500, losing weight from where you are has to be taken slowly.

Hav you tried leangains? A lot of people seem to be making great Progress on it.

To be homer though, you're already lean, much leaner than myself, you only really need to lose another 3-4 lbs of frat before you're ripped bro

Do you recommend me to bump up the calories a bit, to about 1800? Or go back to where I started. When I started my diet, I think it was around 2000-2200 calories a day.
My goal is to get as ripped as possible by 3 weeks.

I have never heard of leangains but it seems interesting after a quick read on it. But skipping breakfast? I love my breakfast!

id say keep doing whats working for you.

many would say 1500 is quite low, others will say it all depends on your body. Hence why we will start at a certain point and decrease our macros to find the right fit for us. Everybody is different. long as you get all of your nutrients and vitamins.
I can confidently say you are very close to your goal. another 5-6 lbs of solid fat loss and you will be there.

Now since you probably had reached a new low BF%. Id say keep doing what you are doing until you hit a wall THEN you should be looking into changing your diet. From your pics I can see a natural progression.

if you dont see any difference in 3-4 weeks then increase ur diet

no where close to 13%. id say you fall in between 8-10%. you dont have any fat to pinch so you have to be lower than 13%.

I agree. If it's working for you...keep it pushing until you hit a wall then look to changing it.

I actually wanted to ask you what your diet is like exactly...in terms of what you eat..because I am 5'7 myself and weigh 150 lbs and Im looking to get into single digit bodyfat..but im still not cutting yet as I want some more mass on my chest (so I guess I still have to keep going up in weight first)

Look good bro.

1500 is crazy low for someone working out 5 days a week. I would honestly slow weight loss down to .5lb-1lb per week if you still want to get leaner.

You could always reverse diet to maintenance and start a slooooooooooooow bulk from now until next march or so. Then cut for summer. You will look beastly. You're quite aestetich at this level of leanness and i wouldn't waste time adding lbm if i were u.

While I'm nowhere close to being as muscular (or as shredded) as you, I'm trying to lose a bit of fat (pretty much from my midsection). I'm currently at 140 lbs, and probably around the 20-25% bf range.

Given that we're the same height, I'm targeting around 1400 calories/day, and work out 5 days a week. I usually eat a little more (~1800-2000 -- really depends on the day) and burn most of the overage through my workouts.

That said, I do not have as much muscle to lose as you, and more fat to lose. So, [U]you[/U] may want to take it a little more slowly.

[QUOTE=lee__d;918335523]Look good bro.

1500 is crazy low for someone working out 5 days a week. I would honestly slow weight loss down to .5lb-1lb per week if you still want to get leaner.

You could always reverse diet to maintenance and start a slooooooooooooow bulk from now until next march or so. Then cut for summer. You will look beastly. You're quite aestetich at this level of leanness and i wouldn't waste time adding lbm if i were u.[/QUOTE]


Im going to try to keep my calories on 1500-1700 until mid august, and depending on how I look im probably going to go back to maintenance and start a slow bulk like you say. Try to put on more muscle till next summer :) BEASTMODE for those of you who watch Chris Jones on youtube.

[QUOTE=Ace11368;918332863]I agree. If it's working for you...keep it pushing until you hit a wall then look to changing it.

I actually wanted to ask you what your diet is like exactly...in terms of what you eat..because I am 5'7 myself and weigh 150 lbs and Im looking to get into single digit bodyfat..but im still not cutting yet as I want some more mass on my chest (so I guess I still have to keep going up in weight first)[/QUOTE]


This is what I ate yesterday.

Meal 1:
Oat meal - 40 grams
Peanut butter - 20 grams
Protein shake - 40 grams
Half of a banana - 60 grams

Calories= 450 Kcal
Protein= 45g Carbs= 37g Fat= 13g

Meal 2 (Post workout):
Ground beef - 200 grams
Broccoli - 100 grams
Mushrooms, tomatoes and onion - 100 grams
Brown rice - 50 grams (cooked)

Calories= 470 Kcal
Protein= 38g Carbs= 41g Fat= 12g

Meal 3:
Same as meal 2.
Calories= 470 Kcal
Protein= 38g Carbs= 41g Fat= 12g

Meal 4:
Egg whites - 250g
3 slices of ham - 36g
Mushrooms - 35 g

Calories= 155
Protein= 31g Carbs= 3g Fat= 1.73g

Meal 5:
Protein shake - 40g
Peanut butter - 20g

Calories= 260
Protein= 39g Carbs= 4g Fat= 11g


Total Calories= 1633
Protein= 205 Carbs= 93 Fat= 48g