Is this a realistic goal?

[ds41]

I'm 5'10", 180lbs, and about 13-14% bf right now. I could really care less about what my weight is. What matters to me is how I look and how comfortable I feel with myself.

Anyways, I'm wondering if it's a realistic goal to get down to 9-10% bf by May 1st (maybe even 8%)? I'm currently weight training five days a week. My split looks something like this...

Mon - Legs/Tris/30 min cardio
Tues - Back/Bis/30 min cardio
Wed - Abs/Traps/Delts/30 min cardio
Thurs - Chest/30 min cardio
Fri - Bis/Forearms/Abs/30 min cardio
Sat - Off (sometimes I go in and do a few miscellaneous lifts and do cardio because I have serious issues about not being in the gym for a day)
Sun - Off

I lift as hard as I can. I honestly feel like I leave it all in the weight room every time I'm in there. I do 4 or 5 sets of 6 or 8 reps (depending on the lift) and I usually fail or come damn close to failing on all of my last reps. I've been hitting it hard for about 3-4 months now and I've had some awesome progress (lost about 15 lbs and went from repping 50 lb db flat bench 8 times to 75 lb 8 times for 4 sets, which may not seem like a lot but it has been a great accomplishment for me). I use the bench as an example of my progress. Most of my other lifts have progressed equally as well.

My 30 minutes of cardio consists of walking on the treadmill 3.5 mph with an 8 incline. I usually walk then run at 6.5-7.0 mph for 1.5-2.5 minutes then walk for 2-3 minutes then run again just to keep my heart rate going up and down. I keep this up for 30 minutes, keeping my heart rate between 140-180 the entire time.

My diet is also pretty tight. I understand the caloric intake and the macro ratios that are necessary to burn fat and preserve lean mass. My diet, although it isn't perfect, has done me very well up to this point and I feel has been key in helping my progress.

Ok, so having said aaaaallllll of that, lol, does my goal of losing 3-4% bf in 3 months seem realistic with hard, consistent lifting and proper diet? I don't want to do this fast and easy. I enjoy the hard work and the challenge. I want to do this the right way.

Any opinions, suggestions, things I could do to reach my goal, suggested adjustments to my workout routine, etc. would be greatly appreciated!

[Kenai603]

So basically, you want to drop 4% - 6% bodyfat in 11 or so weeks? Hell yeah you can do that, LoL. If you stick to a good diet and workout routine, you should be able to easily get down to 10% bodyfat.

To give you an idea... I went from 20% BF to 10% BF in 10 weeks. Lost a total of 22 lbs, but managed to put on some muscle and gain strength at the same time..

[ds41]

Yup, I'm looking to drop 4-6% bf over the next 12 weeks or so. My diet is on point (though not perfect) and I lift heavy 4-5 days a week with 4-5 cardio sessions in there as well.

As far as supplements go, I take fish oil along with a multivitamin in the morning, a protein shake when I wake up (MyoFusion), another protein shake post workout, and a casein shake before bed. I also take creatine pre work out (Green Mag), and I just started an EC stack today (and so far so good!).

Awesome progress Kenai! Any suggestions on how to blast away that last bit of fat? It looks like your cut went really well! I really only have a little bit of fat around my lower stomach/back and a tad bit on my chest. I'm hoping my diet and cardio along with the EC stack will help with this.

[Kenai603]

Thanks.

It sounds like you are on the right track and losing fat in the places you are expected to lose it first. Of course, you can always change things up a bit more if you think progress is slowing down.

Don't forget that as you lose weight, your maintenance calories may drop as well. Also, the amount of calories burned during exercise will drop. So keep that in mind when figuring out how many calories per day to eat.

Also, with your cardio.. I see you do alternate speeds to change things up. Have you tried HIIT? You're pretty close to doing that anyway. The only difference is that when at the higher speeds, you would increase the speed a little bit more and reduce the amount of time at that interval to 60 seconds or so. then drop down to 3.5MPH for 90 - 120 seconds to slightly recover.

I did that and it really helped with my progress. But like I said, it looks like you're on the right track anyway, so you shouldn't have too much to owrry about.

[wlknier]

avoid HIIT and EC stack(skip the E dose if you're going to do HIIT that day)

I may take another look at your split

your delt day followed by your chest day may be a bit brutal on your delts, they'll be hit indirectly on the chest day....might be better to swap them with your leg/back day...which will also overlap, that is if you're doing lower back exercises on leg days....leg days can be pretty taxing on the back, so I'll split those up. My split tends to look as such:

Day 1: Shoulders + LISS
Day 2: Arms + LISS
Day 3: Rest + HIIT
Day 4: Legs + No Cardio
Day 5: Chest + LISS
Day 6: Back + HIIT
Day 7: Rest, like god.

Ultimately your diet will be most important in your goal to sub 10% BF...1% BF is realistic but it's going to be willpower + diet followed by cardio and lifting to help achieve such a goal...so if you're still wary on your diet, I suggest looking into it more. Have you considered a keto plan? It's really been effective for me to go on a keto plan for a month then a typical diet caloric deficit the next month. I'll also vary my lifting programs month to month(powerlifting vs hypertrophy) to help keep the body guessing.

That being said...EC scares me I'll stick with my HIIT and fish oil pills

[Kenai603]

I'm semi confused. Are you saying to avoid HIIT or are you saying to do HIIT? lol

[wlknier]

avoid HIIT while on ephedrine, too risky for the heart

if you do plan on doing HIIT while on an EC stack, skip the EC dosing for that day

else HIIT is great and I def recommend doing it

[Kenai603]

Originally Posted by wlknier

avoid HIIT while on ephedrine, too risky for the heart

if you do plan on doing HIIT while on an EC stack, skip the EC dosing for that day

else HIIT is great and I def recommend doing it

I've never tried an EC stack... I have heard about the effects though. I can't imagine what I would feel like being cranked up on stims and running at 90% - 95%, lol.

[wlknier]

yea, it scares me too, I've thought about trying it but likely won't unless I'm bulking, cause I'll be cutting down on cardio when bulking and I'm pretty paranoid about gaining weight after losing 100lbs. I still see results from my strict CKD and 12/44/44 plans that I swap between every month that I see no need to look to EC or other thermo supplements until I plateau again...likely won't plateau until ~10% BF...although how much lower would I really want to go? Personally I'm just aiming for the mirror now that I've achieved my bodyweight goal...I'm quite happy with the muscle mass I've accumulated.

[brianrick111]

Originally Posted by wlknier

avoid HIIT while on ephedrine, too risky for the heart

if you do plan on doing HIIT while on an EC stack, skip the EC dosing for that day

else HIIT is great and I def recommend doing it

I would think that you would be ok still taking the EC stack, just not 4-6 hours before doing the cardio. I take an EC stack, but I do my cardio fasted in the AM. Then I take my first EC dose after breakfast and then my next 2 doses on 4 hour intervals. I lift about 6 PM or so (last EC dose at about 4:30). I have not noticed any negative effects and the stack doesn't affect my HIIT sessions because I have no ephedrine in my system while doing it.

I guess it really depends on when you workout and plan on taking the EC stack.

[wlknier]

^makes logical sense

[ds41]

Thanks for the advice guys! I'm going to be looking at adjusting my splits a little bit so I can get a couple muscle groups the rest they have been lacking. I also really like the idea of switching up lifting programs to keep the body guessing. That's another thing I'm going to try and implement. And I know there are a ton of threads about keto on here so I'll start looking into that as well. Again, thanks for the advice!

[ds41]

Originally Posted by wlknier

^makes logical sense

Great progress by the way man! You should be really proud!