Getting Below 10% bodyfat

[justodit]

I am currently at 10 - 12% bodyfat. I have been trying desperately for the past year to get below 10%. I tried the velocity diet, but the fat loss stalled like crazy after the third week. I am not sure what to do anymore. Please help

[Crabman19]

I'm also right in that range, and am trying hard to get a little tighter. I'm really interested to hear what some of the feedback is on this matter as well from the experienced posters.

[Deja]

stats/more in detail would lead to more informed/educated approach

subscribed

[shanedidwhat]

many people talk about using carb cycling to get below 10%. Have you tried that? Everybody's body is different; so try different variations of diets to see how ur body reacts, What's good for u might be different then others. Most frequently used are low carb, keto(no-carb, high fat) and carb cycling diets.

[footyfanatic7]

ive almost always been around 11% bf. but the way i dropped was simply building more muscle, then doing your cardio after your weight lifting. im around 9% right now...still trying to get to 5%... =P but for 5% id probably say ud need a fat burner to "help" u get there if ur not fully on top of your diet.

[Grizvok]

I'm also trying to get there. I have been on creatine the past month so I'm going to cycle off for now just to see what my REAL body fat percentage would be (based on the mirror). The 8% I have down is what I THINK it will be after I cycle off of creatine.

I'm taking the EC stack to help a bit, but the recent increase in my nutrition knowledge is beginning to help me devise more efficient ways of losing fat.

[Rval86]

Getting below %10-12 is very difficult for most people, myself included. What i have had success with in the past is losing the last bit of weight much slower than earlier in my cut (~ .5lbs a week) as well as carb cycling and mixing up your cardio and increasing the volume to as much as 7-8x per week.

[Ahilljr]

Hard for me to help on this topic since I have never been to that low of a BF%, but here goes. I would say continue doing what you have been doing just up the intensity and really work harder on your diet. From my study your eating can get you there. Sounds like you guys workout well so it shouldn't be to hard. Maybe cut back on your cheat days if you have them. Add more water and veg, fruits maybe ?

[NevaBackdown]

prob keto
or sumfn along them lines

[lifesundeath]

I've been on a cut for 2.5 months now and I'm starting to plateau, I'm at ~13.5% body fat. Doesn't the same logic apply always: that having a calorie deficit, high volumes of protein, low fat, and plenty of weight lifting to maintain muscle, will ensure continual fat loss? I've been worried about this, my diet is squeaky clean, but it seems to get harder every day to make progress, and I don't want to go on some funky nocarb diet and **** up my body.

[nick1990]

Hard for me to help on this topic since I have never been to that low of a BF%, but here goes. I would say continue doing what you have been doing just up the intensity and really work harder on your diet. From my study your eating can get you there. Sounds like you guys workout well so it shouldn't be to hard. Maybe cut back on your cheat days if you have them. Add more water and veg, fruits maybe ?

Yeah cutting out cheat days should help, but for you to really get there your prob gonna need a thermal fat burner like EC stack. Theres a really great thread on it here in this forum. You should check it out if you havent already.
Its practically impossible, IMO, to get down below 10% without that added help from a fat burner.
Hope i helped dude.

[IrishPilot]

Ill jump in as well. Ive been hovering around 11-12% for what seems like forever. Ill admit I did stall myself some after a vacation where I ate "normal." That being said, Im just going to maintain a consistent caloric deficit, daily cardio, weight routine, and a high protein ratio in my macros. I think time is our biggest missing element. It IS really frustrating though...I refuse to let myself bulk again starting at the 12% mark...I just get too unhappy too fast. I want 12% to be on the higher side of what I get to AFTER a bulk.

It is funny though, that I can get down to 12% so "easily" and then just WHAM...plateau. How can a caloric deficit not be enough for continuous fat loss at that point? The body is a strange thing.

[Tommy5144]

Im probably at 9% or so right now. And i too feel like im having a lotta trouble dropping that extra 2-3 percent that i want to drop. I currently am on a low carb-high protein diet, and I am going to start carb cycling. I am also going on Animal Cuts and adding slow jogging to my routine..keeping my heart rate in the fat-burning zone as to not lose muscle. Hopefully by summer ill be around 6%

[atrain08]

Count me in as well. I'm at about 10% currently, although I'm not really "trying" to get down lower it's not easy. I want to get down to about 7%. For me I think I would have to start doing cardio EVERY day to get down below 10%. Maybe some guys that are down below 10% will chime in.

[CapnPowerMonger]

Your body is smart. Lots of folks start at like 15% body fat and then cut their calories to 1500 a day and do an hour of cardio every day right off the bat. That's a recipe for getting to 12% and staying there.

You should slowly cut down the calories over a period of time, and you should be at 1500 or so(according to your individual body) at the very end of the diet. I plan my diet out carefully. I start as high on calories and as low on cardio as I can, then every week I up the cardio and drop the calories(slightly). Your body will not go into starvation mode and will let go of the fat if you "coax" it like that.

Don't go all out right at the beginning, cut things out slowly, decrease rest periods between sets, add some cardio a couple mornings a week. Then when you feel you've milked it for all its worth, add some more cardio, lower cals ect.

For those of you who have hit a wall and are well below your BMR already I recommend a refeed. In other words up your calories to maintenance or slightly above maintenance for 3-4 weeks, then your metabolism will recover. Then start dieting right and the results will come.

[shitfit]

Your body is smart. Lots of folks start at like 15% body fat and then cut their calories to 1500 a day and do an hour of cardio every day right off the bat. That's a recipe for getting to 12% and staying there.

You should slowly cut down the calories over a period of time, and you should be at 1500 or so(according to your individual body) at the very end of the diet. I plan my diet out carefully. I start as high on calories and as low on cardio as I can, then every week I up the cardio and drop the calories(slightly). Your body will not go into starvation mode and will let go of the fat if you "coax" it like that.

Don't go all out right at the beginning, cut things out slowly, decrease rest periods between sets, add some cardio a couple mornings a week. Then when you feel you've milked it for all its worth, add some more cardio, lower cals ect.

For those of you who have hit a wall and are well below your BMR already I recommend a refeed. In other words up your calories to maintenance or slightly above maintenance for 3-4 weeks, then your metabolism will recover. Then start dieting right and the results will come.

This is rather good advice for those who are not unfamiliar with training. However, there are those who respond better to a shock start or as most would say, an extreme beginning.

The best way to benefit from that I suppose would be to build up your metabolism so that you start to cut (and you are one of those who respond well to a shock start), you can start off extreme and then from there, slowly but surely increase your caloric deficit to avoid plateauing longer.

[AustrianOakJr]

Your body is smart. Lots of folks start at like 15% body fat and then cut their calories to 1500 a day and do an hour of cardio every day right off the bat. That's a recipe for getting to 12% and staying there.

Good advice....its a recipe for stalling the metabolism. Theoretically, lowering bodyfat from 10-5% should be the same as lowering from 15-10%. Calories in vs. calories out. Problem is that the body doesnt like to go to that low of a BF level...it senses its starving and metabolism will crash as a survival mechanism. Everyone has to learn how to manipulate their individual metabolsim. For me, carb cycling works. In order for the fat to come off into single digits, I run 2-3 low carb days (30g or so) followed by a couple medium carb days (100-150g), followed by one high carb, refeed day (500g of carbs). This keeps the body guessing, keeps Leptin levels elevated, and the fat furnace blazing.

[CapnPowerMonger]

This is rather good advice for those who are not unfamiliar with training. However, there are those who respond better to a shock start or as most would say, an extreme beginning.

The best way to benefit from that I suppose would be to build up your metabolism so that you start to cut (and you are one of those who respond well to a shock start), you can start off extreme and then from there, slowly but surely increase your caloric deficit to avoid plateauing longer.

I recently started what you are calling a "shock start" I did about 2 months of standard calorie cutting and got to around 11% very slowly. Since I am just trying to get to around 8, I shocked my body with a severe calorie drop and quite a bit of cardio. Over the next 5 weeks i am upping the cardio and lowering the calories and plan to hit 8% by middle of april.

So yeah, I agree that shocking the body is good if you are already at a respectable bf percentage. But shocking it from 20% to 15% is a recipe for disaster(or at least stalled progress).

Carb cycling works as well, I was just trying to keep it simple for these guys. This type of diet should be the first one you do, then try the others as you learn your body and how it reacts to food.

[th3pwn3r]

Good advice....its a recipe for stalling the metabolism. Theoretically, lowering bodyfat from 10-5% should be the same as lowering from 15-10%. Calories in vs. calories out. Problem is that the body doesnt like to go to that low of a BF level...it senses its starving and metabolism will crash as a survival mechanism. Everyone has to learn how to manipulate their individual metabolsim. For me, carb cycling works. In order for the fat to come off into single digits, I run 2-3 low carb days (30g or so) followed by a couple medium carb days (100-150g), followed by one high carb, refeed day (500g of carbs). This keeps the body guessing, keeps Leptin levels elevated, and the fat furnace blazing.

Now this is real advice. This is why people should calorie and carb load. It prevents your metabolism from slowing if it did. Many people claim that it takes a very long time to enter starvation and even on extreme deficits your metabolism only slows down 10percent, that's just a little something I've come across and there's no proof that I can offer. I will say that carb and calorie loading/cycling does work well in my experience.

[IrishPilot]

Your body is smart. Lots of folks start at like 15% body fat and then cut their calories to 1500 a day and do an hour of cardio every day right off the bat. That's a recipe for getting to 12% and staying there...

up your calories to maintenance or slightly above maintenance for 3-4 weeks, then your metabolism will recover. Then start dieting right and the results will come.

This would reasonably closely describe what I did, and it makes perfect sense when you put it that way. Im currently at 2k cals daily though, and Ive started carb cycling. Would you guys assume that this will do the trick? Id hate to think I need to put a 3-4 week delay on my cut to get my metabolism back in action. Whatever it takes though...

[IrishPilot]

Good advice....

Just looked at your bodyspace page and your transformation. Huge reps man...amazing work. Heading over to your journal to see how you did it!

[IrishPilot]

bump.

[AustrianOakJr]

Just looked at your bodyspace page and your transformation. Huge reps man...amazing work. Heading over to your journal to see how you did it!

Thanks. My journal begins only after my first show. If you search my old threads you can find my contest log and even before that I did a body transformation contest. Its just eating right and busting my ass....theres no secret though.

[AustrianOakJr]

Many people claim that it takes a very long time to enter starvation and even on extreme deficits your metabolism only slows down 10percent, that's just a little something I've come across and there's no proof that I can offer. I will say that carb and calorie loading/cycling does work well in my experience.

Everyone is different. I can tell you my experience......it wasnt long into cutting when I hit a wall. Weight was coming off at a steady 3 lbs a week when I first started and then 20lbs into it I stopped losing. I hit a wall and the weight didnt want to come off. I took two days and ATE. I dropped the calories again and the weight came off again. Ever since, I have used refeeds regularly. Refeeds are NOT cheats though. These are scheduled days where you CALCULATE more calories from carbs into your diet. A lot of people just think they can go hog wild on a refeed day and wind up ruining an entire weeks worth of dieting in one day. Also important to note, your weight will go up a couple lbs following a refeed as water is pulled into the muscle with the carbs. Once the glycogen is spent over the next day or two, the weight comes right back down and continues to drop until your next refeed.

[colinlorourke]

So I used carb cycling for a while and it worked really well, I shed body fat, but when I got to around 12%, I hit a major plateau, and now my body started burning muscle for the past 2 weeks, and I've lost almost 2 pounds of muscle instead of fat. THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. Why isn't the carb cycle continuing to work? How do I break through this plateau? I just want to get to 10% body fat.

[GKCzar]

From what I understand, one should have refeeds often. Those in the 10% and below range refeed twice a week. Where you go to maintence or a little below and lower fat intake and double carb intake. And with those a little above maybe a refeed once a week. Point is refeeds are crucial. The hard part is making sure the refeeds don't turn into a binge.

[kenny878]

Good advice....its a recipe for stalling the metabolism. Theoretically, lowering bodyfat from 10-5% should be the same as lowering from 15-10%. Calories in vs. calories out. Problem is that the body doesnt like to go to that low of a BF level...it senses its starving and metabolism will crash as a survival mechanism. Everyone has to learn how to manipulate their individual metabolsim. For me, carb cycling works. In order for the fat to come off into single digits, I run 2-3 low carb days (30g or so) followed by a couple medium carb days (100-150g), followed by one high carb, refeed day (500g of carbs). This keeps the body guessing, keeps Leptin levels elevated, and the fat furnace blazing.

This is good advice. I'm doing a similar sort of thing, except my low carb days are more like 50 to 80 grams and high carb refeed is about 300 grams. Going well so far. Although I have at least 5 more pounds to shed before getting sub 10 percent

[LiverAbuser]

ive almost always been around 11% bf. but the way i dropped was simply building more muscle, then doing your cardio after your weight lifting. im around 9% right now...still trying to get to 5%... =P but for 5% id probably say ud need a fat burner to "help" u get there if ur not fully on top of your diet.

Please tell me the fat burner that can get you at 5%. I'll take 10 lol.

[SherOfPunjab]

I am currently at 10 - 12% bodyfat. I have been trying desperately for the past year to get below 10%. I tried the velocity diet, but the fat loss stalled like crazy after the third week. I am not sure what to do anymore. Please help

You have plateaued. Examine what you're currently doing at the moment and write it down. Things like:

- How much water are you drinking?
- How many cheat meals per week?
- Your protein/carb/fat intake and your total daily calories?
- Your exercise regimen


Then understand that the leaner you get the harder it becomes to lose additional fat because body gets very stingy. So you have to change parameters like drink more water...throw in some cardio on days when you don't work out..change your exercise regimen every other week..carb cycling helps many people (incl me) break their plateaus so can look into that too. Most importantly don't give up.

[LAP2013]

Ive just began a cutt im currently 15.3% and wosh to get down to 10 possibly below. Im a novice when it comes to cutting. Has any body got any info for me on how to acomplish this goal? Im 12 stone at 5'8.4 ht. is it mostly cardio or can it be done with just resistant heavy weights?

Cheers.