What's the best approach for fat loss?

[Vragoth]

December 20th will be my 4th month of working out, I've seen amazing results on my back, lats, delts, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and pretty much everything! ( legs ).
But fat loss hasn't been as much as i wanted it to be, i weight 185 or so right now and i'm at 17-18% BF. I used to be somewhere in 25+ with the same weight before.
But i've been staying at 18ish for way too long. Do i need to cut more calories from my diet? Could i just do cardio to lose the BF and somehow keep muscle?
Any insight is appreciated!

[Znik]

The best and only way is to be in a calorie deficit, if you are not losing weight you are eating too much.
Options are: A. Increase cardio to make up for calorie intake or B. cut more calories from diet.
You dont say anything about what your calories or or macros , so hard to say what to do.
Keep lifting heavy while cutting to keep the muscle/minimize loss.

[Vragoth]

The best and only way is to be in a calorie deficit, if you are not losing weight you are eating too much.
Options are: A. Increase cardio to make up for calorie intake or B. cut more calories from diet.
You dont say anything about what your calories or or macros , so hard to say what to do.
Keep lifting heavy while cutting to keep the muscle/minimize loss.

I've never really ate much, right now i'm about 180 with a 18% body fat.
On average i eat about 1500 calories or less, 100-150g protein and 100g of carbs.
I've gotten amazing results on my body but not much weight loss, Noob gains could explain for that.
I found a maintenance calculator saying i need 2000 calories which is far from i eat.
I'm going to try Lyle McDonald's U.D 2.0 diet with counting EVERY calorie and macros, do you think 1500 calories would be fine?

[gnowine]

I've never really ate much, right now i'm about 180 with a 18% body fat.
On average i eat about 1500 calories or less, 100-150g protein and 100g of carbs.
I've gotten amazing results on my body but not much weight loss, Noob gains could explain for that.
I found a maintenance calculator saying i need 2000 calories which is far from i eat.
I'm going to try Lyle McDonald's U.D 2.0 diet with counting EVERY calorie and macros, do you think 1500 calories would be fine?

I never counted everything and still went from 92kg to 72kg in 7 months. Just good diet, 5x a week of heavy lifting. no excuses. discipline and its all about how much you want it.

[santiago81]

I've never really ate much, right now i'm about 180 with a 18% body fat.
On average i eat about 1500 calories or less, 100-150g protein and 100g of carbs.
I've gotten amazing results on my body but not much weight loss, Noob gains could explain for that.
I found a maintenance calculator saying i need 2000 calories which is far from i eat.
I'm going to try Lyle McDonald's U.D 2.0 diet with counting EVERY calorie and macros, do you think 1500 calories would be fine?

There's an old saying: muscle in denser than fat. One thing you have to understand is that all body types are different. It appears that you may perhaps be eating too few calories which is causing your body to store fat instead of burning it. Try to increase your calorie count to around 2000. See what happens with your BF percentage then. Since I started on a fitness program in early August I went from 27% down to 16% (ish) My original goal was to hit 15% in 9 months. Now I've updated that goal to 8% by December 2014. It's a long road, but I'll journey down it. My calorie intake is around 2700 calories per day with 160 grams of protein. Heavy lifting, no cardio at the moment. I'm maintaining weight so far and I've been on this since Mid-November. I plan to start cardio in January with intense intervals, etc to cut away some more fat. But I don't plan on lowering my calories for sure. See how your body feels and how it changes with added calories. Perhaps that is what it is.

[mattyelle1]

The best and only way is to be in a calorie deficit, if you are not losing weight you are eating too much.
Options are: A. Increase cardio to make up for calorie intake or B. cut more calories from diet.
You dont say anything about what your calories or or macros , so hard to say what to do.
Keep lifting heavy while cutting to keep the muscle/minimize loss.

I agree with Znik. The only thing I would add is that if you eat quality nutritious foods at key times during the day, you can have more calories. Quality calories that are well timed will give your extra energy you will burn in and out the gym. I would try and schedule my meals strategically around my workouts.

[evo3129]

Balanced diet. Lots of fruit and vegetables. Intermittent Fasting.

Brad Pilon's 'Eat Stop Eat' is excellent. 'Leangains' pretty good too.

[ComputerNut]

December 20th will be my 4th month of working out, I've seen amazing results on my back, lats, delts, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and pretty much everything! ( legs ).
But fat loss hasn't been as much as i wanted it to be, i weight 185 or so right now and i'm at 17-18% BF. I used to be somewhere in 25+ with the same weight before.
But i've been staying at 18ish for way too long. Do i need to cut more calories from my diet? Could i just do cardio to lose the BF and somehow keep muscle?
Any insight is appreciated!

How much fat do you take in? Because you need fat to lose fat "or so I've been told" i also switched from a 7-8 meals a day to a "if" diet and that helped me, I'm only on week 4 or so and I've seen a change in my bf% from 12ish to 10-% but I also cut a few more calories and fast 20-to-4 to help burn more,i also workout in a fasted state.

[kevsworld]

I've tried several approaches and I personally like intermittent fasting more than any other. But there's not really one "best" approach. It comes down to whatever strategy you can follow that will keep you in a negative calorie balance long enough to see results.

http://musclereview.net/intermittent-fasting/

[Sarumyan]

I would recommend incorporating sprints or playing basketball. Makes you more athletic and restores agility.
Generally cutting carbs, moderate IF, and eating organic and healthy helped me out a lot.

[CephD]

As well as what people are saying above about good nutrition and diet (particularly the calorie deficit for leaning up) I think the compound exercises help a lot in body transformation in terms of overall leaning and development.

Essentially squats, deadlifts and presses are key for this. Focused on big muscle groups like back, spinal erector (core), glutes and quads... the whole posterior chain. And chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps for presses (incline, flat bench, flies and chest dips).

Bigger muscle groups require more recovery so keep your body in a state of growth and repair than isolation exercises.

The best analogy I read for this was: for a tree to get bigger it has to strengthen its trunk, so it can support bigger branches.... = if you want big arms, shoulders, and legs, aim for the big muscles, then you'll lift bigger everywhere else