Realistic Expectations

[thedeejay6]

Hi there,

I'm currently at 20% body fat and 180lbs. I've set a realistic goal of wanting to be 15%. Now if I wanted to achieve that by say: April
If I were to drop to 170lbs, how much of that would be muscle and how much would be fat. Reading up on a few threads seems like it depends on diet but there is some amount of muscle loss. So would it be 1lb muscle 9lb fat, or 3lb muscle 7lbs fat?

Thanks.

[earthshieldlol]

there is no way to know for sure how your body will respond until you do it. that said, 20% to 15% in 3.5 months is pretty easy to accomplish. you don't need to overcomplicate things for yourself and worry so much about bf% at this point. just start cutting and enjoy the results of your efforts.

[kanis999]

If it were me, I'd probably lose about 3 lbs of muscle and 7 lbs of fat. That's just the way my body prioritizes various tissues. Impossible to say for you.

[wishitcouldlast]

Different bodies different results bro, either way I am sure you will look and feel better which really matters. Good luck!

[csb5731]

Very, very few people have ever been in the position to accurately quantify muscle and fat loss/gains over the course of a diet. First, most methods of body composition determination aren't all that accurate. Second, most methods only distinguish fat mass vs. lean mass, and you need to know that while muscle is a component of lean mass, there are a lot more components to lean mass than muscle. So losing lean mass doesn't always mean you lost muscle.

I've read that 1:3 fat:lean (edit: lean:fat!) losses are reasonably common. People starting out really fat might lose some lower body muscle simply from having to support much less weight all the time.

An untrained, "undermuscled" might be able to make some gains in the journey from ~20% to ~15%. Not as likely for a guy with a 1400 lb bench/squat/DL total.

If anybody tells you they lost/gained X lbs of fat while lost/gained x amount of muscle, you have to take that claim with a grain of salt. Unless maybe they have multiple DEXA scans or something.

[thedeejay6]

Thank you all for your responses. I'm going to just monitor my diet and my workout week by week and then taper it towards the results I want. I guess that's the best way to do it as of now. Would you guys recommend me bump up my cardio?
I'm currently at 180lbs with 1800kcal 6x a week, 2300 1x a week (cheat/refeed). That's with 5x a week working out, 1x a week running (steady state, 30 mins) and abs, 1x a week rest. Just worried about further muscle loss because of increased cardio. Thanks.

[affine]

Don't worry about muscle loss. It's way too difficult to accurately track without using some expensive equipment. You'll probably even see an increase in strength during your cut, but not necessarily mass. Strength building has more to do with the CNS than mass building. Hell, your mass can vary day to day a significant amount depending on so many factors. You'll measure your bicep at 14" one day, and the next it'll be 14.5"+ because you're all carbed up.

Be careful with your "cheat/refeed." It is never okay to binge arbitrarily. You need to treat your refeeds with as much precision as your normal diet days.

[thedeejay6]

Don't worry about muscle loss. It's way too difficult to accurately track without using some expensive equipment. You'll probably even see an increase in strength during your cut, but not necessarily mass. Strength building has more to do with the CNS than mass building. Hell, your mass can vary day to day a significant amount depending on so many factors. You'll measure your bicep at 14" one day, and the next it'll be 14.5"+ because you're all carbed up.

Be careful with your "cheat/refeed." It is never okay to binge arbitrarily. You need to treat your refeeds with as much precision as your normal diet days.

Thanks for the advice, I'll do that. The thing is I DO count my calories/macro's as accurately as possible and if it's a known fast food joint (subway for example), I look up calories from the caloric info chart or whatever it's called. Only problem is at times I'm definately over in calories. Over by about 800 (normally I do 1800) not by 3500+ for me to gain fat but would you recommend me to make it a cheat MEAL instead of CHEAT day? I guess because I'm hardcore dieting with less than 120g/day of carbs and actually sticking to it and counting calories to the tee, by the cheat day it's kind of like a mental reward to myself as in "Here, this is what you get for sticking to it".

there is no way to know for sure how your body will respond until you do it. that said, 20% to 15% in 3.5 months is pretty easy to accomplish. you don't need to overcomplicate things for yourself and worry so much about bf% at this point. just start cutting and enjoy the results of your efforts.

Hey Earthshield, just out of curiosity what was your nutrition routine? You've cut down from your before picture. Which is exactly my goal, I'm at where you were before but just a little less. I know everyone is different but I'm just curious. Cheers mate, and good job mate. Hope to make it like you soon.

[weknow24]

Hi there,

I'm currently at 20% body fat and 180lbs. I've set a realistic goal of wanting to be 15%. Now if I wanted to achieve that by say: April
If I were to drop to 170lbs, how much of that would be muscle and how much would be fat. Reading up on a few threads seems like it depends on diet but there is some amount of muscle loss. So would it be 1lb muscle 9lb fat, or 3lb muscle 7lbs fat?

Thanks.

Highly dependant on the individual . All you can do on your end is hit your protein, fat and micro nutrient requirements and hope for the best.
If your diet is good throughout, I'd expect you to be lower than 15% come April. Good luck

[weknow24]

Thanks for the advice, I'll do that. The thing is I DO count my calories/macro's as accurately as possible and if it's a known fast food joint (subway for example), I look up calories from the caloric info chart or whatever it's called. Only problem is at times I'm definately over in calories. Over by about 800 (normally I do 1800) not by 3500+ for me to gain fat but would you recommend me to make it a cheat MEAL instead of CHEAT day? I guess because I'm hardcore dieting with less than 120g/day of carbs and actually sticking to it and counting calories to the tee, by the cheat day it's kind of like a mental reward to myself as in "Here, this is what you get for sticking to it".

.

Do not have a cheat day under any circumstances. If you really must, have a cheat meal, but even then a refeed is a much better option.

[earthshieldlol]

Hey Earthshield, just out of curiosity what was your nutrition routine? You've cut down from your before picture. Which is exactly my goal, I'm at where you were before but just a little less. I know everyone is different but I'm just curious. Cheers mate, and good job mate. Hope to make it like you soon.

wouldn't recommend what i did, but i ate at 1700 cal per day, 200g protein + 30-40g fat + rest carbs for about 3 months. no cheat days. i'd highly recommend not going that low on cals from the start though. i plateaued hard right around 168-169 lbs and decided to just start bulking. for my next cut i'll probably start around 2200 cal and drop down in 100cal increments every so often. no good reason to drop right to 1700 cal imo.

[thedeejay6]

Hi there guys. I really appreciate the feedback. I'm currently at this state and I feel it's working for me even though it's been 2 weeks of proper diet. Here's what I proposed: To lose bodyfat and drop to 15%. Now I understand I'm relatively new to the forums but I've been reading day and night about Macro's and Caloric intake. So overall it's been 6 weeks (2 weeks at 2500kcal, 2 weeks at 2000kcal and 2 weeks at 1700kcal) Just need advice for the future. Figured out that my Maintenance was 2520kcal. Did that for 2 weeks - no change. Did 2000 for 2 weeks - Change but very minimal, I'm at 1700kcal currently and I feel a lot lighter. Would you guys suggest me to keep going?

Pictures are taken on Monday morning first thing every week.

The 1700kcal ends up being low carb so I need a physiological reward or reliever which is why I give myself a cheat day contrary to what people posted. I know it's hurting me - but it's my high cal/refeed/cheat day and I honestly need it to continue to be motivated.

1700kcal tracked via MyFitnessPal - measured to the tee via Food Scales and measuring cups (for rice and what not)

50g Fat - 450kcal
185g Protein - 740kcal
102.5g CHO - 410kcal

6 days of the 7

7th day is Cheat day.

Workout: 4x a week, 1 day cardio, 2x rest.

INITIAL:imageshack.us/photo/my-images/100/initial.jpg/
CURRENT:imageshack.us/photo/my-images/132/week1r.jpg/

Thanks for your input.

[thedeejay6]

Hi Guys,

Thanks everyone for their help. I'm glad to say that this week I hit my goal. Went on a rather agressive cut but I reached 15% BF like I wanted to. Progress is in profile. I now plan to bulk or I'll just look way too skinny and I'll look anorexic. Currently at 168lbs, 5'10.5 at 15%. My maintainence is about 2500 and I want to bulk till about May. I'm thinking of doing 2650kcal.

80g FAT = 720kcal
180g PRO = 720kcal
290g CARB = 1160kcal

This will be my bulk calories. Now before I do that I'm going to be doing 2 weeks at 2400, just incase the TDEE is a little off. What do you guys think/suggest? Thanks

[niknguyen]

Hi Guys,

Thanks everyone for their help. I'm glad to say that this week I hit my goal. Went on a rather agressive cut but I reached 15% BF like I wanted to. Progress is in profile. I now plan to bulk or I'll just look way too skinny and I'll look anorexic. Currently at 168lbs, 5'10.5 at 15%. My maintainence is about 2500 and I want to bulk till about May. I'm thinking of doing 2650kcal.

80g FAT = 720kcal
180g PRO = 720kcal
290g CARB = 1160kcal

This will be my bulk calories. Now before I do that I'm going to be doing 2 weeks at 2400, just incase the TDEE is a little off. What do you guys think/suggest? Thanks

so you want to bulk, on a 100 calorie surplus??

[thedeejay6]

Well I'm thinking if I do have a TDEE of 2400 then I'm up 250kcal at 2650. If I have a 2500 then I'm going to shoot for 2750. What you think?

[niknguyen]

thats better. with that low of a calorie surplus, fat gain should be minimal. good luck. 250-500 should be fine