best way to lose bf% appose to weight?

DAEDULUS

well im around 15-16%bf and 13 stone,i would like to drop bf to below 10 or so without having to do lots of cardio.
it possible?

Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe

depends on your height aswell.
you dont want to loose to much weight. and loosing that much is not the best idea...
whats wrong with doing exercise and getting into shape?
if you dont mind telling that is :-).
also, how old are ya...
the older you are the less easlier it is to loose weight without risk.
have you spoken to a gp on the matter?
planning diet's, healthy eating and exercise is the best way imo...

secret_squirrel

DAEDULUS wrote:

well im around 15-16%bf and 13 stone,i would like to drop bf to below 10 or so without having to do lots of cardio.
it possible?

Why do you want to lose body fat ??- 15-16 isnt a bad result at all - unless you are a serious athlete.

Only serious athletes are likely to have under 10% bf.

DAEDULUS

well i do sport 3/4 times and do a 5k run atleast 3 times per week at training,so i cba doing more cardio
im only 15,and last i checked i was 11½ foot.
im naturally a bigger build and i know for a fact that i probably have the muscles under the fat to have quite a good body as when it comes to fitness/strenght tests i always do quite well and i have been doing general excersises at home since the summer or so to build abs/legs/wrists and other parts

logic1

DAEDULUS wrote:

im only 15,and last i checked i was 11½ foot.

You're one tall mother ****er.

.logic.

DAEDULUS

ROFL...
i meant 5,11½ foot

Transform

15% i would consider high and its all about a good diet devoid of junk food, good weights program and aviod excessive high intensity cardio unless you just want to keep burning up your carbohydrate stores and leave you tired all the time.
You will only see a 6 pack at about 10% (for most)

skywalker

sorry to jump on your thread, but what is cardio? i know its short for cardio-vascular but what exercises fall into that catagory? question ive always wanted to ask but never had a chance.

Easygainer

Ok I'll make it sound simple but it IS NOT!

To keep lbm (lean body mass) but cut fat is a very difficult thing. The most important thing, IMO, when dieting right is not to lose muscle or your relative bf% will stay the same or increase. To maintain lbm you need to take in lots of protein and not lower your overall calories far below what you are currently at.

1) Over the next week don't worry about dieting. Take an account of EXACTLY what you are eating - carbs, proteins, fats and overall calories. Take a note of it. Let's say it breaks down to 300g carbs (1200 cals), 150g protein (600 cals) and 90g fat (810 cals). That's a total of 2610 calories.

2) You say you weigh 13 stone, so in pounds that's 182 lbs. This is important. First off, a good level of protein is 1g/pound bodyweight. Up the protein to 182g, even overshoot a bit. Now cut the carbs by 10g in week1 to 290g (This is assuming you were eating as above). Also lower the fats. To compensate the difference from the increased protein simply cut the fats by 30g. You now have: 182g protein (728 cals), 290g carbs(1160), 60g fat (540) - total cals = 2428.

3) It's important to notice you have only dropped the calories by a small amount. See how you fare after 1 week on this diet. If you maintain the same weight, drop the carbs another 10g. You should do this if you lose weight as well because you now don't weigh as much so you don't need as many calories. Aim for 1-1.5lbs of fat loss a week. This will slow down after a few weeks but stick to the plan and it will come off. DO NOT dramatically drop the calories and increase the protein if you lose 2+lbs/week.

4) It's not easy to count calories so get used to it! Some foods are nearly impossible to functionally count (sauces and milk etc make it a lot harder). Your diet will probably get a bit monotonous so once a week allow yourself a cheat meal or alternatively a high carb day.

5) You can also help the diet by changing the timing of your eating. Having carbohydrates in the meal directly before and after training will mean you have more energy, better recovery and less glycogen storage (which can become fat if unused).

6) Split your meals up into 5 meals / day. Six is the optimum. Aim to eat every 3 hours. More frequent, smaller meals will speed up your metabolism and make your body more efficient at processing the food you take in.

Good Luck

jman0

That's a great post Easygainer. I think i'm in a similar situation regarding bf%.
I get a good amount of exercise and lifting, I suspect my carb intake is the problem.
I should probably go for more protein but alas, when in the shop i have no imagination as to what to buy. Obviously i'm not going for anything that's going to be greasy. Can you recommend any menu items that would give lots of protein but lite on the saturated fats? i think i need recomendations for a cookbook...

Easygainer

jman0 wrote:

That's a great post Easygainer. I think i'm in a similar situation regarding bf%.
I get a good amount of exercise and lifting, I suspect my carb intake is the problem.
I should probably go for more protein but alas, when in the shop i have no imagination as to what to buy. Obviously i'm not going for anything that's going to be greasy. Can you recommend any menu items that would give lots of protein but lite on the saturated fats? i think i need recomendations for a cookbook...

As long as you're not dieting for a contest you don't need to be as strict. This is simply because a calorie is a calorie and unless you've to worry about water retention or getting to 4 % bf (not on calipers, a genuine 4%!!).

Personally I find a few meals I really like and stick to them. For me this is sweet and sour and spaghetti bolognese. I have a few things I do for this.

Firstly, for the sweet and sour I use the light sauce you get in Tesco - it's E1.35 for a jar I think so that'll do nearly 3 servings. I'm lucky in that I have a poultry wholesaler just beside me but anyone can get turkey or chicken for this - again if I'm lazy Tesco have 300g packs of Turkey cut up already that cost about E3.50 (turkey and chicken are normally around 25g/100g protein, 0g carbs and 1g fat). Then I take it with wholemeal rice, the uncle ben's one takes 10 mins to cook. I weigh out the rice to 100g if I need more carbs (that's 73g carbs) or if I want less carbs, say on a day I'm not lifting, I'll take 75g (pretty much 50g). Now the sauce is pretty much no protein (any protein in this or the rice is secondary protein source so NOT to be counted), 20g/100g carbs (this is from vegetables mainly so don't worry that it says it's sugars) and 0.1g fat! (God I do this too often). Then I fry the chicken using the 1 cal spray (you know the one with the green lid) and it's a good meal, protein rich, good carbs and low fat.

For the bolognese I use wholewheat pasta - this is less starchy and has very little or no sugar. I normally use penne because with carb restrictive diets it seems like you're getting more than with spaghetti because it's smaller! It's important that you use lean mince - it costs more but is well worth it. Tesco and Dunnes both do an extremely lean mince which comes to 5% fat - this is alot better than the 15% in cheaper packs. Light bolognese sauce is just tomatos and works out to only 7g carbs/100g, any sugars coming from tomatoes. 100g pasta = 60g carbs. 100g mince = 23g protein.

Both these meals have low saturated fats, particularly the chicken one. At the moment I'm dieting and I structure my meals so that I have little or no carbs bar the meal before and after my workout ( I also take glucose powder with my post workout shake - this is 99c/500g in baby section of any supermarket). This way I have plenty of energy for the workout and I restore my muscle glycogen after the workout. Then because of the low carbs the rest of the day, but high protein, fat is prioritised as a source of energy.

Hope this helps, pm me if there's any food you like and I could see how to make it better.

Transform

Great post but how do you feel using a ketogenic system like this most of the time?
You seem to avoid fat like the plague and yet studies show how beneficial it is for fat loss and optimal testosterone production. Also why don't you just have a handful of rasins or a bananna as a post workout high GI snack instead of empty calories from glucose which with long term use can cause diabetes?

From my experience most people need to keep it simple and stay away from the junk foods, train regularly and just generally feel good about themselves. Your post is ok for the seasoned bodybuilder though i am not very confident readers will apply it when it is so devoid of fats which will keep them feeling satisfied after a meal.

I personally eat lots of butter, udo's oil, olive oil etc every day and have maintained a very low body fat for years. I also found excessive protein (more than 1g-1.5g per kg of body weight) was detrimental to my progress over the long term.

This is my experience and not the silly ramblings (your posts are generally good easy gainer) of some of the 'what should i do' posts on this section of the boards.