Getting Down to Single Digit Bodyfat

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

currently doing a slow cut bodyfat is to high 15+percent at 300 looking to get into single digit territory
what i am doing right now is going just under maintence each day nothing fancy
would like some pointers from anyone who has gone from high teen bodyfat to the single digiits

and how was there experience?what kind of diets were tried? was cardio done or nessasary? was muscle perserved?
i would consider keto diet as that is what has got me the leaness i have so far, but i know doing so will sacrifice much muscle in the process
as it has already. i am ready to take this game to the next level, bulking is an easy one for me, but its time to get lean now and see what i look like with skin bone and muscle on me.

any advice greatly appreciated

2

Can’t give any advice, but would be kinda awesome if you kept a log of your journey to single digit body fat!

3

[quote]illadelphia91 wrote:
Can’t give any advice, but would be kinda awesome if you kept a log of your journey to single digit body fat![/quote]

ok i can do that which section should i post it in?
also what kind of stuff would you like me to log?

4

hire Shelby Starnes

/thread

5

[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
hire Shelby Starnes

/thread[/quote]
i dont know who that is

6

[quote]GSUbarbell wrote:

[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
hire Shelby Starnes

/thread[/quote]
i dont know who that is
[/quote]

-author on this site who just turned IFBB pro, his articles are worth a read. Also look up some by John Berardi

7

You should be able to get to 10% just by eating under maintence and chucking in some cardio 2-4 times a week. After that you’ll probably need to start playing about with carb timing, high days, low days, adding some cardio and cutting out things like dairy and fruit.

Also you look to me like you’re nearer 20% than 15. On a 300lb frame thats going to be a lot of weight thats coming off. Your probably looking at dropping 50 odd pounds. Which will take time, so untill you’re about 15lbs out from where you want to be i wouldn’t worry to much about fancy diets.

MAy be then get someone like Mighty Stu or Shelby to do the fine tuning.

8

[quote]ESX wrote:
You should be able to get to 10% just by eating under maintence and chucking in some cardio 2-4 times a week. After that you’ll probably need to start playing about with carb timing, high days, low days, adding some cardio and cutting out things like dairy and fruit.

Also you look to me like you’re nearer 20% than 15. On a 300lb frame thats going to be a lot of weight thats coming off. Your probably looking at dropping 50 odd pounds. Which will take time, so untill you’re about 15lbs out from where you want to be i wouldn’t worry to much about fancy diets.

MAy be then get someone like Mighty Stu or Shelby to do the fine tuning.[/quote]

good post

9

Below is a screenshot of my fat loss log. My goal is to get to under 10% for the first time in several years and according to yesterday’s weigh-in, I’m almost there. This log starts at the beginning of October, but I actually started cutting at the beginning of the year when I weighed over 190lbs, at around 19-20% body fat.

Got the fat down to mid teens, but a minor operation in May kept me completely inactive for 6 weeks. Luckily my diet was good during this time so I didn’t gain much fat at all. Nothing much changed until October when I decided to go for the final cut to get under 10%. Initially, I was using weights 5-6 times a week with little/no cardio. Then I switched to 4-5 weights sessions with some cardio.

Currently, I’m weight training 4 days per week (bench, squat, deadlift, press, chin-ups), with 20 mins of cardio after each session, along with a dedicated cardio session on Sundays. Diet at the moment is as follows: 2000 calories, 175g protein, 200g carbs, 56g fat, all over 4 meals. Protein is spread evenly throughout the day, carbs are higher and fat lower after my workout. Carbs are lower and fat is higher for meal 4, about 2 hours before bed.

I’ve done nothing fancy whatsoever, but my results have been reasonably consistent. There were times when the scales moved in the wrong direction, but looking at the results from month to month shows that ultimately, I have made progress. Personally, I think most of my progress came from the diet being on-point, rather than doing a crazy amount of training.

The biggest surprise for me, was just how much fat you have to actually lose to get this far. In the past I definitely underestimated the amount of fat I was carrying, and thought I would have reached my goal at a heavier bodyweight. I guess I could be a little depleted, but not by much given my carbs aren’t low.

For the record, I’m using Omron BF500 scales to obtain all the readings. Yes, I am a numbers guy and tracking everything in detail really helps me stay on track.

Don’t rush it if you don’t have to. The more time you give allow the easier it will be. I could have done it much quicker, but I fell off the wagon on occasion. I’m okay with that though, as the time soon passed and now I’ve almost reached my goal.

Good luck with yours.

1024×640 86.8 KB

10

yes i am expecting this to take at least 6months

11

james brown that is legit stats you got there i love reading stuff like that very motivating having that kind of data on your hands thanks for the input

12

This is a pretty amazing transformation with good info.

13

@GSUBarbell,

I recently (over about one year) went from 6’1" 275 down to 230. At 275 I looked like (and was) a powerlifter and now I look more like an NFL linebacker. BF% right now at 230 is around 8%.

The key here is sustainability, so throw out any advice that looks like a pre-contest cutting diet. You need to be able to sustain a diet long-term while never going hungry and always having enough energy to train. My recommendation is paleo-type diet. Here’s what I eat over the course of a day:

8AM (post-training) Shake made w/ 1 cup egg whites, 2 scoops protein powder, 1 tblspn almond butter, 1 pint glass of frozen organic strawberries.
10AM 1 chicken breast and a handful of almonds
12PM Salad w/ oil and vinegar and 2 chicken breasts
2PM Handful of almonds or an avocado
5PM Big dinner consisting of 1 pound (raw weight) of some type of meat along with piles of steamed brocolli, onions, peppers, etc.
8PM 1 chicken breast

Now I will deviate from this diet all the time, but the trick is to limit your intake to only meats, whole fruits, and whole vegetables. Read the packaging on EVERYTHING to make sure you’re not getting any corn syrup, processed sugar, etc.

There are “cheat foods” that are compatible with this diet. A couple times a week I will eat a 90% cocoa chocolate bar (ingredients only cocoa and about 3g organic cane sugar). There is also a new ice cream called “Arctic Zero” that is made from whey powder and a binding agent called xanthan gum. You can eat almonds and almond butter and even bake w/ almond flour if you’re daring enough.

So the takeaways are these:

  1. NO starch, processed sugar, or agricultural grains. This category includes all potatoes, corn, grains, legumes, beans, and peanuts. Stay away.
  2. Eat whole fruits, meats, and vegetables and do not stress too much about portion control.
  3. Fat is now your friend… as long as it comes from meat or a vegetable. If I’m feeling hungry I will sometimes eat a couple handfuls of almonds which equals around 40-50 grams of fat. Natural healthy fat is good, just don’t go crazy.
14

[quote]James Brown wrote:
Below is a screenshot of my fat loss log.

http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o680/benh89/Stats.jpg[/quote]

Man, that scale is all over the place for me. I chucked the rest of the stats and just use the Lbs. Glad it works for someone.

15

I suggest getting a coach for your first time dieting.

For the simple fact your mind can play games on you and it’s easy to lose it and make irrational and emotional decisions. It can be good to have an outside tell you to chill out and change your macronutrient intake for you.

Now I’ll be honest I’ve never been single digit but I have been dieting for the past year and have gone from 252 to 215 with minimal muscle loss, without extreme dieting measures and I eat plenty of calories still so take this next part with a grain of salt.
I’m sure you won’t need to do anything extreme like ketogenic dieting since your starting out around 15-18% not until you’re atleast around 10%

Shelby Starnes is a very well known coach and I’m sure he is worth the money. At the same time he and most other well known coaches are EXTREMELY HEAVY on the wallet.

I’ve been using a natural pro as a coach who is very affordable I can reccomend him if you would like?

16

[quote]Spider40 wrote:
@GSUBarbell,

I recently (over about one year) went from 6’1" 275 down to 230. At 275 I looked like (and was) a powerlifter and now I look more like an NFL linebacker. BF% right now at 230 is around 8%.

The key here is sustainability, so throw out any advice that looks like a pre-contest cutting diet. You need to be able to sustain a diet long-term while never going hungry and always having enough energy to train. My recommendation is paleo-type diet. Here’s what I eat over the course of a day:

8AM (post-training) Shake made w/ 1 cup egg whites, 2 scoops protein powder, 1 tblspn almond butter, 1 pint glass of frozen organic strawberries.
10AM 1 chicken breast and a handful of almonds
12PM Salad w/ oil and vinegar and 2 chicken breasts
2PM Handful of almonds or an avocado
5PM Big dinner consisting of 1 pound (raw weight) of some type of meat along with piles of steamed brocolli, onions, peppers, etc.
8PM 1 chicken breast

Now I will deviate from this diet all the time, but the trick is to limit your intake to only meats, whole fruits, and whole vegetables. Read the packaging on EVERYTHING to make sure you’re not getting any corn syrup, processed sugar, etc.

There are “cheat foods” that are compatible with this diet. A couple times a week I will eat a 90% cocoa chocolate bar (ingredients only cocoa and about 3g organic cane sugar). There is also a new ice cream called “Arctic Zero” that is made from whey powder and a binding agent called xanthan gum. You can eat almonds and almond butter and even bake w/ almond flour if you’re daring enough.

So the takeaways are these:

  1. NO starch, processed sugar, or agricultural grains. This category includes all potatoes, corn, grains, legumes, beans, and peanuts. Stay away.
  2. Eat whole fruits, meats, and vegetables and do not stress too much about portion control.
  3. Fat is now your friend… as long as it comes from meat or a vegetable. If I’m feeling hungry I will sometimes eat a couple handfuls of almonds which equals around 40-50 grams of fat. Natural healthy fat is good, just don’t go crazy.
    [/quote]

Congrats for your great progress.

Although I doubt this type of dieting is necessary atleast not until the is getting closer to single digit bodyfat.

People can and do eat starches when dieting, infact I think it CAN be a good idea to start the diet with 50% of the diet coming from carbs as this can be adjusted and lowered throughout the diet.

17

[quote]giograves wrote:

Man, that scale is all over the place for me. I chucked the rest of the stats and just use the Lbs. Glad it works for someone.

[/quote]

The results can jump around from week-to-week, but the monthly results do give a good indication of progress. Focusing on weekly, let alone daily measurements can drive you nuts. In future I will probably just weigh-in every two weeks and in the meantime let the mirror tell me if something has gone wrong. I was vigilant in weighing myself under the same conditions each week - same day, same time, after bowel movement, relaxed, min 2 hours after showering or eating. Omron specify the ideal conditions for weighing yourself in the instruction manual (yeah, I actually read it). I couldn’t do without them now.

Also, for comparison, my current bodyfat measured using calipers comes out between 8 and 9 percent, so the discrepancy between my scales and calipers is about 2-3%.

18

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:

This is a pretty amazing transformation with good info.[/quote]

no doubt inpressive and good info on that thread

19

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_ibb_log/hunter_pooles_getting_to_single_bodyfat_and_huge_log?pageNo=0#5472953

follow my log if yall want i just started today, and got plenty of posing pictures as well as stats

i used ketogenic diet for fat loss that ive had up to this point, and its not really pracical nor pleasant for strength and energy in the gym, i want something i can stick to and feel good on and keep me strong on for a long period of time, whereas keto i had to go off on off on constantly to go from 350 to what i am now

20

[quote]Spider40 wrote:

The key here is sustainability, so throw out any advice that looks like a pre-contest cutting diet.

8AM (post-training) Shake made w/ 1 cup egg whites, 2 scoops protein powder, 1 tblspn almond butter, 1 pint glass of frozen organic strawberries.
10AM 1 chicken breast and a handful of almonds
12PM Salad w/ oil and vinegar and 2 chicken breasts
2PM Handful of almonds or an avocado
5PM Big dinner consisting of 1 pound (raw weight) of some type of meat along with piles of steamed brocolli, onions, peppers, etc.
8PM 1 chicken breast

[/quote]

Lol?