Need to go from 13%bf to 8% in 7 weeks

Diet and Nutrition
1

I have dieted down in the last 4 months from 218 lbs 23%bf to 190lbs 13%
I need to get to 8% or less in the next 7 weeks.

From everyone’s experience cutting, what is the best way for me to get to 8% in 7 weeks?
I am thinking high protein,high fat,only trace carbs for 6 days then a 2 meal refeed every 7th day (150g carbs per meal from brown rice sweet potatoes and whole grain bread) and step up the cardio to 5days a week HIIT? I also have Eca stack as my disposal.

Any ideas, advice, suggestions welcome.

2

Apart from the juice that’s pretty much a precis of what has knocked a LOT of flab off me in the past, but dammit you had better not have any distractions en-route. Switch on the ‘Out of Office’ autoreply for non-bodybuilding part of your life for the next 3 weeks.

3

Only do HIIT 3 days a week. do low intensity steady state the other 2 or 3 days a week.

4

If you are currently 190 lbs @ 13% bf, you’ve got 24.7 pounds of fat on your frame. You are aiming for 8% bf which would mean a total of 15.2 pounds of fat. You want to lose 9.5 pounds of fat. At 3,500 kcals to a pound of fat, you need to net a 33,250 calorie deficit over the next 7 weeks. That’s a 4,750 deficit per week. Completely doable from a math standpoint.

Now that we’ve established that what you want to do CAN be done, let’s talk about how you do it.

Diet: Your carb cycling is a good approach. The coaches on T NATION have laid out a few great carb-cycling plans. Which to follow is up to you. As a general rule of thumb I like Mike Roussells’ 100 gram carb cure. In your case though I would probably go with something a little more intense (given your abbreviated time frame).

Exercise: We need more info to help you on this one, what are you currently doing? Look into some metabolic compound work. As a general rule, you want as many compound exercises as possible. Doing deadlifts will do wonders for creating caloric deficits that isolation exercises simply cannot. Big movements.

Other: Make sure you are getting plenty of fish oil, Biotest’s Flameout is great stuff. Balancing your lipid profile can really help with body composition. Get sleep! Lack of sleep can raise cortisol and lead to additional fat being stored in places you don’t want (like your midsection). Drink tons of water.

In summary, what you want to accomplish is completely possible. You just have to dial everything in, and most importantly INTENSITY. Go hard or go home bud, keep us updated.

5

[quote]plutusplutus wrote:
If you are currently 190 lbs @ 13% bf, you’ve got 24.7 pounds of fat on your frame. You are aiming for 8% bf which would mean a total of 15.2 pounds of fat. You want to lose 9.5 pounds of fat. At 3,500 kcals to a pound of fat, you need to net a 33,250 calorie deficit over the next 7 weeks. That’s a 4,750 deficit per week. Completely doable from a math standpoint.

Now that we’ve established that what you want to do CAN be done, let’s talk about how you do it.

Diet: Your carb cycling is a good approach. The coaches on T NATION have laid out a few great carb-cycling plans. Which to follow is up to you. As a general rule of thumb I like Mike Roussells’ 100 gram carb cure. In your case though I would probably go with something a little more intense (given your abbreviated time frame).

Exercise: We need more info to help you on this one, what are you currently doing? Look into some metabolic compound work. As a general rule, you want as many compound exercises as possible. Doing deadlifts will do wonders for creating caloric deficits that isolation exercises simply cannot. Big movements.

Other: Make sure you are getting plenty of fish oil, Biotest’s Flameout is great stuff. Balancing your lipid profile can really help with body composition. Get sleep! Lack of sleep can raise cortisol and lead to additional fat being stored in places you don’t want (like your midsection). Drink tons of water.

In summary, what you want to accomplish is completely possible. You just have to dial everything in, and most importantly INTENSITY. Go hard or go home bud, keep us updated.[/quote]

My workouts have been for last 6-7 weeks 3x full body using heavy compound lifts in the 4-6 rep range

benching, weighted dips, weighted chins, barbell rows, deadlifts, widegrip upright row, squats, decline close grip benching, skull crushers, rack pulls.For fish oil i take between 1-3 spoons of flax oil per day giving me between 10-30g fish oils.

6

p.s. would your answer be different if I said I want to get to 6% instead of 8% in 7 weeks?
between 6 and 8 percent is only a few lb difference.

7

How tall are you

8

5"10 1/2
right now im on 2 weeks clenbuterol also. fyi

9

[quote]bigtyivier2k2 wrote:

[quote]plutusplutus wrote:
If you are currently 190 lbs @ 13% bf, you’ve got 24.7 pounds of fat on your frame. You are aiming for 8% bf which would mean a total of 15.2 pounds of fat. You want to lose 9.5 pounds of fat. At 3,500 kcals to a pound of fat, you need to net a 33,250 calorie deficit over the next 7 weeks. That’s a 4,750 deficit per week. Completely doable from a math standpoint.

Now that we’ve established that what you want to do CAN be done, let’s talk about how you do it.

Diet: Your carb cycling is a good approach. The coaches on T NATION have laid out a few great carb-cycling plans. Which to follow is up to you. As a general rule of thumb I like Mike Roussells’ 100 gram carb cure. In your case though I would probably go with something a little more intense (given your abbreviated time frame).

Exercise: We need more info to help you on this one, what are you currently doing? Look into some metabolic compound work. As a general rule, you want as many compound exercises as possible. Doing deadlifts will do wonders for creating caloric deficits that isolation exercises simply cannot. Big movements.

Other: Make sure you are getting plenty of fish oil, Biotest’s Flameout is great stuff. Balancing your lipid profile can really help with body composition. Get sleep! Lack of sleep can raise cortisol and lead to additional fat being stored in places you don’t want (like your midsection). Drink tons of water.

In summary, what you want to accomplish is completely possible. You just have to dial everything in, and most importantly INTENSITY. Go hard or go home bud, keep us updated.[/quote]

My workouts have been for last 6-7 weeks 3x full body using heavy compound lifts in the 4-6 rep range

benching, weighted dips, weighted chins, barbell rows, deadlifts, widegrip upright row, squats, decline close grip benching, skull crushers, rack pulls.For fish oil i take between 1-3 spoons of flax oil per day giving me between 10-30g fish oils.
[/quote]

Single leg exercises in your repertoire will go a loooooong way in boosting the metabolic demand of your workouts. Sets last twice as long, they are more taxing from a stability standpoint, and you tend to recover a little quicker and can really squeeze down the rest time between sets. Just a thought.

10

Why do you “need” to get to 8% in 7 weeks?

11

how do you like your clen? im thinking of stacking prop clen and whinny, would anyone reccommend this?

12

[quote]gregron wrote:
Why do you “need” to get to 8% in 7 weeks?[/quote]

When I started dieting I aid to myself I must get to 8 and below. That was my goal and if I dont reach it i will be a failure in my eyes. I am soo close.
June 12 I am going on vaca to Europe for 3 weeks. I wanna look lean and mean hehe

13

[quote]t11smith wrote:
how do you like your clen? im thinking of stacking prop clen and whinny, would anyone reccommend this?[/quote]

I like it. Everyone asks why my hands are shaky haha.
I take 100mcg per day for 2 weeks then 2 weeks off

14

How old are you? Do you have pictures from your start (23% BF) to where you are now?(13%)

What do you lifts look like?

15

[quote]gregron wrote:
How old are you? Do you have pictures from your start (23% BF) to where you are now?(13%)

What do you lifts look like?[/quote]

heres me carb depleted at 190

Here’s me at 190 after refeed

my lifts

100 lb dumbell rows, 100 lb dumbell presses
dips and chins with 55 lb dumbell
245 lb barbell rows
125lb skull crushers
125 lb barbell curls (straight bar)
65 lb hammer curls (65 each arm)
265lb bench press
280 lb squat
405 rack pulls
345 lb deadlift
360 lb hammer strength incline press

16

Not to rain on the parade but seeing how you have been dieting for a while already and it only gets harder, you are not going to be able to drop that type of bodyfat percentage in that time with any reasonable muscle retention. Its just not going to happen. I would take all the advice people are giving on here, but I would change your goal. Can have 8% as a goal but need a different short term goal for 7 weeks. Or else you may be lean but definately not mean.

17

There have been some good tips here, and as someone posted earlier from a pure mathematical approach this should be possible. However, the math doesn’t always work in practice. I had a similar goal a few years back where I dieted from the 20% range to about the 10% range and really wanted to get down to 6-8% so I upped the intensity, but I crashed and burned HARD.

I really don’t want to discourage you, because your progress is awesome, and your motivation is definitely there. But I would agree with Jakabol in the fact that after having been through a pretty significant cut already you may need a more moderate approach to getting the last bit of fat off or you may end up hitting a wall.

If you have the motivation, I think it can be done, but it will require absolute determination and no screw ups. A small mistake can set the train on the wrong track.

One tip from past experience: you look great already according to the pics, so you may not want to be too aggressive, you can definitely slow down and take a more moderate approach and take your time with it. Be happy with the progress you have made, and just make sure that you are constantly making more progress, but it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing deal. Be in it for the long run!

Now that that’s out of the way, I am definitely going to follow this thread, if you go for it make sure to keep us updated. Good luck buddy!

With regards to the training, I think everyone else’s advice here has been solid. Big compound movements and HIIT will get you there. But I don’t know if you need HIIT more than 3 times a week, you may burn yourself out especially on a low carb diet.

18

The thing is these 4 months of dieting werent clean to the tee so I dont think i am burned out. I started with anabolic diet having cheat days sat and sun, then did a few weeks strict. Also sometime in March I took a full week off and ate whatever I wanted. I also took 5 days “off” from working out and dieting because I got sick a few weeks ago. So all in all I dont think I will stall due to the cheat dyas I incorporated. These 7 weeks will be very strict however using no cheat days per se but clean refeeds every 7th day

19

[quote]bigtyivier2k2 wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:
How old are you? Do you have pictures from your start (23% BF) to where you are now?(13%)

What do you lifts look like?[/quote]

heres me carb depleted at 190

Here’s me at 190 after refeed

my lifts

100 lb dumbell rows, 100 lb dumbell presses
dips and chins with 55 lb dumbell
245 lb barbell rows
125lb skull crushers
125 lb barbell curls (straight bar)
65 lb hammer curls (65 each arm)
265lb bench press
280 lb squat
405 rack pulls
345 lb deadlift
360 lb hammer strength incline press[/quote]

Are they improving? That’d be a good indicator of carrying on too long with a cut. As long as your lifts are improving, slow and steady is working for you.

20

yeah my lifts keep going up!