Please estimate my BF% and should I continue bulking or start cutting?
Brynich
Posts: 65 Member
Hello everyone. I have absolutely no idea what my body fat percentage is so if you could please estimate it for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, at this point do you think I should continue bulking or start cutting? For reference, my height is about 6 ft 0.5 inches and my weight is around 180 pounds (a little bit less). I'm getting very close to the upper boundaries of the healthy range for my BMI so I was contemplating cutting down to around 140-150 then start bulking again. So what do you think I should do? Thanks in advance for any help and/or advice.
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Replies
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Continue bulking bro.
I'm not good at bodyfat estimation but imo it's like 15%0 -
BMI is not accurate for men who are lifting, so dont worry about it. You still look lean enough to keep going imo0
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i'd assume 16-17%, certainly should cut.0
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Thanks for the quick replies. @annette_15 Isn't it only inaccurate for really muscular men (like those who look like bodybuilders)? Also, does anyone know how much weight loss is essentially equivalent to a body fat percentage decrease of 1%? What I mean is, say I am at 16% BF, how many pounds would I need to lose to get down to 12%?0
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It depends on how much you weigh already. If you're at 180, and you're at 16% fat, you have about 29 pounds of fat. To get down to 12% fat, you'd have to get down to around 22 pounds of fat, so you'd need to lose 7 pounds.0
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Oh wow @Kman4evah that doesn't sound like a lot at all. Thanks. I don't know why I felt like that would require a weight loss of 15-20 lbs.0
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Yeah, I felt the same way when I started. I'm at a 25% body fat and want to get down to 10%, and I thought I'd have to lose 50-60 pounds, but i really only need to lose 30. Keeping the muscle while losing the fat is the hard part, since it's hard to build/rebuild muscle in a calorie deficit. But with only 7 pounds, you should be fine.
Also, for future reference, if you're looking to have a lot of muscle (for sports or anything really), BMI is definitely not something to look at. Muscle weighs more than fat, and having more than average muscle will throw it off. Just pay attention to your body fat % and you'll be set.
Good luck!0 -
Can you tell me if you've lost a significant amount of weight in the past? I'm trying to determine if that's loose skin near the lower abdomen.
I know that typically I will over-estimate body-fat percentage when loose skin is present because it presents the image of being at a higher fat%.
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I look for certain things like vascularity and definition to help guess. I'd say about 16%-19%.
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Can you tell me if you've lost a significant amount of weight in the past? I'm trying to determine if that's loose skin near the lower abdomen.
I know that typically I will over-estimate body-fat percentage when loose skin is present because it presents the image of being at a higher fat%.
I would guess 18-20% but I am not sure if that is loose skin or not….0 -
OP - you did not get the answer you wanted in this thread?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/30954122#Comment_30954122
i thought your pictures looked familiar...0 -
At 6ft tall you should NOT be trying to get to 140lbs0
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Can you tell me if you've lost a significant amount of weight in the past? I'm trying to determine if that's loose skin near the lower abdomen.
I know that typically I will over-estimate body-fat percentage when loose skin is present because it presents the image of being at a higher fat%.
Yes, I lost about 75-80 pounds last year.
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OP - you did not get the answer you wanted in this thread?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/30954122#Comment_30954122
i thought your pictures looked familiar...
Yes, that was from January, I've done about 6 months of bulking since then and gone from about 155 pounds to 175-180 pounds, so since half a year has passed I was wondering what I should do now. Also, I think it could be loose skin+fat. When I was 155 I could still feel deposits of fat in there but people were starting to say that I looked malnourished so I decided to not cut any further (although I guess more cutting is what I needed to decrease the fat deposits there). Any advice?
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TavistockToad wrote: »At 6ft tall you should NOT be trying to get to 140lbs
As per the advice of you and others in this thread, I'll just throw the concept of BMI out the window, but what weight do you think would be appropriate then? BTW, part of the reason why I wanted to get so low is because when I was at 155 I still felt like I had significant fat on me (especially in the legs and lower abdomen). So I wanted to cut down to a lower weight so that I could lose as much fat as possible so I could:
1) Know what is really loose skin and what was just fat dragging skin down.
2) Give any loose skin a chance to tighten.
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Really it's just until you look the way you want, but if you're wanting that lean athletic look, just keep building muscle and cutting down to 8-12% fat until you're satisfied with what you see.
With the skin, you'll just need to give it a while for it to tighten (losing more weight I don't think helps in that aspect, as it leaves more loose skin).
I'm personally shooting for the Adrian Peterson look (he's 6'1'' and 217). Take that as you will.0 -
You would look awful at 140lbs with your height0
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TavistockToad wrote: »At 6ft tall you should NOT be trying to get to 140lbs
As per the advice of you and others in this thread, I'll just throw the concept of BMI out the window, but what weight do you think would be appropriate then? BTW, part of the reason why I wanted to get so low is because when I was at 155 I still felt like I had significant fat on me (especially in the legs and lower abdomen). So I wanted to cut down to a lower weight so that I could lose as much fat as possible so I could:
1) Know what is really loose skin and what was just fat dragging skin down.
2) Give any loose skin a chance to tighten.
Honestly I think you look pretty good as you are. A few months at maintenance would give the skin chance to tighten up, and you can do some recomp at the same time?0 -
Really it's just until you look the way you want, but if you're wanting that lean athletic look, just keep building muscle and cutting down to 8-12% fat until you're satisfied with what you see.
With the skin, you'll just need to give it a while for it to tighten (losing more weight I don't think helps in that aspect, as it leaves more loose skin).
I'm personally shooting for the Adrian Peterson look (he's 6'1'' and 217). Take that as you will.
I just googled him and that's essentially the type of body I want as well. Some of the skin has seemed to have tighten quite a bit so far (either that or muscle has filled it out) especially in my arms. My reasoning was that, the skin might not be able to tighten efficiently if it is still constantly being weighed and dragged down by fat (but I have no idea how sound this theory is).0 -
OP - you did not get the answer you wanted in this thread?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/30954122#Comment_30954122
i thought your pictures looked familiar...
i went back and checked the date at the top because they look exactly like some old ones.0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »At 6ft tall you should NOT be trying to get to 140lbs
As per the advice of you and others in this thread, I'll just throw the concept of BMI out the window, but what weight do you think would be appropriate then? BTW, part of the reason why I wanted to get so low is because when I was at 155 I still felt like I had significant fat on me (especially in the legs and lower abdomen). So I wanted to cut down to a lower weight so that I could lose as much fat as possible so I could:
1) Know what is really loose skin and what was just fat dragging skin down.
2) Give any loose skin a chance to tighten.
Honestly I think you look pretty good as you are. A few months at maintenance would give the skin chance to tighten up, and you can do some recomp at the same time?
Thanks! I never really considered recomp before but I'll definitely take a look into it.
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OP - you did not get the answer you wanted in this thread?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/30954122#Comment_30954122
i thought your pictures looked familiar...
i went back and checked the date at the top because they look exactly like some old ones.
OP, what have you been trying to do since January? Bulk, cut, maintain?0 -
OP - you did not get the answer you wanted in this thread?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/30954122#Comment_30954122
i thought your pictures looked familiar...
i went back and checked the date at the top because they look exactly like some old ones.
Admittedly, I didn't take a full set of pictures the 1st time (and I still haven't this time as I didn't take pics of my arms and legs for some reason) so you can't really see much improvement in what was shown originally (i.e. essentially just the abs and obliques) however my chest and back have grown quite a bit. I had a literally completely flat chest before.0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »OP - you did not get the answer you wanted in this thread?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/30954122#Comment_30954122
i thought your pictures looked familiar...
i went back and checked the date at the top because they look exactly like some old ones.
OP, what have you been trying to do since January? Bulk, cut, maintain?
I've been trying to do a clean bulk.0 -
I found an old front facing picture from January and this is what I looked like. I think I gained a bit of size on my chest and lats as I had no sort of V-shape before, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
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