Tips on my goals. Wanting to drop fat %, get leaner

Huge1993

Hey guys, first time poster here.

I have started using MFP since 10 days now, and am loving it so far. I started weighing just 90kg's (not from the states lol), with a fat% of roughly 16% (I am a male). I have never been chubby. I have been quite sporty all my life, but want to take it to the next level. In the past, whenever I tried to get my body to the next level, I assumed I was able to just out-exercise my (bad) diet. Mind you, I have always done a lot of running, sporting etc.. But in the meantime, I have always been a BIG eater. Probably around 4000 calories a day, with really bad macros. I was hoping my great amount of exercise would compensate this crazy food intake, but ofcourse, I have not seen results.

That's why I finally decided to do the wise thing: adjust my diet. I am now netting <2000 calories a day (mind you, my length is 195cm). I have been able to get big calorie deficiits, with relative ease, which I find amazing. I though this new diet would be a lot harder to maintain, but so far, I'm actually ENJOYING it. Tracking calories is something I like, and it can really fascinate me, the amount of nutrition I am getting now and knowing exactly what I eat and drink. MFP shows me a daily goal of 2000 calories (net). My plan is to stay below that goal 6 days a week (how much depends on the amount of exercise I get, sometimes my net calories are below 1000), and to allow myself one cheat day, in which I can recover, and gain back some of the calories I have lost. To be honest, I think a day like that will balance it all, and keep me fueled.

I am receiving my fat caliper today, and will start to track my weekly measurements. I'm looking forward to it. My goal is to get my fat % down to the 10-12% range, where my abs will defenitely be visible. At least I hope lol. Mind you, I don't want to become super buffed. I like my current size, just want the muscle I DO have to be more visible/prominent.

But I opened this topic to see if there are more people (who have been) in this situation. How did you get to your desired fat percentage, and how much influence did the changes have on your life.

What I'm doing now:
Running at least 35 km a week (I absolutely LOVE running). Doing exercises at home at least 4 times a week (1 hour of push ups, crunches, sit ups, excercise ball, planks, hoolahoop) to gain a bit of muscle. I also play football 2x a week, once the season continues. I think I'm consistently burning 5000 calories a week, at the very least. But it mainly consists of cardio!

So far, I'm feeling great. I have not been doing this new diet for long, but I feel like I am achieving results already. I'll track measurements tomorrow (each saturday) and can't wait to see the numbers.

But basically the TL;DR is: I'd like to know your tips on my methods. Is this a good way to achieve what I want? How have you been able to achieve similar goals. Which methods would you recommend to me? Also, if you are in the same boat as me, you might add me to exchange ideas on workouts, foods, nutrition on MFP?

Thanks for reading. I hope to get some nice results in the near future! Cheers.

gdyment

You're young so can eat more garbage than in your 30s or 40s. Eat healthy-ish, track those huge pizza/beer blowout days to minimize the damage. Don't worry too much about calipers. And you shouldn't be "enjoying" anything more than 300-500 deficits, if so you're probably off on something. Give yourself 1cal/kg/km for the running, and a few hundred for the other stuff.