Possible to lose 5% body fat in 3 months??

violetrix

I just signed up at bodybuilding.com and filled out my profile and their goals form. I'm currently around 22-23% body fat using the military measuring method and picked 18% as my goal body fat and to lose another 10-15lbs. The site then calculates for you how long that should take and it said that I should get down to that by March 23rd??!

Is that even possible? I've lost 9lbs in 4 months and granted my diet wasn't the best but I've cleaned it up and am now doing Stronglifts at least twice a week usually with a class as well. But is 5% in 3 months unrealistic? I just don't want to set myself up for failure.

violetrix

anyone?

WhoHa42

Yes it is possible. Last Spring I dropped around 10% in 3-4 months. I used a very small deficit (less than a pound a week) while eating at least .8g/lb of protein and consistently lifted heavy.

MultiGoddess

It is very possible! I don't do any lifting but I have lost 30lbs in 280 days, 106lbs in a little over 2 years. I am a lot heavier than you lol probably 3 of you (313lbs) so I burn a little more just in daily living from what I understand of the concept of BMR but it is very possible to loose 10lbs in 3 months! I hope that you are able to reach your goal.

kingscrown

Its possible, but your diet will need to be tight and healthy. You'll really need to kick it in the exercise department with building muscle and doing cardio.

heybales

For bodyfat going from middle of healthy range to bottom of healthy range and in to athletic range will be a hard battle.

You will have a fine line between burning fat and losing muscle mass.

Stick to the high protein goals, resistance training as main focus, any cardio should support that or skip it.

And you can't really express it as % in time, as that totally depends on where you are starting.

Going from 45% to 40% in 3 months with a lot to lose - sure, easy.

From 23 to 18% for a woman only lifting 2 x weekly - struggle. Be prepared.

Ask majority that have reached goal weight and are happy with their body (meaning don't ask the skinny-fat chicks as they lost the wrong weight the wrong way and may have kept losing easily up to the end, sadly it was muscle mass) how easy the last 10 lbs went.

Which is what you are talking about, last 10-15 lbs.

Or as Whoha42 mentions, don't even worry about the weight loss part, small deficit so the body can make the best changes from your lifting - and lift 3x weekly. Don't even worry about weight, which MFP will focus on.

snowmaniac

It's possible if your eating plan is good and you focus on lifting with a little cardio. I dropped 15 pounds of body fat to 1.1 pounds of lbm in slightly less than that with a focus on lifting and some cardio. Granted, I'm male and was in the overweight category and am now just at the top end of normal, so that makes a difference.

Edit: Take Heybales advice to heart. Much better than mine.

violetrix

Thanks for your replies. Yeah, I thought it would be difficult but I wanted to check what other people thought. So if I lift 3 x a week and keep a clean diet it still might not be possible? Is 6 months a more realistic goal then?

WhoHa42

Oh and during that time I also only lost about 10lbs because I was recovering from an injury, one of the few times that you can gain muscle in a deficit. If you're not worried about your weight and only worried about body composition I'd say 5% in 3 months should be pretty easy if you're only trying to get to 18%. Just don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen in 3 months.

jardimgirl

bump for future reference

heybales

Thanks for your replies. Yeah, I thought it would be difficult but I wanted to check what other people thought. So if I lift 3 x a week and keep a clean diet it still might not be possible? Is 6 months a more realistic goal then?

I'd say forget the time based goal, and just do it. Less stress over not appearing to meet a time based goal will only help reach the goal better. No need keeping cortisol elevated from stress.

Measure monthly anyway to see where you are at, as that can effect how much you should be eating.

Clean eating is your preference, but small deficit is the key.

Your body has a harder time making improvements from exercise if it's not getting enough, especially lifting.
It would like a surplus, it could do something at maintenance at least though slowly, but at a deficit, the smaller the better if you want improvement from that lifting.

As Snowmaniac mentioned, you don't get hormones on your side sadly. Well, not the kind that help with lifting improvements anyway. :grumble:

I'm hoping you are using that musclebulding site's calorie recommendation, not MFP, or at least use MFP correctly, to keep that deficit minor.
Like you might manage 1 lb weekly down to 10 lbs left, maybe 8, but then should go to 1/2 lb weekly then.