12.9 BMI inquiry

MrTolerable

I have a question:

21.4 BMI
12.9 body fat percentage
5' 10"
150 lbs
male
24 years old

I am attempting to get my body fat percentage down to 10.5-11.4% for my six pack, and my calorie consumption is currently 1850 daily with a 38-42% daily protein intake. Eating 100% organic, lots of fruits, veggies, eggs and protein shakes when necessary - how much longer till I prob get that BF% down to my target?

My daily routine begins with yoga and stretching in the morning. M, T, T, F, S
Ab work in the morning M, W, F
Strength training M, W, F
Cardio, M, T, W, F, S

- Please advise and thanks so much for your input.


-apologies for edit, 12.9 body fat percentage

MrTolerable

Cardio consist of either a 6 mile walk, or jump-rope for 30 mins - 30 secs on 30 secs off.

SoDamnHungry

Do you mean Body Fat % rather than BMI?

donyellemoniquex3

So you're underweight, and want to be MORE underweight ?

MrTolerable

I apologize! I mean Body Fat %

RBXChas

I was waiting for someone with a lot more knowledge than I have to pop in on this, but my suggestion is heavy lifting to get you the body (or BF%) that you want, which will likely entail eating more. There's a group on here called "Eat, Train, Progress" that would probably provide you with some great advice:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress

Edited for clarity

erickirb

Doing that much exercise you should be eating a lot more than 1800ish cals. Set your goal to lose 0.5lbs/week and eat back exercise calories.

MrTolerable

I appreciate all of your input! I will certainly check out the "Eat, Train, Progress". And ironically I was just researching how to get the six pack, while maintaining my LBM. - they recommended trying to shed .5lbs/week.

-solid advice, and many thanks!

sheltrk

Just an aside: Your numbers are extraordinarily precise... In my experience, I wouldn't expect that much accuracy. Maybe if you had a DEXA scan or something... However, let's assume your numbers are accurate:

150 lbs at 12.9% BF implies a LBM of 130.7 lbs, and a fat mass of 19.4 lbs.
You say you want to get down to ~11.0% BF. If you maintain your current LBM, that means you would weigh:
146.7 lbs total: 130.7 lbs LBM, 16.1 lbs fat mass

150-146.7 = 3.3 lbs to go.

If you want to maintain your LBM (and it sounds like you do), you should consider a conservatively low calorie deficit. In theory, under ideal conditions, your current body fat mass can support a *maximum* daily (average) deficit of ~31.4 calories/lb * 19.4 lbs = 609 calories, which is about 1.2 lbs per week. To be on the safe side, and avoid losing LBM, I would aim for about half of that: 0.6 lbs per week or an average daily caloric deficit of ~305 calories. At that rate, it will take 5.5 weeks to hit your goal BF%.
(Going a little slower certainly wouldn't hurt. You're so close to your goal as it is. Patience pays off.)

All that being said--there's no guarantee you will see a "6 pack" at that BF%. Different people carry their fat differently, so your results may vary!

Good luck!

MrTolerable

Sheltrk, wish there was a way I could award you a star or somthing for providing a guesstimate, but still a timeframe I should shoot for.

You are entirely correct I want to maintain my LBM, and also, my numbers were not retrieved from a DEXA scan, so perhaps they were not as precise as I thought, but I did get them from a doctor.

Thanks for your input, my major concern was getting this down to my target range prior to vacation at the beach this year, and that now sounds like a realistic goal.

Many thanks! - incredibly informative. - I'll be going with an average daily caloric deficit now of 305 calories. - Prob a great deal safer doing it that way as well.

sheltrk

I'd be remiss not to also mention: Consensus suggests you should aim for at least 131 g of protein a day (1 g per LBM), and keep up the strength training!

MrTolerable

Love the insight, at this point I have a goal set of 150-160 g of protein a day, however over the past two weeks I have averaged 180-200 (edit: 180-200 a day).

And will do, once again many, many thanks!