7% body fat goal, need some help

Jonescu93

18 years old, 5'10 and have been lifting weights for about 2 years now. I've been around 11% body fat for the past little while and I really wanna get down to about 7%. I work out about 5-6 times a week always lifting heavy to minimize muscle loss. 3-4 low intensity cardio sessions a week, 30 min each. Keeping the protein high (200g+) and carbs moderate, around 150. Fat is around 60g a day. Been doing this diet for about 10 days and my strength is roughly the same and I've lost around 3lbs but I don't look different at all. Starting to wonder if my body is going into starvation mode. I started at 175lbs and I'm around 172 now..any advice would be greatly appreciated.

heikal

Try interval training, instead of low intensity cardio. You'll cut through the fat quicker and boost your metabolism.

riosj13

Need to take a look at your carbs. Just because you are losing weight does not mean you are losing fat. Are your carbs coming from fruits, high glycemic starches or veggies. That will be your key. Alot of my bodybuilders do they same of not tracking what type of carbs.

Jonescu93

My carb sources include sweet potatos, oatmeal and brown rice. I don't count greens in my macros, should I start?

Jonescu93

I started at 175 10 days ago now I'm around 172-173lbs. I get between 2100-2200 a day

secretlobster

Is there a reason you need to be 7% body fat?

2100-2200 calories could be too low. I would say go even lower on your carbs and ditch the cardio.

iWaffle

You might want to see what this member had to say yesterday. She indicates it takes a few months to take down those last few pounds once you get that low % of BF or at least that's the way she did it.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/630804-still-maintaining-at-51-link-with-pics?page=1#posts-9129568

Jonescu93

The beach haha, and I don't think its low but depending on how things go this next week I might have to change it up.

Rae6503

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/631284-interval-training-vs-steady-state-fat-burning-zones

The last remaining fat stores are hard to get rid of. Try fasted HIIT, folllowed by rest, followed by stead state cardio.

secretlobster

If I was you i'd stick to your limit for about a month, see if you notice any results, if you don't then reduce your calories by 10% which would be 1935 calories per day. This is a reduction of 215 calories, it's best to remove calories from carbs so you will have to reduce them by 54g which would have you eat 96g per day.

Yeah this

Jonescu93

Thanks for the advice man!

SilkyHotspur

I would look to what works for body builders...if you're 170, keep carbs at no more than 50% your body weight in grams. So for you, no more than 80-85gms per day. Also, as you're not looking to lose weight, you're looking to burn fat while retaining muscle, look at when you eat and intermittent fasting.

Brad Pillon of Eat Stop Eat plan prefers fasting 24hrs 2 x per week, while Martin Berkhan prefers 8/16. Eat everything for the day in an 8hr period, then fast the remaining 16hrs. The 8/16 is a daily plan. Hard to argue with either plan, both guys have remained at near 6% for several years. I've found the 8/16 a bit more workable into my schedule, and i'll eat 11-7 so i can have dinner with the family. During the other 16hrs, no calories...period. With no energy coming into the body, it will use energy reserves..ie, fat...you won't lose muscle, as you are weight training, and you won't go into "starvation mode"...(whole other conversation).

I would use calipers to get a more accurate reading of specific body points so you can verify losses using the 3 position method

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/BodyCompSites.html
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/BodyComp.html