Is it time for abs yet?

nordlead2005 wrote: »

If you want muscle definition stop starving yourself and start lifting weights.

You won't magically grow muscles eating 1200 calories/day. Your posts indicate you lost 4lb in 5 days, or at a rate of 5.6lb/week. Since you don't exercise and you only eat 1200 calories/day there is no way you lost 4lb of fat. If I take a generous TDEE of 2600 calories, you are at a 1400/day calorie deficit, or enough to burn 2lb of fat over 5 days, not 4lb. So the rest of the loss has to be chalked up to either water weight or lean body mass loss. Odds are with such an extreme deficit there is a decent amount of lean body mass loss if this trend has continued for any length of time.

If you want muscle definition, eat significantly more, lift heavy weights.

Concur. No 20-year old male should be eating 1200 calories. Especially a 20-year old male who's seeking muscle size/definition. Without sufficient calories, protein intake and strength training, a significant part of your weight lost is lean body mass (i.e., muscle). Read the first post in this thread to get your calories and macros on the right track.

Also, judging from the pic you posted, not a chance you're at 12.7% BF. You've definitely made some positive changes, but I'd estimate you somewhere around 20%. Take a look at the photos here and see which one looks closest to you. BIA (body impedance analysis) is known to be highly inaccurate and inconsistent, regardless of how fancy the machine is or what the health club tells you. When I joined my current gym, they offered an orientation session with a trainer where they'd test my body composition. I asked how they did it and when they said they used a BIA machine, I told them no thanks - I have a cheap set of calipers at home I bought off Amazon that do a better job than that. Find somebody who knows how to measure your BF% with skinfold calipers if you want at least a somewhat accurate BF%.

You can't get where you want to be doing what you're currently doing. Eating like a 12-year old girl won't give a 20-year old man muscles. You'll definitely continue to drop weight, but you'll be losing unnecessary amounts of muscle along with the fat and the end result won't be what you want. Up your calories, get your macros right and start strength training.

paulcenso wrote: »

Everybody assumes I have no muscle...

I didn't see anybody assume that. What everybody is telling you is that you're unnecessarily losing muscle mass by eating too little and not lifting. It's a lot easier to maintain what you have than it is to put it back on afterward - which involves bulking, which also involves gaining at least some fat back along with new muscle.

paulcenso wrote: »

I was simply asking if abs appear at a certain body fat %.

There's no hard and fast answer to that because a lot of it has to do with your genetics. Some guys will show abs at a higher BF%, others will have to get pretty lean before they start popping.