Help me estimate my bf% & a question!
Erik8484
Posts: 458 Member
Hoping you can help me with 2 things today:
1. What do you think my body fat % is? I took a couple of photos to help, in a bunch of different lighting because I am paler than pale.
2. My goals this year are to put on muscle, and to lift heavy things. But before I got to putting on muscle, I agreed with my trainer to cut some weight first (deficit, high protein, lifting heavy). Well, 2 months later and I've lost about 2kg (4.5lbs), I feel depressingly small and am anxious to get on with things. In your internet opinion, do you think it would be a mistake to start a bulk before dropping any more weight?
FYI I'm 5'8 and between 145lbs and 150lbs.
Please and thank you!
1. What do you think my body fat % is? I took a couple of photos to help, in a bunch of different lighting because I am paler than pale.
2. My goals this year are to put on muscle, and to lift heavy things. But before I got to putting on muscle, I agreed with my trainer to cut some weight first (deficit, high protein, lifting heavy). Well, 2 months later and I've lost about 2kg (4.5lbs), I feel depressingly small and am anxious to get on with things. In your internet opinion, do you think it would be a mistake to start a bulk before dropping any more weight?
FYI I'm 5'8 and between 145lbs and 150lbs.
Please and thank you!
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Replies
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15% or less0
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Thanks @queenliz99
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10-12%0
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I reckon 12-13%. Good starting point for slow bulk.0
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Thanks guys, really appreciate your input!0
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00
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Jeffrey300050 wrote: »0
Sounds about right2 -
Agree with most of the others 12-15%0
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Yea i was thinking in the 12% ish range.0
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12-13% looking great. Time to bulk Bulky Bulkerton.1
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I'm going to lean closer to the 10% range. I'd say finish your cut.
Reasons::
1 - You mentally grow stronger completing what you initially started out for.
2 - Makes sure your diet is in check, your dedicated, and have a lean base to start with, which allows for a more flexible diet and bulk when adding the weight back.
3 - Your body will be use to a deficit or catabolic state, when you reverse to a surplus, often times your body holds on to the surplus much better in an anabolic state (which promotes muscle gain) in fear of going back into starvation,, essentially.
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You could eat at maintenance for a few weeks, if you're getting sick of the diet. My opinion is, you should reverse diet out into a lean bulk.
Taking 8 weeks to lose 4.5lb seems a little long, maybe on your next cut you might consider lowering your calories further. Perhaps other forum members can give their opinion on this?0 -
Buy yourself a scale, you can get a good one that displays fat, bone and muscle percentage for about 25€.0
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Evelinejedwab wrote: »Buy yourself a scale, you can get a good one that displays fat, bone and muscle percentage for about 25€.
I would avoid these, they're terribly inaccurate. Some bodyfat calipers will give you a better idea, but in reality it doesn't matter what any scale says, it's whether you are happy with your appearance that counts.1 -
You could eat at maintenance for a few weeks, if you're getting sick of the diet. My opinion is, you should reverse diet out into a lean bulk.
Taking 8 weeks to lose 4.5lb seems a little long, maybe on your next cut you might consider lowering your calories further. Perhaps other forum members can give their opinion on this?
Thats a fair point, i think i could have gone a bit more aggressive with it. I ended up at a deficit of about 10%-15% to my tdee. That was broadly my target going in, but I've since read that more aggressive cuts aren't necessarily a bad thing, and that over the short term you wont necessarily lose any more lbm. Ill definitely look at cutting more aggressively.Evelinejedwab wrote: »Buy yourself a scale, you can get a good one that displays fat, bone and muscle percentage for about 25€.
Scales unfortunately arent a reliable method of measuring body fat (which is a huge pet peeve of mine).I'm going to lean closer to the 10% range. I'd say finish your cut.
Reasons::
1 - You mentally grow stronger completing what you initially started out for.
2 - Makes sure your diet is in check, your dedicated, and have a lean base to start with, which allows for a more flexible diet and bulk when adding the weight back.
3 - Your body will be use to a deficit or catabolic state, when you reverse to a surplus, often times your body holds on to the surplus much better in an anabolic state (which promotes muscle gain) in fear of going back into starvation,, essentially.
I do want to go a little bit leaner, i feel like absolutely garbage right now though (more likely from being sick than from my deficit i suspect). Im going to sit in maintenance for up to 2 weeks and reassess when i don't feel like im going to die anymore (exaggeration, its man flu).
Thanks again to everyone for your input.0 -
I mean if you are comfortable, you could recomp for a bit until you can get back in mentally or even set a very small deficit.0
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Hoping you can help me with 2 things today:
1. What do you think my body fat % is? I took a couple of photos to help, in a bunch of different lighting because I am paler than pale.
2. My goals this year are to put on muscle, and to lift heavy things. But before I got to putting on muscle, I agreed with my trainer to cut some weight first (deficit, high protein, lifting heavy). Well, 2 months later and I've lost about 2kg (4.5lbs), I feel depressingly small and am anxious to get on with things. In your internet opinion, do you think it would be a mistake to start a bulk before dropping any more weight?
FYI I'm 5'8 and between 145lbs and 150lbs.
Please and thank you!
Why not simply go to the US NAVY BODYFAT CCOMPOSITION Calculator? ThisIis very accurate, based on a few simple measurements! Simply Google it and take your numbers and apply them to the online calculator!
You can repeat the process as often as you like and boom!
Good hunting!1 -
diverroboz wrote: »Hoping you can help me with 2 things today:
1. What do you think my body fat % is? I took a couple of photos to help, in a bunch of different lighting because I am paler than pale.
2. My goals this year are to put on muscle, and to lift heavy things. But before I got to putting on muscle, I agreed with my trainer to cut some weight first (deficit, high protein, lifting heavy). Well, 2 months later and I've lost about 2kg (4.5lbs), I feel depressingly small and am anxious to get on with things. In your internet opinion, do you think it would be a mistake to start a bulk before dropping any more weight?
FYI I'm 5'8 and between 145lbs and 150lbs.
Please and thank you!
Why not simply go to the US NAVY BODYFAT CCOMPOSITION Calculator? ThisIis very accurate, based on a few simple measurements! Simply Google it and take your numbers and apply them to the online calculator!
You can repeat the process as often as you like and boom!
Good hunting!
I don't think it's as accurate as you think it is, being based on your weight, height waist measurements and neck measurement only.
All body fat measurement techniques are subject to error. In my opinion the best thing to do is to estimate bf% using a number of different methods, to build a better picture of what your bf% is likely to be. Posting photos online for internet opinions is just one of those different methods.1 -
Fair point, but the sample size is MASSIVE, quite accurate enough compared to other sketchy methods, and I'm guessing it would be interesting to give it a try!
Anyway, congrats on the results so far, keep it going!
I reckon from the photos you'd be a classic Australia Navy Clearance Diver physique!
Those guys can be thought of close to par with SEALS in physical fitness and toughness.
Please let us know what figure the US NAVY method gives you, assuming you try it, of course!
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I'd say around 12% ish. It's very difficult to get an accurate measurment. Looking good.
If you want to bulk, bulk. Personally I'd go a touch leaner, but it's just personal preference, so if you are eager to get on with packing on some muscle I'd say you're in a good place to start.
Don't go too crazy with your surplus btw, or you'll make your next cut very difficult. I'd use a very small surplus (200-300) and stop when you reach ~15-18% ish, then cut back down and repeat.
That said, there's no right or wrong way; just do whatever makes you happy. Good luck.
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12%. Slowly add calories back. Do a lean bulk. http://rippedbody.jp/how-to-bulk/0
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If you want to get leaner but mentally and physically are feeling it, then I'd say take a week or 2 at maintenance and then get back into a deficit. Look into Lyle Mcdonalds diet breaks0
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My estimation 11.654%
It's immaterial what the number is really - there is some anecdotal evidence that lower %BF do better in muscle gain on a bulk than others but in my limited searches on the subject I could find no studies at all - let alone any that supported the theory (often called the theory of partition) and, given the massive inaccuracies of BF guestimation/estimation/measurement anyone who says "you need to be at x % BF before a bulk" is talking out of their hat because the anecdotal evidence is further flawed by the unreliable %BF data that those anecdotes are based upon.
My opinion, you can bulk for muscle growth at any %BF and the muscle gain to fat gain ratio will be dependent upon the surplus, the training regime, the macro nutritional profile of the diet, and the rest/recuperation - in that order of importance*
If anyone has science on the effects of starting %BF on muscle to fat partition in bulk I'm genuinely interested in reading that - I'm happy to change my opinion on that basis.
*for natural trainees who are not subject to newbie gainz, or 18YO males.
In your case, I'd be recommending a slow ramp into surplus primarily because:I feel depressingly small and am anxious to get on with things.
Not that I agree with your perception by the way: you do not look small.
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diverroboz wrote: »Fair point, but the sample size is MASSIVE, quite accurate enough compared to other sketchy methods, and I'm guessing it would be interesting to give it a try!
Anyway, congrats on the results so far, keep it going!
I reckon from the photos you'd be a classic Australia Navy Clearance Diver physique!
Those guys can be thought of close to par with SEALS in physical fitness and toughness.
Please let us know what figure the US NAVY method gives you, assuming you try it, of course!
I've found it to be very inaccurate. It gives me a BF% of about 13%. I'm nowhere near 13% - more like 18-20% currently. Covert-Bailey, which put me at 16.5%, is closer.0 -
StealthHealth wrote: »My estimation 11.654%
It's immaterial what the number is really - there is some anecdotal evidence that lower %BF do better in muscle gain on a bulk than others but in my limited searches on the subject I could find no studies at all - let alone any that supported the theory (often called the theory of partition) and, given the massive inaccuracies of BF guestimation/estimation/measurement anyone who says "you need to be at x % BF before a bulk" is talking out of their hat because the anecdotal evidence is further flawed by the unreliable %BF data that those anecdotes are based upon.
My opinion, you can bulk for muscle growth at any %BF and the muscle gain to fat gain ratio will be dependent upon the surplus, the training regime, the macro nutritional profile of the diet, and the rest/recuperation - in that order of importance*
If anyone has science on the effects of starting %BF on muscle to fat partition in bulk I'm genuinely interested in reading that - I'm happy to change my opinion on that basis.
*for natural trainees who are not subject to newbie gainz, or 18YO males.
In your case, I'd be recommending a slow ramp into surplus primarily because:I feel depressingly small and am anxious to get on with things.
Not that I agree with your perception by the way: you do not look small.
This was a really good post, thanks.
After posting (1 month ago) i ended up losing 2kg more. Im now at maintenance, and ill be looking to hit a small surplus over the next few weeks.
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I was going to estimate just around 13% or so, but maybe the range 12-15% like others have been saying are more accurate.
Start bulking now, you're well within the range where you can see where you stand muscle-mass wise. I generally recommend men start bulking once they're able to see clearly where they're at. Sometimes it's easy to see they need to bulk even before they've reached the sub 15% range.0 -
StealthHealth wrote: »My estimation 11.654%
It's immaterial what the number is really - there is some anecdotal evidence that lower %BF do better in muscle gain on a bulk than others but in my limited searches on the subject I could find no studies at all - let alone any that supported the theory (often called the theory of partition) and, given the massive inaccuracies of BF guestimation/estimation/measurement anyone who says "you need to be at x % BF before a bulk" is talking out of their hat because the anecdotal evidence is further flawed by the unreliable %BF data that those anecdotes are based upon.
My opinion, you can bulk for muscle growth at any %BF and the muscle gain to fat gain ratio will be dependent upon the surplus, the training regime, the macro nutritional profile of the diet, and the rest/recuperation - in that order of importance*
If anyone has science on the effects of starting %BF on muscle to fat partition in bulk I'm genuinely interested in reading that - I'm happy to change my opinion on that basis.
*for natural trainees who are not subject to newbie gainz, or 18YO males.
In your case, I'd be recommending a slow ramp into surplus primarily because:I feel depressingly small and am anxious to get on with things.
Not that I agree with your perception by the way: you do not look small.
This was a really good post, thanks.
After posting (1 month ago) i ended up losing 2kg more. Im now at maintenance, and ill be looking to hit a small surplus over the next few weeks.
Thanks for the positive reply. After a long cut, you're going to love a slight surplus of cals - bring on the gainz!0
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