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Question
10 Nov 2006
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Lose body fat
Hi
I'm 23, 1.85m and currently 80kg's. I read that a guy needs a body fat % of less than 10% to have ripped abs, so that's been my goal. I've been training for this for about 4 months now and up to a month ago all was going well, but now my body fat is staying between 13-14% and my weight is still dropping. Does this mean I'm losing muscle mass? How can I get my body fat down to below 10% and maintain my weight, in order to achieve that six pack? Here's my current workout program:
Monday to Friday: Mornings=Circuit training and Evenings=20 min cycle + 20 min orbital cross trainer.(high intensity)
Cheers!
I'm 23, 1.85m and currently 80kg's. I read that a guy needs a body fat % of less than 10% to have ripped abs, so that's been my goal. I've been training for this for about 4 months now and up to a month ago all was going well, but now my body fat is staying between 13-14% and my weight is still dropping. Does this mean I'm losing muscle mass? How can I get my body fat down to below 10% and maintain my weight, in order to achieve that six pack? Here's my current workout program:
Monday to Friday: Mornings=Circuit training and Evenings=20 min cycle + 20 min orbital cross trainer.(high intensity)
Cheers!
FitnessDoc
Hi Gareth
10% is a very low body fat percentage, not impossible but really very few people reach this level and it's usually elite atheltes who are training in excess of 10 hours a week, mostly running and cycling. So that's the kind of training you are looking at, which I don't really think is compatible with your goals. Just to illustrate, if you lost another 4% of your body fat, without losing muscle mass, you would need to lose about 3kg more, and your weight comes to 77kg. That's really hard to do. My advice is to increase the cycling very slightly to 30 minutes, and the orbitrainer as well, but try also to increase the intensity of your weight training - either lower the weight and do the movements faster, or increase the weight slightly.
Good luck
10% is a very low body fat percentage, not impossible but really very few people reach this level and it's usually elite atheltes who are training in excess of 10 hours a week, mostly running and cycling. So that's the kind of training you are looking at, which I don't really think is compatible with your goals. Just to illustrate, if you lost another 4% of your body fat, without losing muscle mass, you would need to lose about 3kg more, and your weight comes to 77kg. That's really hard to do. My advice is to increase the cycling very slightly to 30 minutes, and the orbitrainer as well, but try also to increase the intensity of your weight training - either lower the weight and do the movements faster, or increase the weight slightly.
Good luck
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