Hi All. I was hoping to get an idea of where I am at bodyfat-wise. I have been constantly lifting for about 14 months and have made no attempt to lose fat. I am 6’ 3" and weigh 203lbs. I started around 185lbs. I am hoping to get down to 12% body fat. I was hoping I could get some help to see where I am staring at. I find it hard to look at myself objectively and I am trying to plan a cut. I know where I think I am but I am interested in nonbiased opinions. Thanks!
We can’t look at you and tell you your exact body fat percentage with any real degree of accuracy. We can tell you if you’re lean enough to win at the beach or belong on a bodybuilding stage, visually.
How old are you?
How much strength have you gained? This is important to try to ascertain how much of your weight gain is muscle.
If most is muscle, I’d recommend to try to get more strength for a while longer.
If most is fat, you need to start to lose fat.
I cannot guess your % body fat. You are carrying too much fat in your waist. You don’t have much muscle separation.
You could get a method of testing your % body fat. I used the skin fold method. How much you calculate is NOT important. What is important is that you are not increasing in % body fat.
My best guess is a bit over 20%. 8% reduction is 16 lbs if it is all fat, but that doesn’t really happen (all lost is fat). In addition, the body drops water weight in a deficit, but puts that back on when the deficit is no longer there. That water weight is probably 5-10 lbs. I’d say if you want to hit 12%, you’d probably try for 25-30 lbs lost.
I’d just go by look, instead of a number. I’d still say to have the type of mid section, that I’d want, you are looking at 20 lbs. Don’t take this as me saying you are out of shape. Most people are a lot further from where they want to be than they think they are. It looks like you have faint abs, so that is good, better than average.
Thanks for the reply. That’s about where I thought. Maybe 20% or a bit over. I was thinking I would need to drop about 20 + lbs while holding as much strength/muscle as possible to be where I want. I just didn’t want to do it with no muscle at all so I opted to gain muscle first before dropping the fat.
I appreciate the feedback and completely agree. I am going to keep building for the next 6 months and then try to cut 25lbs. Thanks!
Thanks for the reply. A look. I would like to be much leaner than I am now. Just trying to look good at the beach and add muscle. I have been gaining a lot of muscle/strength over the last year and would like to continue to do so for the next 7 months. I just feel like I am somewhere around 20% body fat and didn’t know if I should keep putting on weight before cutting. I don’t want to add much more fat than I have now.
The plan is to Keep building up to 215lbs over 7 months while trying to add as little fat as possible. Then cut for 10-12 weeks and hope to lose 20+ pounds and see how lean I am.
From there I would like to build and cut in a much leaner range then I am now.
How old are you? This would probably play into any specific recommendations.
There’s nothing wrong with your plan if you’re good with it. It wouldn’t be the route I’d go for myself for three reasons:
If I’m already fatter than I like, I don’t get any happier by gaining more weight.
Losing fat is tough for me, and it doesn’t get easier as I get older.
I really don’t lose anything from a training perspective (like I don’t get weaker or fatigued) until late in a diet, so there’s no reason to put it off.
I am 38 years old
In the last 14 months, my compounds have gone from…
Bench - 135lbs x 8 to 185lbs x 8
Squat - 125lbs x 8 to 205lbs x 8
Dead - 135lbs x 5 to 315lbs x 5
This has always been my body fat % or at least midsection size. I would assume most of the weight I have put on has been muscle. A little fat as well.
My main goal is to build as much muscle over the next 5-7 years. I am in no rush, however, I would like to be doing it from a much leaner weight. I dont really care what my % is, I assume around 20%. I just didnt know if I had too much fat to keep gaining muschle for the next 7 months. After that, I plan to get and stay much leaner while building muscle.
I would personally like to see you focus on shoulders, arms, and chest a bit. I think you need more muscle before you cut. Whats the point in looking like a lean stick?
I think the OP has a good base right now for either direction, agreed. Legs actually look good. I would like to see the delts and traps built, but especially delts for a little width. Arms need work and lastly maybe some chest. I certainly don’t think the OP is anywhere near a fatty. In fact he looks primed at this point to add a little muscle without gaining fat. I think he could do it based on his lifts going up so fast.
My advice… make sure you know your maintenance calories and macros at this point. Don’t exceed them. Spend the next two months working on those muscle groups and then start a slow cut. Drop the calories 300-500 for three months after the focus period. See what happens.
I like having a few more bench mark lifts for the upper body. Maybe a overhead press, chin up (with added weight), and a row. I think if you add those, and focus on getting strong, it will help the upper body a lot.
If you lost 20 lbs while focusing more on arms and delts, you could look pretty good in about 16 weeks or so. If you were 16, I think the advice to pack on another 20-30 lbs would make more sense, but at 38 I think it makes more sense to get leaner first and stay there. Your goals may dictate otherwise.
I do hate to get technical, but it requires to build a regression curve. You gave us two points which is only enough to draw a straight line. To believe you can continue at that “linear” rate is wishful thinking.
If you track monthly you can develop enough data to construct a cubic regression. Five points is the minimum data points required to generate a cubic regression
I do agree that an OHP would be a good metric addition. Maybe a 5 rep max power cleans. Rows might be good.
