I think life is more enjoyable when you’re relatively lean.
Getting to somewhere around 10-12% body fat as a guy (or 20-22% as a girl) means that you’re bang on the ripped, athletic part of the spectrum that looks awesome, and can still be maintained without much thought, year-round. Your normal living then involves a great looking body. Strength and muscle building becomes more fun and satisfying. And for the rest of your life, you know you never have to worry about fat loss again: the skills acquired getting here in the first place mean that you now have control over your body fat for life. So, once you’ve built some strength and muscle and you’re ready to get there, it’s time to start the journey to a goal with some serious long term payoffs.
Getting down to your goal level of body fat is simple: Eat in a calorie deficit over a period of time, forcing your body to burn body fat for fuel, until you reach your goal. That’s all there is to it.
Let’s look at how to nail this process.
Getting to 10% Body Fat – The Process
Before we look at nailing weight loss, we need to ensure the weight we lose is fat and not muscle (otherwise you’re just going to get skinny, not lean). To do this, you need two things in place: consistent strength training (see my other posts to learn how to do this properly) and including protein in your diet. This doesn’t need to be a crazy amount – if you want a number, 1.8g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day (0.82g/lb) is ample. So if you’re 80kg, you would aim for around 140g protein a day (equivalent to ~700g meat/fish). Don’t overcomplicate it: Use this rule of thumb as a guide, figure out what you should be aiming for, and if you can get in the ballpark daily, you’ll have plenty of protein in your diet.
Assuming those two things are in place, fat loss itself then simply comes down to losing weight at the right pace for the right period of time.
Identifying Your Goal
When starting out it’s important to set an end point to aim for (even if this changes later on), otherwise you are doomed to failure from the start. To get an idea of what this should be, you can simply estimate your current body fat percentage and use this to calculate your goal weight according to your goal body fat. If you have no idea about body fat percentage, use the example images on this page to get a rough idea: https://rippedbody.com/body-fat-guide/.
Once you’ve got an estimate of your current body fat percentage, you can then figure out your goal weight using this formula:
Goal weight = current weight x (1 – current BF%) ÷ (1 – goal BF%)
For example, a 90kg male at 18% body fat wanting to get to 10%:
Goal weight = 90kg x (1 – 0.18) ÷ (1 – 0.10)
Goal weight = 82kg
Plug your own numbers and run this calculation for yourself. Now that you have an objective target, it’s time to get there.
Nailing Effective Fat Loss
As I’ve said, once you have a reasonable amount of muscle mass on you, are eating sufficient protein, and are strength training properly, fat loss simply comes down to steadily losing weight at the right pace. Now that you have your weight goal, we are ready to start!
The gold standard for fat loss is a 20% calorie deficit in order to lose ~0.5kg (1lb) of bodyweight per week. That means we take our normal daily caloric intake (what we need to eat to maintain our weight), subtract 20%, and that gives us our daily fat loss calories.
To get an idea of your maintenance calories, multiply your bodyweight in kilograms x33 (or pounds x15). Then take 20% off this to get your starting fat loss calories.
For example, our 90kg male:
90kg x 33 = 2970 calories/day for maintenance
2970 calories x (1 – 0.20) = 2376 calories/day for fat loss
We would round this to 2400 calories per day, and that would be his starting point.
The Most Essential Step – Adjusting For Results
This calorie number itself is a means to an end: weight loss. Your aim is to work steadily towards your goal weight, at an achievable but practical pace. We don’t want to try and go so fast that the body retaliates (i.e. crash diets, resulting in binging), but we don’t want to be dieting forever; we want a result as soon as feasibly possible. So, for people aiming to get relatively lean (10-12% for men, 20-22% for women), 0.5kg per week is a reasonable target.
For our example 90kg guy shedding down to 82kg, we would therefore plan the cut to take 16 weeks in total.
Now, the most important part of this whole equation: You will likely need to adjust your calories week-to-week to ensure the right pace of progress. This is key. The calorie estimates, the tracking – none of it ultimately matters unless you are losing weight at the pace you want to be. If you are losing weight at the right pace, then you don’t have to worry about a thing – it’s working. So here’s what to do:
1. Track your weekly average weight. Ideally you will weigh yourself first thing each day, after using the bathroom, and record the weight (you just plug the numbers into a simple spreadsheet). Note that daily weight means nothing – most people fluctuate randomly within a 2kg range each week. That’s why it is essential to measure weekly averages, and make NO reactive decisions based on individual days. Detach your emotions from the daily number. It’s meaningless.
2. Adjust calories accordingly, each week. If you are losing less than 0.5kg per week, first check that you are not lying to yourself and eating more food than you are recording. If you are tracking things properly, then lower your calories by another 100-200/day for the next week and go from there. If you are losing more than 0.5kg per week, you may bump your calories up 100-200, or alternatively just keep going as you are so long as you feel fine and are happy. If you are losing ~0.5kg per week, then don’t change a thing. You are on track!
That’s the process. Once you’ve figured out your end weight goal, are clear on your weekly weight target, and have started down the path, you will soon figure out how many calories you need per day to nail progress, and from there fall into an easy rhythm. The simpler you can make it, the more success you will have. It truly is just a basic energy equation. And as long as you are making that progress, you don’t have to worry. You know you’ll get there.
Onwards
Once you achieve your goal weight, it’s time to stop and reassess. If you are still not happy with how lean you are, you may just have a few more kilos to lose. If it’s been 12 weeks or more, take a few weeks off to eat normally, chill out, continue training, and let your appetite reset. Then set a new goal and work towards it, using the exact same method as before. Be honest with yourself, stick to the process, and you will get there. There’s only so much fat you need to lose.
If you are happy with your new level of body fat, then well done! You are now not only lean, but you understand how to lose fat and have the skill at your disposal for life. From here, you don’t need to keep eating in a deficit or tracking your calories. My best advice once you’ve finished cutting: enjoy the result. Go back to feeding yourself to appetite like normal and focusing on gaining strength. Unless you consistently eat more than you need, the fat is not going to jump back on your body. Don’t freak out. It’s time to go back to regular eating and living, but now with your new and improved body.
You can do it. Plenty of people have done it. All it takes is time and consistency, and you will get there.
To learn how to work this process into a real life so that it becomes easy and fun, click here.