RyanOlson41

I am 160 pounds and have been working religiously at trying to get slimmed down and get a 8 pack. I am around 15 to 20 percent body fat but i cant seem to get below 160 pounds no matter how hard i try. I am 18 years old and am very active. I lift every morning in a weighttraining class for an hour and after school i do a track workout which consists of sprints and plyometrics. I am trying to lower my body fat percentage for track and build muscle. I used to be 180 pounds but i started working out more and eating healthier and over the last 2 months i have lost 20 pounds. Recently i have noticed that i am stuck at 160 pounds and cant go below it. I eat 6 meals a day which consists of Breakfast, healthy snack, Lunch, Healthy snack, Dinner, and finally a healthy snack. I try to get as much protien and healthy carbs and fats in my diet as possible. I average around 2500 calories a day and burn a calculated 4000 a day.
Any tips or suggestions for me to lose excess fat? I really want an 8 pack, but i want to do it the healthy way and not have to starve myself for the results.

Sweetvirgo123

I consider 160 lbs to be slim for a guy, especially one who carries muscles such as you describe [unless your skeleton bone structure is on the small side]. You need to give time to your body to adjust to the weight loss you have gone through already. Are you sure you even have excess fat at this point? Also, not every guy can develop six-pack or eight-pack abs regardless of how hard they try because their bodies are not designed to form them. If your school have dieticians/nutritionists available, I strongly suggest you meet with them to review your eating plan so it supports your active life - and perhaps meet with a local personal trainer as well for tips on what you need to do to accomplish your goal. Good luck.

rpmcduff

If you want to get to the 10% bodyfat range you will need to seriously restrict simple carbohydrates. I am not an expert but I suggest you check out Bodybuilding.com and their forums looking for competition diets. (Bodybuilders routinely acheive less than 10% bodyfat for competitions.) Also look at their Transformation of the week archives where the transformation winner talk about what they eat to acheive low bodyfat percentages. I agree some with the previous poster's misgivings about you needing to lose weight at 18 years old and 160 pounds. You may want to consider waiting till after track season to begin your cut to sub 10% bodyfat.

RyanOlson41

I should add another thing to this, I broke my ankle pretty bad in football and ended up sitting around for 3 months so the 20 pounds was easy to shred off. I have went thru rehab on it and got it back to normal. I just want to lower my body fat percentage because i know i am still around 15 to 20 percent range. I also know that i can get an 8 pack.

tandoorichicken

Ryan,

There are two ways to reduce bf%. One is to reduce fat, which at your age and weight I wouldn't recommend. I was 18 and 160lbs once too, and rather on the skinny side at that. The other way is to gain muscle. Pick compound lifts such as the deadlift, squat, push press, and Olympic clean and move the heaviest weight you can move for 5 reps. Do this 3-5 times, focusing on one lift per day for a total of four days of heavy lifting per week. Along with each main lift pick a few assistance movements like leg curls and lunges (deadlift), leg extensions and leg press (squat), push-ups and dips (push press), and upright rows and rear flies (clean), and do a few sets of 8-12 reps following your main lift for that day.

Eat clean, sleep well, and grow. You'll have excellent muscle definition before you know it.

yauncin

You say you have lost 20 lbs in two months. So... how long have you been on a plateau? It's hard for me to believe that you are taking in 2500 calories and expending 4000 and not seeing any changes in weight. You might want to revisit your math. Are you sure you are accurately recording the amount of calories you are taking in? Also I really hope you are taking in a lot of protein. With that kind of deficit you are really killing your muscles.

If you truly have reached a plateau and haven't lost any weight in the last week or two my suggestion would be to take 3-7 days off your diet restriction and eat at or slightly above maintenance. Then return to your diet restriction.

But rpmcduff is absolutely right. If you want an 8-pack you will have to seriously control your carb intake. You should look up Carb cycling or CKD. bodybuilding.com is a good resource.

mispur

You're in too much of a calorie deficit. If you're burning 4000kcal and taking in only 2500kcal then your body is in starvation mode, therefore it is storing fat. You dont need to go more than 20% below your total calories. Increase your calorie intake and you should start moving again.

mecompco

Welcome to the forums!

With all due respect, I find it hard to believe that one can enter "starvation mode" while consuming 2500 cals a day!

A 1500 cal a day deficit is above the "recommended" 500 to 1000 a day deficit level (1 to 2 lbs a week loss) but really, I've run that or more for 10 months now and it's worked pretty darned well. Of course, every body is different and this is just my personal opinion and experience.

Regards,
Michael

basic212

^ Your personal opinion makes sense! Typically, those who are obese can get away with using large % deficits and see consistent weight loss. They are compensating the larger deficit using reserves in their own body fat. However once they get to a lower weight and have less to lose, chances are if they keep such a huge % deficit, they'll plateau well before, and never see, 10% BF. That may be fine for an obese guy looking to get to 15% BF.

But for someone looking to get sick lean, when you start to get close, you have to go more slowly to see results. This is because if you go below the minimum macro intake guidelines from RDA, your metabolism will rebel and most of us will plateau.

To the OP - sounds like you are training at a heavy level. Being in a 40% deficit at 160 lbs, while training an hour a day, is a recipe for not reaching your goal. You're attacking your metabolism and it usually always wins. The reality is that its going to be close to impossible to shred body fat to very lean levels without losing performance in-season. The impossibility of performing and recovering at elite levels while in a deficit is part of the reason steroids are so popular. This is also one of the reasons why an off-season exists.

You might want to look into contacting a registered dietitian in your area. It might be wise to use your off-season to go through a few periods/cycles of an RD-built calorie deficit diet and less intense training, with periodic maintenance breaks to recharge your metabolism/hormones. Once you get to 10%, then work on gaining lean muscle in a sport-specific manner.

basic212

Also you may want to think about being more specific with your goals.

You mentioned getting an 8 pack, training for track success and building muscle. Each of those requires a different approach, along with time. You probably won't be able to do all 3 at the same time, or over a short time. It's probably a process of steps. Which goal is the most pressing need? If you are in the middle of track season, you're not going to want to be in the big deficit of calories needed to get to sub 10% BF levels, where your abs will show. You'll really effect your performance on many levels (during the event, recovery and to prevent injuries), which means you're not as likely to reach your success in track goals. So getting shredded may not be the 1st step. Eating and training for performance with what you have might be step 1, and then as soon as you hit off-season step 2 is going into a deficit until you get to sub 10%BF to show ab definition, followed by step 3 of event-specific body recomposition program to build muscle for the taking it to another level success wise next season.

Just curious as to what events you do in track?