Hello guys
I am currently at around 16% body fat (bottom abs still not visible) and i aim to get to 10% and look quite ripped but i know the last part is the hardest. I would like to know from the guys who have done it – was it worth it ? and how did you feel in general and looking in the mirror shirtless once you did ?
33 comments
I look fine at 15, at 10 I just feel tired all the time so not really
I am at 15-16% and just don’t feel it is worth it at my age (50). Get shamed more for having a “midlife crisis” because of the calisthenics training than getting compliments for looking ripped. And I also enjoy red wine and good cheese too much.
I’ve been down to around 8%. It’s not worth it to go that low. It saps your energy and not much gain. 12% is the sweet spot I reckon. Ive always been low body fat because of gymnastics so don’t have experience losing weight. I suggest a carbs defecit, and you’ll almost definitely feel hungry. Gym twice a day, and 2-3 meals a day with no snacks will get you there for sure.
Lowest ill go is 10 because anything below I am too tired and prone to sickness.
But I normally hangout at like 15 ish 12 to 18 depending on bulk or cut
But!
I also do competitive body building
It was really hard. I cut out everything to get there. I didn’t do much different exercise wise but no more pizza, beer, drive thru, sandwiches, chips, cookies, etc. I maintained it for about half a year and then stopped. I missed things I enjoy too much. It was great for tinder and how much clothes fit but that was about it
This may sound paradoxical but for me it was piss easy to get down to 10% but I wouldn’t say it’s worth (loss of sex drive, low energy, can’t sit on any hard chairs, looks terrible in clothes because I did it naturally).
I sit naturally at 9%, got measured just yesterday. Feel healthy. However, have barely any visible abs. Be advised that it’s down to genetics and how the fat sits on your stomach.
Not really. If you’re on holiday and plan to have your top off a lot then yeh it’s cool. But for every day life it doesn’t feel worth it. Don’t look as big in clothes, weaker in the gym, strict diet, felt tired a lot. Cons don’t outweigh the pros for me
I guess I’m the only fatass in this thread. Being 15p seems crazy to me.
I’m not sure of my exact percentages, but anytime I cut to the point of seeing some abs I feel like it comes at the expense of my chest and arms size. Either look good with a shirt on or off, never both lol.
Nah, just stuff your face with pizza and try not to get winded tying your shoes.
I used to be ripped and it wasn’t worth it at all. I wasn’t very strong, I got tired quicker, and I wasn’t that big. I bulk and then cut and repeat. Weight has never been an issue for me though. Women seem to like a little extra meat on the body too!
I was something like 22-24% a bit over 12 months ago, and progressively dropped to high-9s at the start of the year to low-10s/11s now. Is it worth it? Dunno really. For what? It’s not really functional in any way. I had pretty decently visible abs between Feb-April, but so what – who was seeing them? 🤣 Unfortunately injured myself and had to stop bouldering from late April onwards so while I’m still sitting around 61kg and 10-11bf%, I’ve lost a bit of muscle and it’s been exchanged for fat.
The main way I’d say it was worth it was that I’m not wearing holes in size 34 jeans anymore, and am now in mostly 29s and 30s.
But frankly, I had no body image issues at 80kg. Sure, I looked at bit better in the low 70s, but there was still a bit of a gut until about 63-67kg. There’s no *practical* reason for me to be at 60kg, but it does help cycling – but I’m not doing anything competitive anymore, so who cares?
Early part of this month/late last month I was dipping below 60kg which was getting concerning – so I had to deliberately start eating more/more crap just to put on a few kg.
You gotta keep in mind that most fitness influencers/advisors don’t stay at 10% all year round they often picture themselves at that stage after cutting for intros of their videos, as images for their profiles and channels. When you look at them at present in their videos they’re often are about 12-15+.
I think 12-14 is a better goal. You look aesthetic if you have muscle but not too low body fat
My neighbor used to do regular, hardcore cuts. Every time, when he reached his lowest, his face looked so tired, depleted and aged, that If I didn’t know what he is doing (combined with weight loss), I would assume he is having some serious illness. Looking like you have cancer is not that attractive – keep it healthy and enjoy life.
I wouldn’t trade the strength and energy that comes with having a healthy body fat percentage for anything.
It was worth it in the sense that I know I can do it if I wanted to and I looked amazing but it was not worth it because I was constantly hungry, had low sex drive and just felt overall sluggish.
I prefer to stay at a healthy bodyfat and enjoy life and not constantly stress about what I eat and don’t eat.
Competitive bodybuilder here, been through the shredding process 7 or 8 times now. Really depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
It’s worth it if you have emotional trauma and you want to prove yourself or if you’re stepping on stage.
It’s not worth it if you just want attention from the ladies. At sub 10%, yes you’ll turn heads at the beach, with a t-shirt on, people will be looking at your arms as well, but most girls just like a fit body (which you can achieve at above 10%). Only the super sporty girls who are obsessed with gym want to jump your bones when they know you have sub 10%. Ordinary girls find it scary.
People make it seem like your energy levels crash at sub 10%. Not true, you generally are fine (energy levels seriously become an issue at sub 6%), but your diet and lifestyle and social freedoms start to really get restricted. Your life revolves more and more around what calories you can spare (you start looking at calories as a currency).
I sit around the 12% mark day in and day out. And I feel fine with this, but I can’t say I really have any pros because of it, no cons either, so by that I guess its not worth it, but its also where i sit naturally with the style foods i eat. I work a physical job, have so many y physical hobbies, and all round an overly active person, hell my diet isn’t exactly good either, but I’m not big on food 90% of the time, and will eat incredibly basic foods or just forget to eat a lot. When I eat out I’m always eating healthy tho. I’m probably in a calorie deficit like, most of the time, due to how active I am.
I’m 28 now and I’ve had full abs and good definition everywhere since I was in like year 8 or so. Grew up active, stayed active, got an active job, then sought out active hobbies. But in all, I probably just look like a somewhat smaller dude to 99% of the population the vast majority of the time, I’m not skinnyfit either, but far from bulky, which is exactly where I want to be, I can run, swim, dance, bike etc for ages. With enough strength to go climbing, hiking, surfing etc. I’ve a nice lean swimmer’s/rock climbers build.
If you planning for an event I think it is, but living like that it is not
It depends on how you define “worth it”.
For your own milestone, yeah it’s a cool thing to achieve and to see yourself looking ripped in the mirror for a few minutes while you snap some selfies. But remember you then have to spend the rest of the day dealing with normal life whilst simultaneously feeling run down, exhausted, with sore joints and constantly feeling varying levels of hunger. And when you’re wearing clothes, unless they’re super tight, no one can tell you’re shredded.
Then even if you do spend a lot of time with your shirt off, say a summer beach vacation, I found that you’d get mixed reactions from people around you. You might get some compliments, but you’ll also encounter a bit of hostility from men and women who will roll their eyes at you for showing off or just outright say “that’s disgusting”.
Basically, there’s a reason no one walks around sub-10% all year round 😂
Isn’t bodyfat technically impossible to know?
I hit 8% and never felt better physically. Was not about looks for me. That was 15 years ago and took a lot of work.
Striving for sub-10% body fat felt like an endless game where the goalposts were my cheat meals, to be honest. Once I got there, I did have that shredded look, but every meal was a math equation of macros and the gym was my second home. After a year, I started valuing my social life and mental health more than the constant validation for my physique. Now, I happily maintain around 13%. I’ve found my performance in my weekend soccer league has improved and I’m no longer mentally chained to the food scale. Plus, date nights aren’t anxiety-inducing anymore when dessert menus come into play. It’s all about that balanced lifestyle for me now.
10-12% was fine, single digit bf was mentally taxing.
A lot of people talking about how bad they felt at that BF%, but ultimately it depends on the individual.
My family is naturally skinny; I worked out for years and staying at 10-12% is my norm. Recently, I injured myself and got a high paying desk job, so I have gained ~8lbs, though tbh I feel the same.
Really depends on you though. I would say give it a go at least once and see how it feels, you can always put the weight back on!
On my journey to 10 % , I hope it’s worth it
Yes currently trying to get back to it
Im at 15-16% now and feel fat, for me personally being that lean felt like peak performance
Could pift more, run longer etc
worth every penny but it requires strict discipline in terms of diet and exercise
I’m a smaller dude with less muscle mass than most (runner/cyclist) and I’ve gotten down to 7-8%. That was unhealthy and unsustainable, I was miserable, and my life revolved around my disordered eating patterns. I do much better on 2-3 meals per day and 12-16% BF. I feel better both physically and emotionally. My diet is way more fun at 16+% but I don’t like the way I look. My diet is way less fun at 12% but it makes me feel great about my appearance.
I actually do think 10-12% is reasonable, especially if you have more lean mass to begin with. Because you’d have a bit more fat as part of that percentage. But you’d definitely have to be pretty regimented and disciplined with your diet. Beer and pizza would have to be a very rare occasion, or you’d have to make up for it somehow. It would take a lot of cognitive and emotional load to be so regimented, so it probably depends on the individual.
I will say that it is a major confidence boost to be lean enough to have a proper 6 pack. And that confidence boost can trigger a lot of body dysmorphia and disordered thinking or behaviors. Was it worth it? No, because I didn’t achieve it healthily.
it’s nice in a way to be as shredded and peeled as you are in the high single digits or at 10% but i feel the best at around 14-16% and i can still have visible abs and look fairly lean at that percentage and it’s way easier to maintain and i’m performing at my best in the gym at around 15% so i prefer being a bit bulky
I have some good perspective here. I got and stayed to 8-10% body fat for two years. You can see me around my height of physique in this reddit comment where I was also stressing about knowing my body fat.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/s/bgF8q7zRYj
It ruined my life tbh. I developed extreme anorexia and was in starvation mode all the time. I had one chest day in those two years in Chicago, and I ate over 15000 calories and only stopped because I was physically in pain. I still felt hungry.
I went to bed every night watching competitive eaters on YouTube so I could eat vicariously.
The kicker, women didn’t care. Actually, most thought I was grotesque with how pronounced every muscle and vein was. Looking back, I looked emaciated.
I was 145lb with a 400lb deadlift back then. I’m 185lb now and built like the thickest tree trunk you’ve ever seen, belly and all.
I will never go back to that level of extreme for fitness or aesthetics. It IS NOT SUSTAINABLE in a healthy way (imo) and you should think about how you will feel when you can no longer sustain it healthily and your body can no longer look how you feel like you NEED it to look. It’s a when, not an if.
I listen to my body nowadays. I walk a lot, stretch a lot, and do body weight stuff that feels good to do. It’s served me a lot better than regimenting myself 6 days a week in the gym and not having a life due to calorie intake.