Calipers say 22% BF...does that look right?! (PICS)

[brob82]

My calipers say that I'm at 22% BF. Calipers are suppose to be fairly accurate from what I've heard, but d*mn I look like a fat a$$!

Does 22% look right from these pics????

I did a test e, dbol cycle last November and ended in March. I've been trying to cut because I went out of control on the eating as you can tell. I'm hoping to do my next cycle starting mid July. Hopefully I can drop some BF FAST so I can start by then! :/

Stats:

5'6"
190 lbs.
27 YO

[terraj]

Looks more then 22.....30 ish.

Did you keep any gains from the first cycle?

[shortybrolick]

Whats your training and diet like?? I'm not trying to put you down, but do you think you reached your full potential naturally before you took it to another level??

[gettingthere]

Id say the 25-30 range man....not trying to put you down!!

Personally i reckon you need to forget about the cycle for a little while, get your diet in check first in the diet section and work from there

Best of luck

[brob82]

Been cutting down now since the end of March. I wish I would have taken some pics then, because I've dropped since then. At my peak right when I finished my cycle I was around 198. I'm now at 185, not 190.

I have actually kept quite a bit of my gains. I put on roughly 30-35 lbs from the cycle and no I doubt I was at my potential naturally, but I jumped to the dark side anyways, lol.

I've definitely learned my lesson about getting out of hand on my diet. I was just so excited I didn't want to waste any chance at gaining so I over ate. Next time I'll make sure not to do that. I know better and I've had my diet in check very strict for years until I threw caution to the wind.

I know it's hard to really guess this, but let's say my diets in check and I'm doing my cardio and what not...how long do you think it should take me to get down to a decent BF...at least low enough to do my next cycle?

[brob82]

Right now I'm doing 45 minutes of cardio 5-7 days a week. I've then been also doing...

Mon: upper body split
Tues: lower body split
Thur: full body workout
Sat: mass lifts (bench, squats, dead lifts)

My caloric intake is about 2200, but goes up on days I eat more carbs (every 4th day). I have been rotating 3 days low carbs, one day higher carbs. More or less trying to cut/prime...

[j4ever41]

honestly bro it looks like in those pics you are around high 20s-30%, your lbm is probably between 135-140,i would drop to about 150-155# before next cycle,it is not neccessary to get fat and bloated to put on LBM,seems alot of peeps dont understand that,their advice is to run 1g of test,dont take an ai and eat everything in sight,haha,for what to get fat and bloated? then when you drop all that weight you wondering where the hell is the muscle,ok stop rant now,but for real that is what i would do,if you are at 185 now,i would be looking to drop another 25-30 #,im not sure about that training split you got going seems like overtraining to me,imho i would not do 45 minutes of cardio 7 days a week,it would be interesting to see your daily meal plan,have you posted in the diet forum?everyone is different but i would take about 12 weeks to lose that weight,you do not want to be losing any LBM with it.goodluck bro

[brob82]

I completely agree, I definitely didn't do right by my diet. But I'm determined to drop this fat and hit it hard...

You say you wouldn't do 45 min of cardio 7 days...why's that?

You also say you think I'm overtraining...what would you've doing training wise if you were in my situation?

My TDEE is 2800 cals. I'm currently eating between 2000-2300...does that sound like a decent calorie deficit to you?

[FireGuy]

You are definately above 22% bodyfat. Calipers start getting progressively more inaccurate around the 16% bodyfat levels. If you figured your TDEE using the LBM that 22% represented you are going to be getting way too many calories. Not to mention most TDEE formulas assign too much food to begin with. I would do as J4Ever mentioned and redo TDEE using 130-135 as your LBM. On the other hand I would be doing a MINIMUM of 45x7 cardio a week to get that bodyfat down.

[j4ever41]

i am not a big lover of cardio,i do not do cardio on leg day or the day after so that drops me to 5 days there but i usually do 3-4 @ 30 minutes each,which is AM fasted or post workout, i just feel that for maximal muscle preservation i would rather tighten the diet, but as you can see fireguy ( yes thats him in the avatar ) is peeled and shredded so he knows his stuff,like fireguy said rework your tdee using LBM of 135 and see how that works for ya,as far as your training split looks like you are working everything 3 times per week,i would hit everything once per week,there are all kinds of splits you can try,go and look thru the workout forum and put 1 together and post it up,there are training styles that you can hit each bodypart more often but my suggestion would be once per week right now.

[brob82]

The TDEE I calculated was from using a LBM of 130...says my cals should be around 2800.

Calculation: 370 + (21.6 x 60) = 1666 BMR

1666 x 1.75 (exercise 6-7 days a week, heavy) = 2915 TDEE

those are the right calculations correct???

[gbrice75]

I would put you at around 28% - 30%. I agree with these guys, hit the cardio hard and post up your diet ASAP in the diet section.

[endurojerz]

I'm a big fan of running. I try not to do it too much because I don't want to lose the gains I work hard to get. Diet is key bro.

[brob82]

Well it's been about 7 weeks since I posted my original set of pics to have my BF% estimated. I've been working my ass off trying to drop this fat! Cardio for 1 hour EVERY day and lifting 3-4 days a week.

Here's pics I just took today...any BF% estimates?...

[Gsxr84]

looking alot better man, you definatly went down some % i have no idea how much though. Hows your diet been last 7 weeks?

[gettingthere]

Alright mate, how much weight did you lose in that 7weeks? definately lost some weight anyway well done!!

I personally dont concern myself with what percentage im at, simply because that dont impress the girls......looking and feeling good does lol but i think its all about how you feel you look and fee IMO

Good luck your doing well

[gbrice75]

You definitely dropped some bodyfat, however i'd still put you at a minimum of 25%. Not trying to hurt your feelings, just being honest - we all need it!

After starting this thread, did you post up your diet for some help? I know you said you have your diet in check, but maybe it's not as in check as you think. It certainly wouldn't hurt to get some other opinions. I thought my diet was really good too (and it was compared to how I was eating BEFORE starting any kind of diet) - until I posted it up here and learned quickly that it was pure crap. Now I have my diet in check for sure. I recently posted it and nobody could really say anything about it, which made me happy! There are people who can help you, get it posted bro!

[brob82]

I went from the high 170's in my first pics. Now I'm down to low 160's. This all fat from a first cycle gone bad. I was so excited to put on weight I ate anything and everything...even though I knew better! Oh well, I learned my lesson and will now not make that mistake again. I actually feel pretty good right now. I'd like to still lose some from my stomach and love handles...I have an 'ideal' look I personally want to get to. I'm not highly concerned with being at 12% bf or 15% or whatever, just want to be look-wise a certain way.

I'm hoping to get there soon because I'm itching to bulk again, cleanly this time of course!...this cutting is for the birds, lol.

[brob82]

Well I'm pretty positive I'm less than 25%. We have a bod pod at our local university and I was at 24% about 2 weeks ago...and that was 5 lbs ago.

Maybe I just look higher because of the way I hold my fat???

[ray0414]

In your first pics you look like you have never lifted weights your entire life, and youve done steroids??? diet, cardio, and work out hard(but the right way). progess tho is looking good.

[brob82]

Yea, that's what happens when you eat like sh*t. Lessonlearned like I said.

[gbrice75]

Well I'm pretty positive I'm less than 25%. We have a bod pod at our local university and I was at 24% about 2 weeks ago...and that was 5 lbs ago.

Maybe I just look higher because of the way I hold my fat???

That's a possibility. You mentioned also that you're not overly concerned with BF% numbers, just the ideal 'look' you have in mind. Consider the possibility though that the look you're after may be that of 10% BF or whatever... just don't ignore the numbers completely - they do help to keep track and let you know where you're at.

[brob82]

I agree gbrice. You're right I don't know what my BF percentage will be for my ideal look I want...I'll just go by a combination of look and % and see how it goes. I still have work to do, so I'll just keep focusing on my diet and cardio for now...

Btw, I posted my diet up at the beginning of June and got some feedback. Made some changes based on that. I've obviously lessened my calories some to adjust for weight loss, but from what I posted I'm doing the same basic diet.

[n00bs]

You need compound lifts full body 3 times weekly for the next 12 months with a good diet and lots of sleep...

Off days tabata thrusters..

[brob82]

I think full body workouts would be less effective as hitting a body part once a week. I think that may be a little overtraining, at least from my experiences and from researching. Plus if I'm looking for fat loss I think diet and cardio are where it's at. Not that I don't lift...which I do and have been for years.

[n00bs]

Olympic lifters train 3 times a day...

Overtraining...

LOL

Muscle mass is what controls your metabolic function... More muscle = more power to burn calories..

v12 suprcharged or a 4cyl broken down hyundai? What burns more fuel at idle..


You need to increase your muscle mass while eating properly and increase insulin sensitivty and your hormone profile through compound exercises...


Splits are great, for a body builder you are not a bodybuilder..

[brob82]

Hmmm...well you're one of the few I know who suggest training full body(same body parts) 3 times a week. In fact there's a comment a few comments up in this thread that suggested I didn't do a full body workout 3 times a week. I'm not saying you're wrong...for all I know you know more than myself or anyone else, but like I said from most people and things I've researched it'd not recommended too...

Anyone else wanna chime in on this conflicting information?

[n00bs]

Post your 1rms and ill let you know if it is suitable for you or not...

If you dont know what 1rms are or dont squat atg , deadlift, and press.. Then its definetly for you!

[brob82]

So what defines a bodybuilder?

Someone you perceive as being 'BIG'?

I would imagine someone who lifts to 'build' their body is a bodybuilder no matter how much muscle or fat they have...

[n00bs]

So what defines a bodybuilder?

Someone you perceive as being 'BIG'?

I would imagine someone who lifts to 'build' their body is a bodybuilder no matter how much muscle or fat they have...

A body builder is someone who has the basics covered and is able to move onto splits...

Seirously splits for begginers and novices even most intermidiates is ridiculous...

It keeps people weak.

Who seriously has an arm day then a bench day what they **** there arms so they cant bench the next day??

Most of the best body builders built their initial body from powerlifting..

Many people seem to forget that..

They think they can go do wrist curls and preacher curls.. Want your arms to grow? Do some ****ing squats and deadlfits...

You have to pay your dues under heavy iron and people tend to forget this. People reccomend them am/pm retarded 27 body part splits or something ridiculous when it isnt so hard

Eat right
Sleep
Lift heavy
Interval training for cardiovascular health

Thats it...

The amount of weak ****s at my gym doing 10kg cable cross over retard exercises amazes me.. These people will be weak forever.

TO be a bodybuilder you need to learn basics.. So to be a bodybuilder you dont train like one.. Until you are ready..




Everyone here is worried about a six pack and they probably cant even squat 1.5 times body weight yet...

Madness has to stop...

Im sure some old vet powerlifters and bodybuilders will tell you all the same thing..


There are genetic freaks who are the exeption.. They get big from shitting, we dont worry about what they can do we worry about what we can do...

[gbrice75]

I would imagine someone who lifts to 'build' their body is a bodybuilder no matter how much muscle or fat they have...

Agreed, sort of. I'd call this a 'bodybuilder' in progress. However, a bodybuilder isn't just concerned with building, he's concerned with sculpting and defining his body as well. It's all about the look more than anything else. Strength is secondary for a bodybuilder...

[brob82]

Yes, I am in progress. I'm working tpwards a goal which isn't just to be strong. In fact strength is secondary to the way I wish to 'build' my body. No offense to no0b at all, but my goal isn't to just get strong and massive...I want a good physique.

I want to get down to my desired BF or should I say look. I don't think the true definition of a bodybuilder is what some people think. Sometimes people seem to want to make their own definition up to how they think a bodybuilder should be.

[n00bs]

No offence taken,

But like all the best have done before they did basics first...

Even read arnold books... They built they physique off power..

Anyway a program doesnt make you massive.. Food makes you massive... Exercise is catabolic your body only goes into an anabolic state when you eat...

If you think strength wont give you a good physique i suggest you look at some of the lower weight class olympic lifters and gymnists...

[BennyLom]

Looking better now, but guessing you are near 25% still. Keep at it!

[oldschoolfitness]

looking good bro keep it up