Want to Finally See Your Abs in the New Year? Trainer Reveals Simple Tips to Drop From 15% Body Fat to 10%
Take your physique to the next level with these personal trainer-approved tips.
If you’re clocking in at 15 percent body fat, you’ve already earned a gold star when it comes to healthy habits. Obviously shooting for 10 percent is more for getting toned and revealing your abs (think V-lines and lower abdominals that pop) than it is for performance goals of brute strength or getting bigger.
While the journey from 20 percent to 15 percent was undoubtedly tough, it's nothing like the discipline it takes to drop down to 10 percent (or 7 percent). When it comes to gaining a low body fat percentage, you'll have to drop the fast food burgers, be strategic about your workout routine (lift heavier, incorporate cardio workouts), and get some extra sleep.
Here’s what you need to do to drop down to 10 percent body fat, according to Jim White, R.D., owner of Jim White Fitness and Nutrition Studios in Virginia Beach, VA, and celebrity trainer Lalo Fuentes, C.S.C.S.
Related: A Personal Trainer Reveals How Often You Should Train Your Abs for Muscle vs. Strength
How to Go from 15% Body Fat to 10%
1. Rethink Your Approach to Food
You are no longer eating primarily for the enjoyment of flavors. “Food can still taste good, but you have to start eating for fuel dominantly more than enjoyment,” White says. That means eyeing where you’re eating too much.
“Healthy guys are most guilty of overeating the good stuff—peanut butter, avocado, hummus,” White explains. But calories are calories, and if you don’t need it as fuel or for repair, you should cut back on it.
2. Focus On Clean Macros
Rather than cutting calories, it’s more about cleaning up the calories you have, says White. Stay between 1,800 and 2,200 calories, but switch your focus to protein and fat over carbs, and clean up the quality of what’s on your plate.
It’s time to take all those final steps—going from salted nuts to natural, regular yogurt to Greek for more protein—and cutting sugars out entirely.
This is one of the biggest factors keeping guys above 15 percent body fat, Fuentes says. Lastly, up your fiber to 25-30 grams. “Not only does it help keep you full, but high protein diets can make you constipated, and fiber will help promote good GI health,” White says.
3. Live a Little
“You can go into the grey a little bit when it comes to diet, but you have to be careful because the more you do this, the longer it’ll take to reach your goal,” White explains.
Give yourself one indulgent meal a week if you need it. You know what a cheat meal looks like, but what about the most delicious indulgence of all—beer? Luckily, White says one light brew—infrequently—is OK since it’ll only cost you about 100 calories.
But imbibing often or having more than three beers in one sitting, or a higher alcohol content pint, does.
4. Go Heavier
To get to 10 percent, kick your workouts up to five to six days a week, White advises. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, research shows you can shed fat and gain muscle mass in a shorter amount of time with HIIT than you would with other kinds of workouts. However, according to White, you should stick to a combination of weight training, HIIT, and cardio.
Increase to heavier weights and higher intensity, focusing on not just the big muscles but also specializing in the smaller muscles to help carve that definition.
5. Sleep More
Your most unhealthy habit probably has nothing to do with your workout or diet. Forty percent of Americans log fewer than seven hours of sleep per night, according to a Gallup poll.
Not only is it harder to resist snoozing through your morning workout alarm if you hit the hay too late, but studies show the less you sleep, the higher your chances of having belly fat. Shoot for 7-8 hours a night.
