5 Steps to Get Under 8% Bodyfat (Science-Based)

Find out how to get under 8% body fat naturally and how to properly lose weight and belly fat fast. If you want to lower your body fat percentage down to 6%, 7%, or 8 percent body fat then you'll love this video. Discover the benefits that come with losing weight and reducing your body fat to really low levels, as well as the drawbacks.

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We all have a layer of body fat sitting on top of our muscles, and by stripping away most of that body fat you start to see things like more muscle definition, striations, and veins. And even though it's difficult to get to lower levels of body fat like 12 percent, 10 percent, and 8 percent, it's definitely possible to achieve naturally, so in today's video, I want to go over the exact steps that you need to take to get to those really low levels of body fat. Now, First, you have to ask yourself if this is really something that you even want to do because there are some drawbacks to having a really low body fat percentage. Some of these include hunger, a lack of energy, low libido, lightheadedness, mood swings, and always feeling cold. So I'm sure it's no surprise when I say that staying under 8 percent body fat is typically unsustainable over a long period of time especially if you're doing it naturally. So yes you can get to that really low level of body fat for a certain day where you have an event like a bodybuilding competition, a photoshoot, a wedding, or whatever, but the chance of maintaining such a low body fat percentage everyday overtime is slim especially while still feeling good. And that's just the truth, but regardless many of you may want to get as lean as possible for that certain event and then afterward bring your body fat percentage back up a little so you can still feel nice and healthy while also looking defined and aesthetic. So step number one is to create specifically a small calorie deficit. Keep in mind if your overweight or obese, and you currently just want to lose as much body fat as fast as possible, there are more aggressive fat loss options available for you, but you're not ready just yet to be thinking about getting down to a single-digit body fat percentage. If you want to get to a really low body fat percentage you should already be somewhat lean and you should plan on it taking a good amount of time, anywhere from 6 weeks to months depending on how lean you are when starting out. Now the reason why you want to create a small deficit is that when you're already lean and you're in a calorie deficit, your body activates certain mechanisms that lower energy expenditure, to a greater extent than someone that has a lot of fat to lose. When you already have a relatively low body fat percentage, a negative energy balance causes your thyroid hormone, growth hormone, insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1 or (IGF-1),…. and testosterone to all drop rather quickly. Instead of these anabolic hormones that help you build muscle and burn fat, your body will produce more adrenaline, noradrenalin, and cortisol. As a result, you'll be more prone to muscle loss, which is why it's important to maintain only a slight calorie deficit. This is all supported by research, for example, one study compared the difference between three months of dieting with a 25 percent calorie deficit or a very-low-calorie diet of only 890 calories per day.(1) At the end of the study even though the Very low-calorie diet group lost more total mass or weight, the ratio of muscle to fat loss was much higher. 

That's why you want to take a slower dieting approach especially as you lose body fat. A good guideline is to go for a 20 percent calorie deficit if you're between 12 and 14 percent body fat right now. a 10 percent calorie deficit if you’re between 10 and 12 percent body fat. and a 5 percent calorie deficit if you’re between 8 and 10 percent body fat. To figure out approximately how much body fat you have right now you can go get a DEXA scan, but it's time-consuming and it costs money. So a surprisingly accurate way that you can guestimate your body fat is by looking in the mirror and comparing your level of body fat to the picture that you see on the screen now. Whichever one looks most like you shows you your approximate body fat percentage. 
The next step is to cycle your calories, and there are a couple reasons for doing this. First, since you'll be dieting for some time, you should keep in mind that hunger is the primary reason that diets fail. (2) That’s why it is important to optimize your diet and lifestyle for controlling hunger and one way you can do that is by cycling your calories. This means consuming more calories on some days and fewer on others.