Going from 18% to 15% bodyfat

[QwertySmalls]

Hi could someone help me? I am 10st 7lb 5f8 and I'm quite toned except for my stomach. How do I achieve 15% body fat and maintain it? Thanks in advance.

Are you sure you’re 18% body fat? I’m same weight and height and apparently around 23% and I do a lot of weight training.
Getting to 15% is extremely high maintenance for a woman (assuming you are).
Looking at charts athletes should have 14-20% and fitness 21-24% so at 15% you’d be extremely low

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/amp/

To get down to 15% you’d pretty much be looking at starving to get rid of all but very essential body fat

I used a fat percentage thing on bathroom scales.

Try bodybuilding forums. It’s probably gonna mean eating nothing but chicken and protein powder

Put on about 5lbs of muscle via weight training and keep the exact same amount if fat you have now.

You’ll need a proper bulk and cut programme from a body building trainer to put on that much muscle. And probably be chugging lots of protein shakes.

That’s the only vaguely healthy way to do it I can think of. And I’m not sure it is even vaguely healthy tbh. 15% body fat on a woman is pro-athlete level. Like long distance runner type physique.

Those body fat monitor scales are pretty unreliable.

Cross post Back

Why though
Sounds like to much effort to me

Are you an elite athlete?! Those are the only women I know who have such a low body fat percentage. 15% is a good fitness level for men, but for women it can make your periods stop and cause osteoporosis in the long term. 18% is already on the low side and would indicate a very dedicated amateur athlete. Unless you are competing in something I would seriously question whether you should do this and perhaps work on your self-esteem instead. If you are competing in something other than body building then are there other things you can do to improve your performance? I appreciate that it’s a good way to improve power per KG up to a point (say, for cycling) but there is such a thing as taking it too far.

At 18& you're already into athlete or professional model level of body fat. 15% is extremely low for a woman, unhealthily so, you will risk loss of fertility until you increase it, & long term risk is increased likelihood of osteoporosis.

Even 18% is very very low. I'm a competing power lifter and nowhere near that low. I'd get it tested professionally tbh.

I used to range from 12% to 15% depending on whether I was in training season or competition season, I was a professional athlete and would have my body fat measured by weight, inches and water displacement tests. I'd be miserable maintaining that now.

I think 18% is still very low. If you'd like to work on your stomach though then that's ok, but don't get upset at a probably inaccurate reading from your scales.

Have you checked your settings on your scale? Mine have an 'athletic' setting and a normal one. I'm 5'4 and 10st - on 'athletic' setting I'm 14% bodyfat and normal about 23%. We have boditrax scales at the gym and they put me around 23% too. I don't know what the difference is between the settings and why they give different readings

Lowest I’ve ever been (on Boditrax so reasonably high accuracy) was 19% and I was on a very strict diet, weight training 6 x per week and running on top of that. To get down to 15% I would literally have to eat chicken and broccoli for every meal, in depressingly small quantities.

I am not sure about accuracy of boditrax. I have had boditrax readings of 13-18% body fat and there is no way I am that. I am 52, 5ft3, 70kg, size 10-12, exercise a lot and lift weights. Using these pics, I am probably 24-29% (tho legs more muscly than the rest of me). Not going to bother with it any more. athleanx.com/for-women/women-body-fat-percentage-photos

Did you measure post-workout @MsMartini? Totally throws it off. It should be about 99% accurate otherwise.

Nope, before workout each time, and at same time of day roughly. No-one else at my gym I have spoken to got such weird results though. It also said one of my legs had 2kg more muscle than the other and a few other things that made it sounds like it thought I was made of other people's leftovers

Health is a better goal

Reducing body fat so low.. below 18 percent in a woman.... is pointless and carries real risks

Loss of period, permanent damage to fertility, increased risk of early menopause, hair loss, bone loss... you want me to go on?

Yep, I have wondered of those machines helpful from that POV (even if they are accurate which they certainly weren't for me). I was just trying out of curiosity and also to get accurate weight as my bedroom scales vary depending where I put them on the floor!

15% body fat?

That’s not healthy long term for a woman at all.

Those scales really aren’t very accurate, if you were 18% body fat you’d be totally ripped.

My pt won’t let me get on the body fat machine at the gym she says they are worse than useless.

You are not at 18% body fat. I am two stones lighter than you (8.5) and slightly shorter, I am quite ripped , I put serious hours at the gym, my calories intake is quite low and my body fat was 19% last time I measured it. My abs are extremely visible. There is no fat on my stomach. You can't pinch any skin. At 18% you would definitely see your abs.
Not sure about the Athleanx photos because I would be in the 15-17 category but my upper body is always a lot more muscular and shredded than lower body

The only accurate way to measure body fat is to perform a skin fold caliper. Bathroom scales would not guess accurately.

You need to check again if you have 18% body fat.