TheGoodDoctor’s BodyBlog

My body fat is rising

“%&^R%%((!!!!!!!**&&^&!” (insert many, many swear words here)

Thing is, one of my missions this year was to try to keep super, super lean

And i am failing.

As i have mentioned in the past, i truly do seem to be the worlds most perfectly balanced somatotype: the worlds most perfectly balanced ecto/meso/endomorph.

The reasons are as follows:

i) I can build muscle easily and readily, i have never had any problem gaining size or strength

ii) I also seem to be able to lose muscle easily, especially when i reduce calories, even my small margins

iii) I seems to be able to gain and lose muscle much, more more easily then i can drop body fat!! GRRRRRRRR!!!

These are ectomorphic, mesomorphic and endomorphic tendancies. The annoying thing in particular seems that my body really wants to hold on to that fat, but not as high as you would think. You see, that 13-14% mark seems to be the magic figure, my body REALLY wants to keep my fat at that level. The thing is though, once it gets to that point, it will resist most efforts to go over that level! which means, pizza, fried food and booze appear to be fair game! haha!

And this is the thing,  the recurring question in my head: if i can get away with those type of foods at a higher level, why try so hard to keep shredded?

At the moment, I am eating NO cheat foods, all super clean, good quality bodybuilding staples (egg whites, oatmeal ect), and guess what, the fat is still on the rise. And i am only in very small calorie surpluss. At the moment, i am eating 3200 calories a day (my maintence level was 3000) but the fat has continued to rise. I am gaining mass, but truth be told i would gain mass eating any old thing, my mission was to keep super lean.

I know my body well, and i know that once it hits that 13-14% bodyfat mark all calories are seemingly funneled into producing muscle mass. This time last year, when i was doing no cardio, I put on that much muscle i had to get the arms in all my shirts altered (true story). And yep, bodyfat kept rock solid stable at 13-14%

So what to do: There are three likely options

i) Reduced calories to maintence or below: A good option, but at the same time, i know my body well enough to know that it would most likely look to drop the muscle first

ii)  Do more cardio: probably the best option, because my body seems to be able to preserve muscle mass better and drop fat faster then when i cut calories. The problem is, I really dont want to do any more cardio then 3-4 sessions a week then i am currently doing. The reason is twofold: firstly, to prevent metabolic adapation. Secondly, if i am doing cardio daily, it doesn’t leave me much leeway when i next go to cut

iii) Keep calories the same, but alter macronutrient ratios: This is tempting. At the moment, i am eating 50% carb, 35% protein, 15% fat. A tempting ratio to try may be 40% carb, 40% protein, 20% fat and seeing what happens

 Ultimately, its about trial and error and finding what works for you. I am very new to this and still experimenting so i will give it 6 months to try to find something that works. If not, basically i will give bodybuilding away. I will go back to powerlifting and eating any old thing This is the challenge

Feel free to offer suggestions, or else the good doctor is exiting the bodybuilding world, stage left

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 7:13 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.