F/32/5’5 [124.7 > ?? ] Looking for feedback on my 6-month plan to achieve my ideal honeymoon bod!

[washed7by7the7water7]

Hi lovely fit people! I’ve given myself a hard 6-month deadline to reach the following goals:

Body fat mass: from 31.9 to ~ 22.7 - 24.0 lbs
Lean (muscle) mass: from 88 to ~ 89 - 91 lbs
Body fat %: from 25.6% to ~ 19.5 - 20.5 %

I began doing a "smart bulk" for a few weeks and recently realized I probably should have been cutting given my current body fat %, goals, and 6-month timeline. Currently feeling very chubby.

Once I reach my goals, I'll go into "maintenance" mode for a few months, then do a "smart bulk" in the winter as I really do want to eventually focus on building strength.

My questions are:

1. What fitness program do you all recommend to achieve these goals in 6 months? (assumption: walk 10K steps everyday + do 30-45 mins of resistance/strength training 3-4x per week)
2. What fuel should I be eating? (assumption: 150 calorie deficit from my TDEE, so 1600 (vs 1750) calories, including daily 115g protein, then 35/35 split for carbs/fat)

For reference:

Recent DXA scan results:

https://imgur.com/a/jvbYfdt

Current photos:

https://imgur.com/a/1XW4VJr

 

[srbrandon]

@washed7by7the7water7 Low-key annoyed at the concern-trolling comments you’re getting :/ Come on, she asked a question, we should be answering it, instead of telling her not to want what she wants…

Anyway, you have a great base, and I think you could see good aesthetic results in just 2 months, let alone 6 months. I would recommend planning the next 6 months based on your aesthetic goals rather than body fat percentage goals.

What type of body are you shooting for? I assume you want a conventionally man-pleasing body. Usually, this means a slim thick, athletic body like an IG fitness model (example). If you want to be slim thick, I think you should not worry about the 10k steps and just focus on strength training 3-5x per week, while making sure to progressively increase the weights you're lifting as you get stronger. Follow an aesthetic-focused strength routine like Bret Contrera’s Strong Curves program, rather than a strength-building routine. r/StrongCurves might be more helpful for you than this sub, and you might find Bret's overview of how to build a toned but shapely model body helpful if you prefer an even slimmer look. I would feel comfortable eating at maintenance or even slightly above. 1600-1750 calories per day (or even up to 2000 if you aren't seeing substantial glute growth after 8 weeks) sounds fine to me.

I also think, since you are already slim, you should not be afraid to go up to around 130 lbs (or more). I am about the same height as you and used to look skinnyfat at 125 lbs, but I’m leaner-looking and a dress size smaller at 130 lbs than I was at 125 lbs, after doing SC for 6 months.

If you prefer a very slim, cardio bunny body (e.g. Rachel Attard) then I suppose you could follow more HIIT-focused workouts like Rachel Attard's cardio routines or Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide. I probably wouldn’t recommend this path as much because it requires way more effort to maintain (a caloric deficit and strict diet is probably necessary), HIIT/cardio workouts induce hunger AND are way more stressful and tiring than weight-lifting, and I think men prefer slim thick bodies to very slim bodies anyway (though women tend to prefer very slim bodies on themselves). But it’s up to you.

Other notes:

1. I recommend keeping carb intake low (70-100g).
2. 19% body fat on women can sometimes create a slightly skeletal look, especially as they enter their 30s and begin losing facial fat. I believe a study once found that 22-23% body fat is the level of BF most preferred by men so I don’t think you have to drop all the way to 19% if you are looking to improve aesthetics.

 

[washed7by7the7water7]

@srbrandon THANK YOU x 100000 for this thoughtful advice!!! You are spot on about my goals (definitely going for the “slim thick” look). Your advice is (happily) making me reconsider the need to eat at a deficit. As far as exercise, I’ve been doing one on one personal training to learn proper lifting form/technique, then planned to begin group classes (CrossFit style gym) 3x/week starting next week - so that will definitely take care of the progressive weight increase. However, I’m moving away in a few months, so will have to look into switching to the SC program. Also good tip about the BF%. I honestly could care less about the #s, it’s more about the final “look” and how to maximize the maintainability factor. Thank you again for taking the time to reply!

 

[srbrandon]

@washed7by7the7water7 I’m glad to help! It’s the advice I wish I had gotten when I started exercising.

One thing I will say is that if being slim thick is your goal, I probably would not recommend CrossFit unless you really enjoy it and/or benefit from the structure of group classes.

CrossFit is definitely focused more on strength-building rather than aesthetics, so it tends to create a body type that looks “ripped” and “strong”, but may be “bulkier” than what you are looking for (example of a CrossFit athlete). You definitely won’t see results like hers in just 2 months, but I do think CrossFit will be much less effective at creating a slim thick body than Strong Curves. Cross Fit focuses on exercising your entire body with the goal of increasing overall fitness and strength — so you will grow muscle all over — whereas Strong Curves focuses on growing specific muscle groups with the intention of creating a feminine, hourglass shape.

Secondly, since CrossFit involves so much HIIT/cardio, it may make you hungrier, which in turn may make you look bulkier if you eat more. Much of the work of building an aesthetic body is done through diet, and it will probably be easier if you don't induce too much hunger in yourself through hard cardio workouts.

For what it’s worth, I suspect men love the ripped look on women more than women think they do (if the popularity of r/FitAndNatural is any indication), so if you like the CrossFit athlete look and enjoy doing the workouts, then CrossFit is a great choice for you.

 

[betelo995]

@srbrandon 130 lbs is 59.02 kg

 

[tlb73737]

@washed7by7the7water7 I don't have any advise as that's a really low body fat percentage for a woman, especially one who is already very thin. It ain't worth ruining your metabolism and relationship with food for a honeymoon.

 

[mgreene05]

@washed7by7the7water7 I would recommend you start a basic beginner lifting program like GZCLP to get those newbie muscle gains. Or join Stronger by the Day. SBTD is a 4-5 day a week program that covers all the main lifts in an awesomely programmed way.

Also, watch this video on recomp and see if that sounds like what you want to achieve.

 

[washed7by7the7water7]

@mgreene05 Thank you!!! I will definitely look into these 2 programs.

 

[herve]

@washed7by7the7water7 No plans to make babies on honeymoon, right? Getting to that low of a body fat percentage might mess with period regularity and fertility. Your pictures don't look "chubby" at all so I would really recommend some counseling or mental health treatment instead of a fat loss plan.

 

[slcain]

@herve I think fertility gets impacted below 15% body fat.

 

[tlb73737]

@slcain Ideally should be at least 22-25%.

 

[slcain]

@tlb73737 What makes that ideal?

 

[markxiii]

@slcain Science consensus based on hormones and female bodies. Women needs higher body fat percentage than men to maintain good health and avoid issues such as permanent hunger, fertility, fatigue, etc, and I think the range is anywhere between 20-32%, although 25% is typically judged as being ideal (halfway point).

Maintaining below that is also harder and requires incredible discipline and willpower.

 

[slcain]

@markxiii Yeah, I've been digging around on Google Scholar to try to find a range. All I can find is studies that identify ~30% body fat (in women) as the point at which various systems in the body get compromised (e.g. vitamin d absorption, cardiac activity, metabolic functions).

I can't find anything that sets a lower limit though--probably because the obesity problem is much more prevalent than the underweight problem.

Would you mind linking to the articles you've seen that establish that lower limit of 20%? I'm definitely interested in this! Sorry to be a bother, but I'm just not having luck with pulling it up. And I definitely haven't found anything that identifies an "ideal", only articles that identify a cutoff between "normal" and "unhealthy" (~30%).

Editing: It seems like a lot of blog/commercial types sites point to this study:

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/72/3/694/4729363?login=true

This study establishes 21% as the lower limit for women. I did look at this one, but I dismissed it kind of quickly because it determines ranges as indexed to BMI, not as indexed to health. I didn't read much of the study when I first clicked it because it says up front in the introduction the following:

"Unfortunately, there is no consensus on how body fat is linked with morbidity and mortality because of the absence of appropriate prospective studies. Specifically, no accepted published body fat ranges exist; those reported based on empirically set limits, population percentiles, and z scores have serious limitations. Additionally, methods of limited accuracy such as anthropometry are typically used to estimate fatness in population surveys (8).

The aim of the present study was to examine an approach for developing percentage body fat ranges that correspond to published BMI guidelines. Sex-specific formulas were first developed for estimating relative body fatness from BMI and other potential independent variables such as age and ethnicity. These formulas, based on reference methods for evaluating total body fat, were then used to derive percentage body fat levels corresponding to the BMI thresholds for underweight (

 

[dawn16]

@slcain Fertility can also be affected by undereating / overtraining, even at healthy body fat levels. Any serious cut and even some not-so-serious cuts can affect the menstrual cycle and therefore fertility, so it's a reasonable point to bring up for OP to consider. Not that baby-making has to happen on honeymoons, just depends on OP's plans

 

[slcain]

@dawn16 Oh, yeah, I didn’t think about those variables. I guess I was just focused on the causal link that the commenter before me was focused on. Thanks for you reply!

 

[ma13]

@washed7by7the7water7 Hey there!
Could you expand more as to why you want to go down 5 points of fat in 6 months? I am not very knowledgeable, but it's seems hard to drop that low so fast. You are at a very good weight to height ratio now and you look great in your pictures! Maybe some strength training and eating at just maintenence or slightly below to get some more muscle would be good. 19 percent in women is quite low.. Like.. Athlete level.

 

[washed7by7the7water7]

@ma13 Yep, wedding/honeymoon is my main motivation - but want to continue my lifestyle changes for the rest of my days, so trying to find a plan that I enjoy enough to stick to.

I’m tired of the back pain from sitting on my butt all day, and perpetually feeling squishy.

I’m surprised that you think my goals are difficult to achieve in 6 months! I thought my goals were way slower than the 0.5-1 lb per week I’ve seen as the baseline on other fat loss forums.

 

[ma13]

@washed7by7the7water7 Awesome!
I totally get it, I work from home and just sit sit sit all day. I see nothing wrong with your workout plan and you diet plan of a small deficit. It's just that I wouldn't stare myself blind on getting to 19-20% body fat. How about picking a strength program and really challenge yourself and see how that feels for a couple of months? I noticed a huge difference in the tightness of my body after just a couple of weeks of consistent training (I'm doing epic 2 on YouTube).
Use pictures as mark of progress instead of bf.
You're at a bmi of 20.6, I wouldn't advice you to go much lower in weight.

 

[washed7by7the7water7]

@ma13 I'll definitely look into Epic! Yeah, I don't really care about my "weight" or #s at all - I just know that I could stand to gain some muscle and lose some fat. Your advice of picking a strength program and just STICKING to it (while keeping a slight caloric deficit) seems reasonable and totally doable for me.

TBH the reason I took this to xxfitness in the first place is I wanted to make absolutely sure that there weren't any holes in my plan, since I really only have one shot given my 6-month window!