Since January 1, 2004 to today I have gone from 195 to 159 with clean eating and cardio. I'm starting to get the "you look too skinny now" comments, but I still have fat. I'd estimate my body fat percentage to be around 13-15%, with most of it being around the midsection.
(I'm 5'9" BTW)
My calorie intake was 1400-1600 per day during this weight loss phase.
Just this week I've upped the intake to 1700-1900 per day and three weeks ago I added some moderate weight training (30-45 minutes per night 3 nights per week).
Is this the right approach?? Can I still lose the last fat percentages while gaining weight/taking in more calories?? Should I aim for 1900-2100 cals??
I've been diligently following the 40-40-20 split, never varying more than 5% on any one category on a daily basis.

Thanks

Are you doing this for you or everyone else? Any time I lean down, I get the comments that my face is too gaunt, I'm skinny, I am emaciated, I need to eat more, yada yada.

The bottom line is that the huge, hulking bodybuilders you see is not the practical reality for those of us who pursue the natural route. The thing is that with our clothes on, our faces lean down and we look "skinny" and get comments. But with our clothes off, the low body fat reveals the detail of the muscle and we look large. While my work associates were telling me "eat more" and "stop losing fat" the people looking at my online pictures were accusing me of using steroids (lol - if you've seen my pictures, anyone who DID use steroids would fall out of their chair laughing at that).

Do it for you, lean down. Everyone seems to panic and feel they need to add mass when they are getting cut. The fact is, you are more likely and "primed" to gain mass when you are leaner. So don't give up - keep at it, get down to your target weight, then bulk.

And don't use bulking as an excuse to eat what you want - I've seen more than one "bulking" phase turn into a free-for-all train wreck!

Jeremy

Great post, Jeremy.

I'm in the EXACT same boat as you, sewerrat. Check around for some of my similar posts on this forum re: my gut/weight dilemma. When I first started dieting and working out I got down to about 155 lbs and I'm 6' 1". I still had a gut, but based on everybody's "you're too skinny" comments I decided to try and bulk. Unfortunately, my gut only got bigger because there was still a lot of fat there.

Now, I am back to cutting but doing it very carefully. I'm keeping my daily calories around 2100 (maintenance for me is about 2700) and focusing more on weight training than cardio. Seems to be working pretty good so far, though it's still too early in my cut to tell.

I see you've added weight training to your routine, which, as far as I'm concerned, is key. People here will disagree with me, but I find weight training to be far superior to cardio in terms of fat loss. Personally, I would lift 3 to 4x a week and only do cardio 2 to 3x a week and see how that works for you. You certainy won't GAIN weight, but at least you can hopefully shed the excess fat while also putting on some muscle definition. It looks like you're right on target with your calories (they were probably too low before.)

:gl:

I was 5"9 , 167 lbs with 21% bf when I started my cutting.

During the last 3 weeks of my cutting which I was about 132 lbs and was around 9% , people told me I look too skinny(I'm an ecto), I didnt care... I had a goal and that goal was to get down to 7% bf.

I eventually got down to 127lbs/6% bf, 4 weeks later and I'm 132lbs (gained 5lbs in 4 weeks).
And I'm not even trying to bulk, doing maintenance until end of april, then I start bulking.

Bottom line: You dont do it for other people, you do it for yourself only. you've set yourself a goal, and you're gonna do anything in your power in order to achieve it.
People may say you look too skinny (when you cut), or too chubby (when you bulk), but as long as you have a goal(getting the body you want), listen only to yourself.
:gl:

Great thread! I've just begun to get those "too skinny" comments and I'm at 16-17%. After being overweight most of my life, I kind of enjoy those comments. My answer it "you ain't seen nothin' yet".