Staying lean year around without abusing drugs

[cm]

You have to find foods that you can consume minimal amounts of that keep you full. I find sweet potatoes keep me full. So I can eat 5oz sweet potatoes with 4 of my 6 meals.

true right here
if I eat sweet potato, I can go up to 10 oz and in an hour I feel like I didnt eat anything

finding the right food (S) is the key

may take a couple seasons to get it perfect for you esp if you dont have someone keeping an eye on you

 

[dnab87]

What do you guys consider a low does of gh?

 

[Ironkop]

Outside of cosmetics is it healthy to stay at 8% year round?
At that low of a percentage of bf you are storing nothing but the fat around organs right?
From a health standpoint would it be better to eat clean and stay around 12%?

 

[snowpatrol]

Outside of cosmetics is it healthy to stay at 8% year round?
At that low of a percentage of bf you are storing nothing but the fat around organs right?
From a health standpoint would it be better to eat clean and stay around 12%?

12% is not very lean...maybe 10% would be better than 8, but I don't think 8 is terribly 'bad' for you - just not particularly easy to maintain and certainly not easy to grow while maintaining

 

[snowpatrol]

What do you guys consider a low does of gh?

2ius pharm, <5ius good generics IMO

 

[swim15]

I've played with every carb source out there. Sleep 8 hours a night, get plenty of liquids/fiber. Before I started lifting I was just a straight ectomorph and was around 5-6% all the time no matter what I ate and 135-140lbs at 6 feet or so. Man do I miss those days haha.

Gonna try changing from LISS cardio to HIIT cardio as LISS increases my appetite a lot.

If it's possible im gonna find a route. Been way too careless with offseason nutrition in the past and going to make a solid effort to change that so we will see if I can't find a good medium.

 

[devenidas]

I like how you said "semi lean" but then said 9%. 9% is fucking lean! Not stage ready but lean.


My body just wants to be fat, it sucks. Alwaaays hungry and my brain constantly tries to pursuade me to stick food in my face that I shouldnt.

3200 cals isn't extremely low. If you can stay at 9% on that I'd say your metabolism is pretty damned good.

Chode when u say you are always hungry may I ask do you deprive yourself of any macros other then protein for long periods of time.

If someone deprive themselves of fats for eg for too long and try to stay all protein and carb diet that has an impact on hunger levels or same applies to carbs as well. I think it's defo helps NOT to deprive body of any macro of long period of time .

For hunger suppression try apple cider vinegar capsules. Does the same appetite suppression as the liquid but doesn't taste bad and convenient to take during the day. Pop a bunch of these it defo helps with appetite suppression. All natural too. One can take year around.

I have experimented this if I do true fasted cardio nothing except caffeine , l tyrosine and taurine and then wait to let hunger kicks in its about a 2 hour mark. I want food in 2 hours. Ghrelin shows up its ugly mug face as a angry dinosaur wanting me to stuff food down but 4-6 pills of apple cider vinegar and I can double that time to 4 hours easily and not think about food. Give it a shot. I use to have liquid but the problem is when you are hungry and empty stomach its pretty sickening drinking bloody liquid ACV . made me nearly vomit once that Bragg's AVC on empty stomach especially doing HIIT cardio after it lol so I go with the pills . same effect at least for appetite supression and u can take bigger multiple doses through out the day. all the best mate

 

[Chode Logan]

Chode when u say you are always hungry may I ask do you deprive yourself of any macros other then protein for long periods of time.

If someone deprive themselves of fats for eg for too long and try to stay all protein and carb diet that has an impact on hunger levels or same applies to carbs as well. I think it's defo helps NOT to deprive body of any macro of long period of time .

For hunger suppression try apple cider vinegar capsules. Does the same appetite suppression as the liquid but doesn't taste bad and convenient to take during the day. Pop a bunch of these it defo helps with appetite suppression. All natural too. One can take year around.

I have experimented this if I do true fasted cardio nothing except caffeine , l tyrosine and taurine and then wait to let hunger kicks in its about a 2 hour mark. I want food in 2 hours. Ghrelin shows up its ugly mug face as a angry dinosaur wanting me to stuff food down but 4-6 pills of apple cider vinegar and I can double that time to 4 hours easily and not think about food. Give it a shot. I use to have liquid but the problem is when you are hungry and empty stomach its pretty sickening drinking bloody liquid ACV . made me nearly vomit once that Bragg's AVC on empty stomach especially doing HIIT cardio after it lol so I go with the pills . same effect at least for appetite supression and u can take bigger multiple doses through out the day. all the best mate

I do generally keep my fats pretty low as that's what I respond best too. That plus being a fat kid....grew up with a crazy appetite too.


Good advice though, thank you for the recommendation. I have ACV but never tried the pills.

 

[swim15]

I've tried ACV between meals when I got hungry but didn't notice anything until I drank about 6-8oz and just got sick at that point

 

[gradeaphysique]

It really isn't that difficult if you have patience. Most of the fat people gain comes right after contest prep because somehow restricting your calories to extreme lows for months on end then having a meal that equates to the calories you ate in a week makes sense. If you reverse dieted and added say 50-100 cals a week until your eating enough and functioning well once your a few months into your off season you wouldn't have to eat " super clean or strict" Most people myself included get a motivation after a show to grow and jump right into a bulk and that's the worst thing you can do.

 

[LK3]

I like how you said "semi lean" but then said 9%. 9% is fucking lean! Not stage ready but lean.


My body just wants to be fat, it sucks. Alwaaays hungry and my brain constantly tries to pursuade me to stick food in my face that I shouldnt.

3200 cals isn't extremely low. If you can stay at 9% on that I'd say your metabolism is pretty damned good.

lol!

this!

its bitch isn't it!

I feel good staying in low double digits, getting to single takes real work. drugs make it easier.

 

[Elvia1023]

I like how you said "semi lean" but then said 9%. 9% is fucking lean! Not stage ready but lean.


My body just wants to be fat, it sucks. Alwaaays hungry and my brain constantly tries to pursuade me to stick food in my face that I shouldnt.

3200 cals isn't extremely low. If you can stay at 9% on that I'd say your metabolism is pretty damned good.

Over the years I would say atleast 95% of the people on here who have said they are 8% are closer to 12% anyway. As you state 9% is very lean especially in the offseason. Sure muscle building can be achieved with low bf but if it was a target I think atleast over 10% would be optimal in the off season.

I should add not stating the op is not 8% as if I remember correctly he looked great in pics he posted in the pic thread. But it is definitely a trend on here to get their bf% off by a good 4%.

 

[Chode Logan]

Over the years I would say atleast 95% of the people on here who have said they are 8% are closer to 12% anyway. As you state 9% is very lean especially in the offseason. Sure muscle building can be achieved with low bf but if it was a target I think atleast over 10% would be optimal in the off season.

I should add not stating the op is not 8% as if I remember correctly he looked great in pics he posted in the pic thread. But it is definitely a trend on here to get their bf% off by a good 4%.

Agreed. I wasn't impyling he wasn't 9%, I just laughed at "semi-lean" as 8/9% is borderline photoshoot worthy and pretty damn lean!

 

[ZOFO1973]

Over the years I would say atleast 95% of the people on here who have said they are 8% are closer to 12% anyway. As you state 9% is very lean especially in the offseason. Sure muscle building can be achieved with low bf but if it was a target I think atleast over 10% would be optimal in the off season.

I should add not stating the op is not 8% as if I remember correctly he looked great in pics he posted in the pic thread. But it is definitely a trend on here to get their bf% off by a good 4%.

I agree south of 10% is a bitch to maintain year round.Id burn out real fast. I too find 10-12% is perfect off season. More clean calories during the week and maybe a little looser or Sat/Sun.
@ 12% you aren't far away from getting into contest shape either, its a good balance. For me anyway.

 

[swim15]

Over the years I would say atleast 95% of the people on here who have said they are 8% are closer to 12% anyway. As you state 9% is very lean especially in the offseason. Sure muscle building can be achieved with low bf but if it was a target I think atleast over 10% would be optimal in the off season.

I should add not stating the op is not 8% as if I remember correctly he looked great in pics he posted in the pic thread. But it is definitely a trend on here to get their bf% off by a good 4%.

Yea I agree people usually underestimate body fat, sometimes significantly. I usually overestimate slightly based on bod pod tests (not that I read into them too much) but at 9% I've got visible veins running from lower abs up into my chest. My abdomen is also the last place I lose body fat and also where I store the most fat/water if that helps with an idea.

I hate it cause even at fairly low body fat (~12%) my arms, legs, glutes, back will stay looking pretty lean but a lot of water/fat goes to my torso and face so I look more watery and bloated than I am compared to friends who store a lot in their legs and back

 

[Shelby]

It really just comes down to diet. This is me last weekend, 12 weeks since I last competed and all I'm on now is HRT (true HRT). Test only, no GH, slin, no anti-Es, etc. And I am NOT a naturally lean person.

 

[Elvia1023]

I agree south of 10% is a bitch to maintain year round.Id burn out real fast. I too find 10-12% is perfect off season. More clean calories during the week and maybe a little looser or Sat/Sun.
@ 12% you aren't far away from getting into contest shape either, its a good balance. For me anyway.

Exactly. 10-12% is ideal imo. Although my whole year is off season

 

[nothuman]

It really just comes down to diet. This is me last weekend, 12 weeks since I last competed and all I'm on now is HRT (true HRT). Test only, no GH, slin, no anti-Es, etc. And I am NOT a naturally lean person.

Roughly how many calories and carbs do you think you're eating at the moment?

 

[swim15]

Roughly how many calories and carbs do you think you're eating at the moment?

Curious as well. Obviously the answer is diet- Im just curious to see if I can do it without starving 24/7 to where I constantly feel like I'm on the verge of an eating disorder

 

[ajdonutz]

This is the same question ive been looking into lately.. I want to stay lean year round but my appetite is ignorant and when deprived I am borderline eating disorder, if I'm deprived I can't think about anything but food and it effects daily life, I can deal during prep but once I cheat I binge.