How to Maintain 6-8% Body Fat Year Round
It’s not enough to lean down to a chiseled state, we also must maintain it! After all, what’s the sense in looking good for a few days, only to drift back to average shape, shortly thereafter. This is what bodybuilders and competition fitness models do. They train and diet their asses off to look good for a few days.
This has little to no appeal to me. I only want to get as lean as I can, comfortably and enjoyably maintain. For me, I have found that I can effortlessly stay at an extremely low body fat. To be honest, in the past, I never believed this was in the cards for me.
You see, in the past, I made countless mistakes that made it next to impossible to maintain even 10% body fat, let alone 7%. In this post, I will be fleshing out exactly how I am now able to maintain 6-8% body fat while being able to be quite relaxed.
Rule #1 – You Need To Take Your Time to Get Lean
I can get a pretty good idea if someone is going to get and stay lean just by talking with them. If I get the impression that they’re in a rush to get lean, automatically their chances of getting lean drop in half. And the likelihood that they stay lean (assuming they get there), is reduced dramatically.
The key to getting and staying lean is finding the most enjoyable way to eat to promote fat loss. If you’re obsessed with dropping fat fast, there’s no way in hell it’s going to be enjoyable. That’s the bottom line.
If you’re not enjoying your nutrition plan, well then it’s taking more from you than it’s giving you. It’s just a means to an end. This makes dieting extremely stressful. Stress is created through wanting to be somewhere other than where you are now.
If you’re so obsessively focused on getting lean, as to achieve an enhanced self image through it, you will be burdened with stress that will make dieting unbearable. You will be counting down the days like an inmate waiting to get released from prison.
But even if you manage to stick it out and endure the psychological damage and the hunger, you won’t have the skill set nor mindset to maintain it.
You see, harsh diets don’t teach you how to eat in a balanced way. You only learn how to endure hunger and eat very little, but you don’t develop the skill set to eat ‘enough food’ without overeating.
This makes a transition into maintenance quite difficult. You have to constantly battle the desire to avoid turning maintenance into binge eating.
This is pronounced with low carb dieters. They may cut out carbs to get lean, but when they try to reintroduce carbs they can’t control themselves and keep eating. What’s worse, from extreme low carb dieting their leptin levels are diminished. This results in a heightened appetite and reduced metabolism.
My Aggressive Fat Loss course offers the most enjoyable way to eat to promote fat loss. It makes eating in a deficit more enjoyable and sustainable. One of the ways it accomplishes this, is by following an intermittent fasting strategy, which leads me to my next rule….
Rule #2 – You Need To Keep Intermittent Fasting
If you’re fasting, it’s not that hard to maintain a low body fat. You only have to eat a couple meals per day and you can eat big, delicious and satisfying meals. By not having to prepare, cook and clean several meals per day – staying lean no longer feels like hard work.
You can wake up, have some coffee and get started on your day. As well, on a maintenance plan, you will have so many calories to work with for each of your meals. This will make going out for food a non issue. In fact, these days, as I maintain 7% body fat, I frequently go out to restaurants for amazing meals.
In fact, in Toronto, I am known to hit up WVRST for pork sausages and a mountain of duck fat fries, Playa Cabana for incredibly tasty chips, guacamole and fish tacos and burger priest for two double patty burgers that are delivered from heaven.
This would never work in a million years if I was consuming 4-5 balanced meals per day. But because I eat two massive meals per day and a couple pieces of fruit, I can have my cake and eat it too.
Be sure to check out my full intermittent fasting guide.
Rule #3 – You Need To Maintain Structure And Discipline
One of the issues that I see is that people get to a point they’re satisfied with and they get way too relaxed. All of the sudden they stop tracking what they’re eating, they eat sporadically throughout the day, they stop emphasizing filling and satisfying foods and before they know it, they’ve gained 8-10 pounds and they’re freaking the F out.
What makes you think that you can completely soften up and eat as you please and stay lean? That’s utter nonsense. I recommend sticking to a similar script. If you were eating two or three meals per day, well keep doing that.
If your diet was predominately lean meats, fruits, veggies and potatoes.. Well keep emphasizing these foods. The only difference when switching to maintenance is that you have more room to work with. So you can eat bigger portions of carbs and you have a little more freedom to eat out.
That said, 400-500 extra calories per day can accumulate within the blink of an eye. So if you don’t maintain some structure and discipline you’ll go above your calorie numbers and gain weight faster than a retired NFL player.
Bonus Tip – You Need To Create A Morning Ritual
How you start the beginning of your day, shapes your entire entire day. How you go about your entire day, shapes your life and determines your personal growth and success. Such is the power of the morning ritual routine.
By shifting your body into a heightened state of consciousness, by aligning yourself with the person you want to be and are now becoming – you will move through life attracting exactly what you want with new found energy and discipline.
The morning ritual routine is something I get all my personal coaching clients to do to maximize their success through improving motivation, self belief and adherence to stick to the plan to the utmost of their abilities.
I recommend starting your day by listening to 20 minutes of Eckhart Tolle (practicing the power of now audiobook), getting control over your mind and achieving a deep state of presence. Alternatively, you can do a self hypnosis routine to achieve incredible relaxation and feed positive suggestions into your subconscious mind.
Next, I would review goals, affirmations and your to do list for the day. And finally, I would prepare a delicious cup of Fasting Fuel, my favorite coffee.
I can not overstate the power of this morning ritual, it is so incredibly powerful. I have only scratched the surface. I will be doing an in-depth post on the morning ritual routine in the very soon future.
Are you ready to follow a proven plan that teaches you how to drop fat fast and maintain your new physique? Check out my Aggressive Fat Loss course here.
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Thanks Greg. I have both your WSP and GGP, currently at 162lbs and 10% (just tested) body fat, which program would you find to be the best for reaching the 6-8% body fat? Also, I have the macro calc from the FB page, I noticed that the WSP is much different in ratios than in the actual program info…? the split is 40% Pro, 30, 30 fat/carb in the PDF, but 40% carbs, 30/30 pro/fat, in the calculator. What would be your recommendation. I was thinking 1gr pro/lb so 162grams, then 30% fat and rest carbs… sound about right? Thanks
Also, my incline I can do 225lbs 5 times, weighted chin ups 5x with 80lbs, standing press 5x 135lbs, and curls 5x 55lbs, so it seems close to GGP base line, but really looking to try to get 6-8% then be able to maintain. My carbs have generally been low replaced with higher fats, but I run my dog once a week 30mins 3-4miles, martial arts 1-2x week, and ice hockey 1x week (yeah it’s a lot, but all things I enjoy doing). Thanks again for any advice, I’m just tryin to set macros so I can just focus on life.
When going from deficit to maintenance, the bodyweight will go up from water and glycogen or something like that?
Yes
What are you views on veganism? Have you ever tried it? And is it possible to attain a superhero physique on a vegan diet?
I prefer to eat meat. There’s so much nutrition in meat. IF you can get enough protein you can make a vegan diet work, but I don’t think it’s optimal.
Talking about the difference between Rusty Moore’s and your training philosophies- he claims that “cumulative fatigue” is really important in generating muscle growth. I know you recommend training RPT style and getting 3-4 mins rest in between sets for the main movements to allow (almost) total recovery between sets to really focus on moving as much weight as possible. I’ve been training this way (resting 4-6 minutes in between sets for total recovery) for a year and a half and built up to some okay lifts, but I just have so little muscle to show for it. For instance I have built up to BW+37.5kg/82.5lbs for 4 reps chinups from a dead-hang all the way up (thats 50% of my body-weight for reps!) and can deadlift 200kg, but I still have pipecleaner arms (13.75 inches at just over 6ft!!) and at best an average sized back.
Funnily enough the only muscle groups I ever used to feel “cumulative fatigue” In even when resting really long between sets were quads/thighs/glutes (from squatting) and pec major (from benching) and interestingly these are the only muscle groups I’ve experienced notable hypertrophy in (and my squats are one of my weakest lifts!). When I say cumulative fatigue, I’m not referred to a pump or even a burn, its more like a deep dense sense of fatigue and having worked hard in the muscle that just builds up in the muscle increasingly over multiple sets.
Now I really want to be strong and have dense muscle but would quite frankly like to just put some damn size on too! I noticed I can get this sort of “cumulative fatigue” effect on my other muscle groups by resting less in between sets of heavy compounds- so I was wondering, do you think it would be a smart plan to follow your RPT style of training but rest a bit less in between sets so I don’t get total recovery in between sets and bring forward a bit of fatigue? So for instance if I was going for say 5, 6, 8-10, 8-10, 8-10 RPT style in the incline bench, I could warm up to the top end set without generating fatigue, hit that hard heavy money set then take maybe only 2 mins 30 or so in between the next two back-off sets, then only 1 min 30 or so in between the final two 8-10 rep sets so I can bring about some proper fatigue whilst maintaining moderate loads on the bar?
Sorry if this post was a bit long, I’m just a bit frustrated with my progress at the moment :p. I feel like I can make (and have made) solid strength gains but just cannot put any decent size on. It feels like the vast majority of my “gains” have come from improved CNS-muscle interaction with this 5 minute rest only focus on improving strength training style and so little from actual muscle size increase (and I want to look something like a greek god- greek god superhero hybrid by your definitions!!!).
So yeah, just wondering in short if you recommend i sacrifice some rest in between sets and sacrifice some rate of strength gain in turn for generating a bit more fatigue in the muscles (and hence hopefully some muscle growth!!)?
Yo! I would keep doing heavy RPT work (just rest 2-3 minutes between sets). But I’d throw in one exercise for each muscle group with a rest pause style. You need to integrate some pump/cumulative fatigue work in your case. At-least you need to learn how to really recruit a muscle and get the mind to muscle connection. Pump work can help teach you this.
Hey Greg! Got a queston on sumo deadlifts. How much should I be able to lift to consider myself strong in that excercise? I weigh 80 kg by the way, and my personal best in a REGULAR deadlift is 100 kilos. Regarding, sumo deadlift, I think it’s about 80 kilos for 3 reps. Thank you!
I’d say double bodyweight for 3 reps would be very strong.
Hey man! I was wondering for the visual impact program, what should the diets be in each of the 3 phases? Thanks in advance!
You should just eat according to your goals. If you want to get lean then eat at a moderate deficit.
Thnx for the quick reply! One more thing, what were your measurements after you completed the program? Cheers :)
I’d guess around 31″ at my best! Though my drop in waist was mostly from doing really aggressive dieting.
I know you respect Rusty Moore, because he turned you on to the lean chiseled “Hollywood ” physic, but forget that noise… I don’t care if his system produces better strengt gains, I’m not about to start working out more than YOUR 3 days-a-week (plus the occasional Saturday sprinting, jumping) routines.
I’m just torn between doing the A/B (Push+Abs/Pull+Legs)
Split for strength and density,
Or a Upper/Lower/Upper, like your Superhero Split.
Yeah I’m with you! I only lift days per week. Some people like to workout more often. I think the 5 days per week can work in the short term, mostly to really hone your technique and build up your work capacity. BUt bar none, 3 days in the gym is the best approach for natural lifers, long term.
I do both man! Do 2-3 months with a two day, then 2-3 months with the three day. THat’s what I do. FOr 2 day i focus more on strength and density and 3 day I focus more on putting on size.
I knew you’d say to do “both.” Ha ha.
Because that’s the best way to capitalize on each facet.
I guess, since it’s the winter season, I’ll focus on the strength, and eat at a slight surplus (maybe allow a 5lb gain in body weight).
Hey there, Greg!
At my current state I’m 6’0, 175 lbs at around 11-12 % bf.
I do sprinting and I wondered how I can calculate my activity level in order to track my macros? And how should my macros be distributed (like how many % carbs, % protein, % fat, veggies, fibres)? I feel okay at this bodyfat right now, as it is usually my highest (though I balooned up to 14 % bf in spring time lol) but I want to see if going single digits can give me the extra edge.
Thanks for your tips, Greg, you are, as always, a big inspiration.
Well usually a good fat loss starting point is 12 cals per pound of bodyweight for people that have about 10-15 lbs of fat to lose or less. That would be the case for you.
Thanks for the reply, Greg! Pretty easy thumb rule to follow, I don’t like it when it’s to complicated. Simplicity is sometimes key :)
Great post. Thanks Greg!
Awesome article greg most people ignore this aspect they talk about how to get to a low bodyfat but rarely about what to do after in order to stay there.
Anyway Greg I was wondering what are the ideal proportions if I’m aiming for the warrior physique ?
And how much would I need to add on to the measurments if in going for a level similar to that of you in the shrink wrap video.
Thanks for all the awesome content
Yah that’s a good question! Really I would just aim at getting your waist down to 44.5% of your height. If you can build some solid strength while keeping your waist there, you will have solid muscle development for the warrior physique. I will have to address strength goals and physique calculations for each specific physique in the future.
Thanks for the answer I was also wondering if my waist is smaller than 45% by a fair bit I have a 29.5 inch waist at 6ft1 so I was wondering you recommend allowing 1 inch increase in waist size when lean bulking but in my case I need to increase my waist size so how should I go about it ? Just ignore the measurement to an extent and rely on the mirror ?
IF your waist is under, consider it a bonus. Build strength and add lean body mass and it will thicken up overtime. But if it’s below, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
It’s incredible how fast your body adjusts to your diet and meal frequency. I started taking a late breakfast between 10 and 11AM and “fast” until 6 or 7PM. That way I enjoy my quick, cheap and delicious breakfast and have a huge dinner in the evening!