Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

As a 22 year-old, what body fat percentage should I be aiming for? As near as I can figure I'm around 11 or 12. I've been told by a few people that things like abs and quads show up around 7.5 or 8%. Is this true? What are some good tips for trimming body fat? I seem to have hit a plateau. I work out 4 or 5 days a week (usually every other day) and I've been a vegan for over 10 years. Should I eat more or less, cut fat or sugar or carbs, do even more cardio (or less), etc? I could use some help with this, please. Thanks.

I did see this article, but this is for Robert when he's in competition. I'm not in competition, but I would like to get the definition.

Hey Bighead,

If you are interested, you can find my advice on reducing body fat levels while retaining lean muscle in the thread called "My two cents on fitness" under the "fitness and training" category. Let me say though that I am not certified. I have shared what I have seen works from personal experience and from research.

It applies to all ages, male or female. The basic principles are the same, if your goal is to trim dowm bf without also losing lean muscle. If you have any questions, pm me or post them. I will do my best to help.

Nat
P.S. Congratulations on being cruelty-free for ten years!! Wow that is quite a feat!!!

Hey BigHead,

That was my nickname growing up. I had a really big head for my body size. My sister jokes and says I never grew into it (ego-wise), suggesting I still have a "big head" but I disagree.

Anyway, I would focus on eating clean foods, lots of raw fruits and vegetables and get some cardio in there along with intense weight training and you should see a drop in body fat percent. I have no idea what mine is when I compete or even in the off season, but I can always see quad definition year round. I don't always have great abs but I just do a bit of running, tons of ab exercises, cut out processed foods, and they seem to come back.

I don't recall what "ideal" BF percent is, but of course that varies from sport to sport and from individual to individual. I know they have a "standard" for health, but it doesn't mean much to me.

Anyway, keep on working at it, awesome to hear you've been vegan for such a long time. I'm nearing the 10-year mark. I'm over 10 years vegetarian and about 9 1/2 as vegan.

Glad to have you on the board, welcome!

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

it was my childhood nickname too....and middle school.....and high school....hell, i still hear it a lot.

thanks for the advice. i will try for the clean foods, robert. and i will check out your thread, nat.

robert, you and i are reversed. my quads never seem to show that much (i am 6'3" so the legs are long), but my abs are always there. they really show up if i drop a little weight, but i usually drop muscle mass, too. i've never thought of trying for the good clean unprocessed stuff. but it makes sense. someone told me i needed a good detox.

and thanks for the congrats. i've been a vegetarian since I was a little kid so like 15 years or so. big ups to you on the ten years.

Whatever you do BigHead, keep it below 20%. THats still fairly high, but once you past 20 you are hitting dangerous territory

i think that anything less than about 12 is fine for definition. mine is 10% at the moment and my definition is reasonable-

http://photobucket.com/albums/v231/bob2 ... 010027.jpg

that photo is about 4months old now, not much has changed since

http://photobucket.com/albums/v231/bob2 ... 10002a.jpg

i accept that the lighting is very good for this one! i had been training my stomach quite alot then, so definition was a little better than now. that photo is also about 4months old.

the best thing that you can do for the definition in your legs is increase the size of the muscles. i recommend just squatting at low reps for size, then higher reps for definition.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v231/bob2 ... smay05.jpg

this is a recent photo, but my legs still suck! quite hard to isolate them on the squat because i am so tall. my lower back ends up doing alot of the work!

happy lifting!

jonathan

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Squat
Press
Eat
Repeat