Eric Daye of Tru Body Fitness proving that to get lean, you have to get light (162 in the first, in the 140's in the second)
Getting Lean is weird for guys.
We wanna be lean – 6% body fat lean, but we don’t want to be light.
Call it social pressure or whatever, it makes for an interesting conundrum.
But here’s the truth.
Most of the time to get lean you are going to have to be lighter than you probably think is acceptable.
I’ll use myself as an example:
I’m 5’10″
I have about 150-ish pounds of LBM, for sake of arguement lets say 155 pounds
Right now I have a fasted weight of around 172 pounds and around 10% body fat.
Now here’s the reality:
If I want to be 6% body fat, I’m going to have to weigh less then I do now (obvious).
In fact, I’ll probably have to weigh 165 pounds.
For me and my personal biases there’s something..weird… about a guy who is 5’10″ and ‘only’ weights 165 pounds.
But, consider this…at this weight I would have no less muscle then I do now – And I’m perfectly happy with the amount of muscle I have right now. I’d also be just as strong (I did a power lifting competition at 165 last year and hit some good numbers).
So at 165 I’d have everything I want…same amount of muscle, same amount of strength, less body fat.
So me thinking that 165 is ‘a little light’ is simply a result of personal bias, probably driven by the media and inflated reported weights of actors, athletes and wrestlers. It could also be the fact that we like to forget about height when comparing weights…just because a 6 foot guy weighs 200 pounds, doesn’t mean a 5’10″ should (this is a big part of the philosophy behind The Adonis Effect).
So for the guys (and maybe girls too) the question becomes, is fear of being light preventing you from getting lean?
BP
Tags: 143 pounds, 165 pounds, 172 pounds, 6% body fat, get lean
A bit similar to women feeling like they need to be light. I’ve known some hot girls in the 130-150 range. They’ll usually lie about 15lbs on the light side.
“I’m a 150lb girl. That’s almost the same as Brad that big bulky bodybuilder guy online. 135 will sound better on my drivers license.” lol
Blame it all on Hollywood. Rip at 165 and lie 15lbs to 180. Everybody’s doing it
I have been detracted from my goals for the past few weeks. Thank you for this post. It really helped me keep them in check. I don’t need to be 150lbs – I shouldn’t even worry about my weight. What matters is the look.
Interesting question Brad! As a 5’9 woman, I have always hovered around the 154lb mark thinking that I was about average weight. Doing VI has shown me that I can actually be much much lighter/leaner than that – I am down to 145-147lbs at the moment and can see for myself that I can STILL go leaner. Many of my friends are commenting that I’m “getting skinny” but I am building muscle and can actually see the muscle definition starting to show through. I can still however see certain spots where I need to lose fat to get that all-over definition. Lower body – will be adding in some extra ESE days as the end of the VI comp gets nearer. Happy with progress on workouts, just need to cut some calories!
Guilty as charged. I have this “low watermark” at which I start to feel uncomfortable.
Hi Brad,
I’m about 6 foot (if I’m lucky) and weigh about 165 pounds. I’ve got about 8 months training under my belt. Just wondering what kind of weight you would estimate I would need to get to?
Also, would there be any catabolic effects to a 48-72 hour fast? I know Barban got his weight loss rolling with this kind of a fast but, lets be fair, John has a wee bit more muscle than most.
I agree with the premise but I’m a bit uncertain about the picture shown. In the 162lb picture he looks to be about 10% BF, that would leave him with ~146 lbs of FFM…more than he weighs in the 2nd pic. I guess it’s possible he’s a bit higher maybe 12% which would mean he’s close to 3 or 4% in the 2nd pic?
Brad what do you think? I find it hard to believe he’s much about 12% in that first pic.
[...] Here is an article for guys that think they need to be a certain weight. Its ok to be light [...]
Is it just a question of tweaking the diet and/or reducing calories?
Awesome post.
I’m 6’0 and trying to get down to 181. But I realize I may have to get down to 175-178 to be where I really want to be.
And the thought of being 6’0 tall and ONLY 175 scares me. As a reformed skinny guy, I think my brain abhors the thought of ever being weak and scrawny again.
Would you mind sharing your powerlifting meet numbers? I hope to compete at 181 this year and need some inspiration.
I personally don’t have this problem with the mindset, but I have a bit of a problem getting that lean.
And I was wondering about this with you. In the first picture you are obviously in great shape. I’m assuming you ate pretty clean and worked-out well. What did you change to get leaner?
I’m 6’1 and 215lbs right now w/ around 15% bf. 6% bf maintaining everything else for me would be right around 200lbs. I have no problem weighing that much and being 6%…I just don’t know how to get there! I’m eating paleo (strict expect for butter) and lifting heavy (deadlifts, squats and presses). I can’t sprint b/c of achilles problems, but I can bike (bike sprints). Any suggestions?
I, for one, definitely flipped over my favorite athlete’s card (of a similar height) and used that number as a gauge when I was younger. Though, I’m only 24, so it wasn’t that much younger. How much would you say teams generally fudge the weight numbers they release on their members, roughly?
Leonardo – reducing calories.
I’ll give him a shout and see if the 143 was pre-show dehydrated weight…in that case he’d be closer to 150 which I think sounds about right for him..could be wrong though..either way, the point is looks great, doesn’t weigh 202 pounds
It’s really weird indeed. I experience it all the time. Funny is that everybody else is freaking out when you tell them that you want to lose weight even though you look lean in clothes.
Guys just want to get big and they don’t care if it’s muscle or fat.
Just a quick note, if you compate the pictures you can see that on the after picture he looks little bit bigger even though he dropped off some fat and water, it’s a great illusion.
Brad,
I just bought your book. I have a simple question. You recommend the 24 hour fasts for convenience for most people. For many years now I have done a 36 hour fast once per month. Is there any reason good or bad for not using the 36 hour instead of the 24 hour except for the convenience. It looked like some of the bodily functions actually got better for up to 40 hours at which point they leveled out.
I really appreciate the new information on 24 hour fasts as it provides me with some very flexible options. Especially when it comes to social and business obligations.
Do you have a private forum to ask questions in?
36 is fine, I just prefer people get a chance to eat at least once a day (big stumble point for most people)
Private forums are either the adonis forums or venus forums.
B
Great conversation here Brad.
I recently asked my blog readers to guess my weight after giving them my height and body fat percentage. Most of them pegged me at 185 to 200 lbs and they all thought that I looked great.
When I revealed that I was 165 they were surprised and I actually received a fair amount of criticism from the guys. Many of them saying, “That’s all that you weigh? I weighed that in highschool with an 8 pack. You need to pack on more muscle…” And other comments similar to those.
It’s funny how they thought I “Looked” big and muscular, but once I revealed my weight it wasn’t good enough for them.
I love the conversations that you guys have going on at the Adonis site where you discus “shirt big” vs “shirt off big”. I prefer to be shirt off big for sure!
I’m looking forward to starting my next fast day tomorrow. Keep Rock’n it Brad. I love your approach and philosophies.
Great comment, Scott. You’re very muscular, so clearly 165 is working out for you!
How tall are you?
I’m 5′ 7″
5′ 8″ on a good day
So TRUE! As a pro strongman and ex football player, the idea of losing “mass” made me sick, but when I committed to getting lean NO MATTER WHAT, i was pleasantly surprised with the results.
-Elliott
Yeah, and Elliott you KILLED it.
Welcome to the lean brotherhood
B
I think that you are right. One doesnt have to be “heavy”. By being light and lean, not only you look great but also is awesome how different you can feel (lighter of course; not too much mass dragging).
I think the only time where this could not apply is in contact sports, because actually you need the mass in order to not get injured as much. In rugby and american football, almost everyone is extremely big, heavy and strong. And even if you are strong but dont weight too much, you can get injured. I guess in these case one should look for being even stronger to “compensate”.
The pain from extreme cold and the fear of it was preventing me from getting lean. Where I live today it is -26°C and -36°C with the windchill. I am teaching myself to put on a long sleeve sweater even indoors now.
Fat is a better insulator, but muscle is what creates the heat. The more muscle one has, the more heat generated, but the heat dissipates quickly.
With a high body fat and low muscle mass, you will slowly become cold and take a long time to heat back up. If one is the opposite, high muscle and low fat, you will get cold fast but heat up quickly.
Holy…where do you live…???
I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. No, I don’t live in an igloo.
I’m outside of Toronto, but been to Saskatoon a number of times…COLD, damn cold.
Great post Brad,
We are the same height, but you’ve got about 5kgs on me.
I would have thought that you were a lot heavier than that though.
At the end of the day it doesn’t make any difference at all,
if you’re looking good and putting up good numbers in the gym
then you’re doing alright!
James
Thanks Brad!
[...] When Nick saw the pictures he was surprised by how 157 pounds looks like, he thought it would look way skinnier. This is a common misconception. It would even seem that being too light is not very manly and that in order to get in shape we would need to give ourselves permission to get light to get lean. [...]
Dear Brad, I have very fat thighs and want to make them thinner but i do not want to get à very skinny upperbody.
What can i do? Will eat stop eat help me?
[...] Give yourself permission to be light [...]