how to get to 15% body fat

Achieving 15% body fat is a goal many people strive for when starting their health and fitness journeys and for good reason. At 15% body fat an individual will have some muscular definition and will also start to develop that athletic look if they have built enough muscle. Having low body fat levels combined with muscle results in the aesthetics many people are looking for.

For women, we can add 5% to this number. Women at around 20% body fat are getting into that athletic body fat range, equivalent to men at 15%. This is due to differences in the distribution of body fat between men and women.

15% body fat is sustainable and will not require an overly aggressive calorie deficit to achieve, and this level of leanness is relatively easy to maintain. Importantly it will not negatively affect our ability to train hard, build muscle, and recover from our workouts, as can sometimes be the case when trying to reach and maintain lower levels of body fat.

Achieving 15% body fat or 20% body fat for women requires some planning and discipline for most people. Building muscle or at least maintaining muscle in a fat loss phase will require a basic understanding of some important training, nutrition, and lifestyle principles.

With that said we believe this goal is achievable for almost everyone, the process is a relatively simple one although not necessarily an easy one. Some hard work and discipline is required as well as consistency over time. The amount of time required to achieve this goal will depend on where an individual is starting from as well as their previous experience and dietary history.

motivation and Discipline

Motivation makes it easier to achieve any goal. When we start seeing results through proper training and nutrition we will naturally feel motivated. We can build momentum week after week and month after month as we work towards our goal.

However, there will always be days when we do not feel as motivated. A poor night’s sleep or a stressful day at work will sometimes mean we are not as motivated, we are only human after all. This is where discipline is required. Turning up to the gym and sticking to our nutrition plan when we do not feel at our best is an important skill to master. You may not have your best workout ever, but you showed up and put in the work. This is what delivers results in the long term.

know the why

Knowing the why behind the things we are doing can help us stay motivated and improve adherence to a training and nutrition plan. Why are you looking to achieve your goal? Simply to look better and increase your confidence, or for more important things such as your overall health and wellness. This will likely often be for personal reasons but may also be for other people such as family and loved ones if health is a priority. These questions are worth asking yourself and can help keep you motivated and moving forward in your health and fitness journey.

To achieve 15% body fat or 20% body fat for women will require some improvement to an individual’s overall diet quality in most cases, as well as good adherence. We should be thinking about how we structure our meals, the quality of the foods we are consuming, as well as the quantity. We should also be building important habits that will be required for more advanced goals in the future.

create a plan that Aligns with your current Lifestyle

Any nutrition plan must fit your current lifestyle, there is no point in trying to eat in a way that is incompatible with your daily schedule. Adherence is key, we must be consistent for at least 8-12 weeks in most cases. Some individuals will have to diet for longer. Choose a meal frequency that will work for you. There is no point trying to eat 6 meals per day if realistically you can only consume good quality meals 3 times per day. Luckily meal frequency is not as important as we once thought. Eating 3-4 meals per day is the sweet spot for most people.

clean up your diet

Most people will need to clean up their diet to achieve 15% body fat, at least to some degree. At this stage, we do not need to be perfect, and making simple changes can start to move us towards our goal. Things such as replacing processed foods with whole foods, eating more fruit and veg, basing our meals around protein, and avoiding snacking between meals, even if the snacks are ‘healthy’ are good starting points.

plan your meals

Some meal planning will be required to achieve 15% body fat for most people. Base your meal frequency on your daily schedule and include the foods you enjoy. It is important to choose the foods that work for you, rather than the ones promoted by other people, or the ones that are considered ‘healthy’ or ‘must eat foods’. Foods you digest well, make you feel good, and allow you to hit your macro targets for the day consistently will be best.

maintain a moderate calorie deficit

Maintaining a moderate calorie deficit over time is required to lose body fat and improve body composition. We do not have to do anything too extreme to achieve 15% body fat, 300-500 calories below maintenance is the sweet spot for most people. You can use this simple TDEE calculator to estimate your calories. To work out your macros you can check out our free fat loss guide.

Hit your protein target Consistently

Hitting your protein target for the day will help you achieve 15% body fat more easily. Consuming adequate amounts of protein will help you maintain muscle in a calorie deficit or even build muscle in certain situations. Protein is also important for satiety especially important when restricting calories in a fat loss phase. For simplicity, we recommend 2.2g per kg (1g per Ib) of goal body weight.

experiment with intermittent fasting

You do not need to use intermittent fasting to achieve 15% body fat, it is no more effective than using a more traditional eating schedule. However, some people do find they can remain in a calorie deficit more easily by implementing intermittent fasting, and many people find the eating schedule to be a good fit for their lifestyle.

With that said intermittent fasting is not a good fit for all individuals and we do not recommend it in certain situations, it can even be detrimental. We go through the pros and cons of time-restricted eating in our intermittent fasting article.

Along with nutrition strength training should be a priority when in a fat loss phase. Productive strength training will allow us to maintain or build muscle as we lose body fat in a calorie deficit. Without strength training, we are likely to lose muscle as well as body fat when we are in a calorie deficit which is a situation we do not want to find ourselves in. We must maintain as much muscle as possible otherwise we will simply end up as a smaller version of our previous selves.

perform strength training 3-4 times per week

Follow a well-designed strength training program appropriate for your current experience level, with the appropriate volume, intensity, and frequency. Good exercise selection is also important if you want to achieve the best results. If you are not sure what this looks like ask someone with experience or seek help from a competent fitness professional. You can also grab our free fit guide for recommendations on setting up an effective strength training program.

focus on progression over time

Your training in the gym should be focused on progression over time. Performing more reps or adding weight to an exercise will help you retain muscle mass or even build muscle in certain situations. Your training should be similar to when you are in a muscle-gaining phase. There is no such thing as a ‘fat burning’ workout, you are in the gym to get stronger and build muscle. Fat loss is driven by a calorie deficit.

Focus on high quality sets

Focus on high quality sets in the gym over quantity. Sets should be performed at a high intensity at the correct proximity to muscular failure to build or maintain muscle, we recommend a 1-2 RIR for most exercises. You can only perform a limited amount of these high-quality working sets in your training sessions and throughout the week.

Performing more sets than you need to will not produce any extra benefits and will likely be detrimental to your progress. Performing more sets to burn more calories is also a waste of time and is not a good idea, this is especially true in a calorie deficit when the reduced energy intake from food limits our energy and ability to recover. This is sometimes referred to as junk volume and is something we should look to avoid.

Cardio is not necessary to achieve 15% body fat, however, it can be useful in certain situations. It is also important for our general health and fitness so performing the right type of cardio 2-4 times per week can be a good idea. With that said some people do better avoiding traditional cardio in a fat loss phase and use walking instead.

perform zone 2 cardio

If you do use cardio we recommend performing low intensity cardio, at around zone 2. This type of cardio is less stressful on the body compared to higher intensity cardio and will not interfere with our strength training performance and overall recovery. There is only so much work we can perform and recover from especially in a calorie deficit. Strength training to preserve muscle mass should be our priority.

When working at this intensity we should be able to hold a conversation without gasping for air, however, it should still feel somewhat challenging. We should be able to maintain this intensity for anywhere from 15 minutes up to 45 minutes, depending on our fitness level. If you want to use a heart rate monitor, you can use the formula of 180 minus your age to get an approximate heart rate number to aim for. Use common sense, this number is just a guide. If the number feels too hard lower the intensity. Going by feel is perfectly okay.

choose the right type of cardio

Perform cardio on the equipment you enjoy and choose machines that do not cause you pain. Low-impact cardio can be a better option for some people especially if they are overweight or are unconditioned. This would include elliptical machines, cycling machines, spin bikes, and rowers. Walking on a treadmill at a brisk pace at an incline can also provide enough intensity for some people, and would be low impact compared to running.

start with the minimum effective dose

It can be a good idea to start with only a small amount of cardio, and then add extra sessions as and when needed. This way we are giving ourselves options to use when we need to make adjustments in the future such as when fat loss slows down or we reach a fat loss plateau. If we start a fat loss phase with a high amount of cardio we are only leaving ourselves with the option of reducing calories further. Keeping calories as high as we can for as long as we can is a better course of action.

For example, we might start a fat loss phase with 2 sessions per week of just 20 minutes and end a fat loss phase performing 4 sessions per week for 30 minutes. Another option could be to start with no cardio at all, and only add it when needed.

avoid performing too much cardio

Cardio is simply a tool we can use to assist in fat loss, adding more and more cardio will eventually become counterproductive and is not something we recommend. At some point, the cost of performing excessive amounts of cardio will outweigh the benefits. The more cardio you perform the more efficient your body becomes and you expend fewer calories. In a calorie deficit, the metabolic rate is also likely to reduce, making it harder and harder to lose weight. You are placing more and more stress on the body and getting less and less out of your cardio sessions.

This situation can be seen in gyms around the world, the people dieting on super low calories performing their cardio every day and not achieving any weight loss. We have to work with the body to some extent, we can not keep restricting and overly stressing the body to force the body to lose body fat, it is too smart for that and will lower the metabolic rate to protect itself.

The things we do outside of the gym in our everyday lives can help us achieve our health and fitness goals and will make the whole process of achieving 15% body fat much easier. We have seen consistently, that people who make simple and sustainable lifestyle changes achieve the best results in the long term.

have a daily step goal

Increasing our daily step count is one of the simplest things we can do to improve our overall health and will also assist us in our fat loss goal and achieving 15% body fat. The overwhelming majority of the calories we burn in a day come from our everyday activity and not our training sessions in the gym. Finding ways to incorporate more walking into your day is a simple and effective strategy.

Moving more throughout the day allows us to remain in a calorie deficit while consuming more calories. This is important for adherence as well as the overall enjoyment of a fat loss phase. Eating more food also allows for higher quality training and recovery. We recommend aiming for 8-12 thousand steps per day.

Prioritize quality sleep

We must prioritize good quality sleep if we want to maximize the results we get from our fitness lifestyle this is especially true in a calorie deficit. Much of the growth and repair from a training session takes place when we sleep allowing us to come back stronger and perform well in the gym. The quantity as well as the quality of sleep is important. We recommend at least 8 hours per night if possible.

Sleep hygiene is important to improve the quality of our sleep. Sleeping in a cool, dark, and quiet room is important as well as our nightly routine. Avoiding overly stimulating tasks or activities and limiting blue light from TVs, computer screens, and smartphones a few hours before bed can be helpful. If this is not possible blue light blocking glasses can be used.

reduce stress

Training hard in the gym, especially when in a calorie deficit, as well as the stress of the busy modern lifestyle means we should try to mitigate stress as much as possible. Elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol over time will make building muscle and losing body fat more difficult and is also detrimental to our overall health.

Methods for reducing stress can be very individual, people find methods such as mindfulness and meditation to simply taking a walk in nature and making time to do the things they enjoy more often to be helpful.

Tracking our progress over time gives us objective data allowing us to make adjustments and keep us moving toward our fitness goals. Learning and applying some basic tracking techniques are important skills to master and will set us up well for our fitness journey ahead.

learn some basic food tracking

Learning some basic food tracking will be required to reach 15% body fat for most people. Luckily It is now easier than ever to track our food, and tracking apps such as my fitness pal, and my net diary make the process a whole lot easier. Tracking our macros (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) on our smartphones is a relatively simple process, plan ahead by entering your foods into your tracking app, then simply follow your plan each day.

You do not necessarily need to track each day once you know your food quantities to weigh out. Create a few meals to rotate through and check back using your app when you need to make adjustments. Learning this skill is important for beginners, allowing them to understand the food groups they are eating and the effect they have on their bodies.

track your average body weight over time

Scale weight will fluctuate naturally each day due to many factors including salt and water intake, stress, and simply eating different types of foods. Measuring your body weight each morning upon waking and taking a 7-10 day average allows you to see if your body weight is trending down over time. Simply compare your average weekly weight with the previous week to see if you are losing weight at the desired rate. We recommend losing around 1% of your total body weight per week on average.

Track your waist measurement

Taking a waste measurement can be useful in conjunction with body weight. This is a good indication as to whether you are losing body fat. If your waste measurement is going down you can assume you are losing body fat even if your weight on the scale is remaining the same or dropping only slightly. Body recomposition is possible, meaning you are gaining muscle and losing body fat at the same time resulting in little change in scale weight. This is more likely to happen in beginners who have just started to train. It is more useful to look at this measurement over a longer period such as every 3-4 weeks.

make adjustments only when needed

Do not make hasty decisions and reduce your calories too quickly. You should keep your calories as high as possible for as long as possible while still losing body fat. This helps preserve metabolic rate which can lower during calorie restriction.

If your average weekly weight has not dropped it is better to wait a further week to establish if you need to make adjustments to your calories. Fat loss can take time to show up on the scale due to factors such as water retention. If you believe you have reached a fat loss plateau reduce your calories by 300 from carbohydrates and/or fat. Protein should remain the same.

If you have an excessive amount of body fat to lose you will need to remain in a calorie deficit for longer, in this situation a diet break can be used. Individuals starting with a higher body fat percentage can split their fat loss into two or more phases. Rather than remaining in a calorie deficit for an extended period such as 24 weeks a better option would be to diet for 8 weeks at a time followed by one or two weeks of maintenance calories.

These maintenance periods often referred to as diet breaks allow for some much needed recovery as we can consume more calories, and will also provide a nice psychological break from dieting. After one or two weeks at maintenance calories, we can get straight back into our calorie deficit. For these individuals knowing that they only have to diet for 8 weeks at a time rather than 24 can also be helpful psychologically at the beginning of a fat loss phase. This may also help preserve our metabolic rate to some degree.

For many people, attempting to achieve 15% body fat will be the first time they have started to take their training and nutrition seriously. When learning about training and nutrition principles we do not need to be perfect, it is the application of the knowledge we have learned that is important. Taking action is key, real world experience is when we learn and when eventual mastery in any area is achieved.

Achieving 15% body fat is an important first milestone for many people. As we are not aiming for advanced levels of leanness the process should be a relatively simple and enjoyable one when executed the right way.

This time should be used to learn and apply important training and nutrition principles and build lifestyle habits that will be required for your journey ahead, and more advanced fitness goals in the future. It is important to enjoy the process, focus on the journey, and not be too fixated on the destination. You will get there!

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