5 Lessons for < 15% Body Fat
Happy Thursday, team!
Today at a glance:
5 short lessons I’ve learned going from > 20% to < 15% body fat
“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.” - Anthony DeMello
If you’ve been reading this letter recently, you’re probably aware that I’m just a few weeks out from doing my first Men’s Physique competition.
I will most certainly not be maintaining the body fat level I go on stage with.
There will be a process of recovery as I ease back into a reasonable place for me.
I don’t regularly go for DEXA scans, but I estimate that a “reasonable” place is somewhere between 12-15%.
It wasn’t always this way, though.
On Monday, I shared the mindset required to stay lean (instead of just getting lean temporarily).
I mentioned that if left to my own intuition, I’d be 18-22% body fat (hence the need to follow an energy budget).
After reflecting more on my own fitness journey, where I want to go after the show, and the mistakes and wins I’ve had so far, the following five lessons have stood out as key insights that have helped me build a lean, muscular physique that I’m proud of (and will continue to improve upon).
There is No Starting Tomorrow
If something is hard, it’s always going to be hard.
It’ll be hard today, it’ll be hard tomorrow, and it’ll be hard on Monday.
Putting things off to the future is just lying to yourself.
Get real with yourself, and face the work you need to do to better yourself today.
Behavior Change is a Long Term Play
The worst thing you can do for your health is to alternate between miserable short-term dieting and binging on junk and gaining all the weight back.
Don’t focus on what you can suffer through for 12 weeks (unless you’re doing a contest prep) - build a sustainable approach that works for the long term.
Sustainable = Enjoyable.
If you lose fat with a miserable 12-week diet —
You’re going to gain it back in half the time once you’re done.
The only thing that works is a sustainable approach for the long term.
Measuring is the missing piece
I ate “clean” for years, and yet I couldn’t shake the belly fat.
This did not change for me until I started tracking the food that went into my body.
My lifts stayed stagnant until I started tracking what I did at the gym.
When you’re stuck, more data is the answer.
More data allows you to see patterns you’ve been missing.
The answer is in the data.
There are No Small Decisions
“It’s just this once”
“I’ll get it back tomorrow”
“I went to the gym, I earned this”
The little decisions aren’t as small as you think they are.
Progress is made one small decision at a time.
And it unravels one small decision at a time.
Stop telling yourself the little decisions don’t matter — they matter more than you think.
Fun is Overrated
When I first got in the gym, I focused on having fun.
Cardio circuits, kettlebells, changing things up.
Guess what?
I didn’t get anywhere.
My training is more structured now and a bit less fun.
But I’m able to predictably improve.
And while this may be less “fun,” it’s much more rewarding.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to enjoy your workouts.
But keep your priorities straight: you’re there to support your health and longevity and do the best job you can with the time you can allocate to fitness.
Fun is secondary.
Hope you’ve found that useful.
Happy Thursday, and have a great weekend.
-Colin