My book SWEAT is still 50% off, can grab a copy here: www.verityfit.com/product-page/sweat Thank you so much for the support and allowing me to keep making videos!
Awesome breakdown! 100% right on most influencers not talking about the side effects of staying at single-digit body fat (or they have access to "supplements" that make it easier) Whatever the case, happy to see a realistic overview for people looking at body fat percentages. I found 12 - 15% Body Fat to be the "sweet spot" with occasional dips to lower percentages. Personally, trying to stay leaner than 10% body fat is a recipe for misery. Quality of life, training performance, libido, and productivity take a massive hit.
15-20%. A lot of people think 20% is fat but the ab definition is still there to a degree and I'm well bigger than at the lower end. I think a lot of people's "15%" is actually closer to 20 in actuality.
@@TheKrisk In my case there is some barely visible abs when flexed at 18%, at 16% they are barely visible not flexed, at 14% they are pretty good when flexed, at 12% they are good not flexed but have that lower belly, at 10% the lower belly is good and there are a lot more veins on the arms and everything is popping
@@TheBcoolGuy that's all I do. Not the most genetically blessed. To put it in perspective 110kg bench press, 60kg pullups 60 military press. I can keep a full front lever for 16 sec. It is what it is.
15% because you still look jacked in clothes and shirtless as well. I still have great definition, shape size and abs. Still getting stronger and no longer miserable eat what i want.
This is such a great video. I feel like absolutely dogshit above 15-17% and anything below 8%. My sex drive is highest around 10-12%, and I’ve noticed when I’m above 15% things just take a turn.
Hilarious video brother, but I agree w/ what you said. Optimal BF really depends on the individual as you said. I’ve noticed a shift as I’ve gotten older...my body is happier at 12%-15% now, while when I was younger I could be sub 10% easily all year long because feeling great b/c of an absurdly fast metabolism & very active lifestyle.
Hi fitlabb glad to see you back, hope you are going well with your UA-cam channel and coaching career, PS loving your channel and looking forward to it growing and getting the recognition you deserve
@@davidlangley3511 Thank you for that comment David. It’s nice to get a really kind & positive note like that for a change, and I really appreciate it! Working hard to get my next video done shortly, and glad you’re enjoying my content so far. 👍
Metabolism and active style has a big part in this discussion. I'm pretty satisfied with 12% at 32 years of age but I'll try to get that 10% (only once have I gotten 10,5% two years ago) just to see if it's for me or not.
11% definitely ideal for me. Easily maintained, feels good, still make decent strength gaines and muscle gains. I just like the lean look, one of the main reasons i got into fitness, i cant not have abs lol
Great tips I kind of found out the hard way my body fat percentage was so low it was effecting my strength. Probably a rare problem for most but for context I'm 6'6 and was weighing 170lbs. Ended up hitting a wall with strength increases so i decided to try getting bulkier. Now at 210lbs my strength is still able to consistently grow and I personally think i look just as good. Though fans of popping abs might disagree lol
Yup. Is a cost of leanness, many bodybuilders in shredded condition aren't nearly as strong as they look. Leanness looks great in pictures or videos especially with perfect lighting, but in the "real world" where people wear clothing, 15% looks much better than 5%.
I was 9% at my leanest and felt like complete shit, except in refeed days. Those days would literally bring me back to life. Now I’m at around 22% and feel a lot better hormonally but my performance in the gym & running has seen an impact. So now my goal is to go back down to around 15-18% and chill there for a while.
I would put myself between 16-20% during my bulk season, and maybe 12-15% the rest of the year. I try to keep some fat on for my endurance sports and it really helps me stay healthy. Those 6k cal ruck marches will smoke tf out of the lean guys.
this isn’t the average bmi, it has to be noted that it’s selecting for people who got dexa scans, which has to be demonstrated to be able to be generalized to the general population, that was not shown.
I've worked hard to get down to 16%.my lowest was 15.2%. I find it very very difficult to get below that. I'm in a 500cal deficit and still lifting heavy and eating enough protein. Will keep going. 12% would be a dream for me!
It also makes a difference how lean you've been most of your life. I'm 53 and have had a swimmers physique all my life. When I bulk, it ain't pretty, got that skinny fat look. So I find maintaining around 15% to be pretty easy. Things don't get a little tough until I'm down to about 12%.BF
I like they way I look the best at 12%, but below 15% for too long and I'm tired, irritable, hangry, trouble sleeping, etc. I'm the strongest around 20%, but hate the way I look. I try to stay in the 15-18% range. Strength is more important than the way I look.
At one point I was around 10 percent, and it was terrible. I had very little energy and make damn near no strength progress for months. I had abs but it was not worth it, and I had to get at least 15,000 steps a day to not gain fat
I recently got down to the 5-6% body fat range and I actually was around there I had cross striated, glutes, pecs, Vastus lateralis, Traps, lats, and delts. Some straitions on the biceps and triceps. Vascularity everywhere. My obliques went from my Serratus to my hips, and I had a six pack. I had a Christmas tree back when relaxed, when sucking in my face I could see my Zygomaticus minor look it up. My muscle on that medial side of my foot was striated! I had separation in calf and perennials. Separation in the hamstrings when bending over and I was doing a spilt you could see my gracilis muscle and hamstring separation. You can also see my sartorius and could see the separation in the bicep heads and the long and later head of the tricep. And separation in the Brachialis and Brachioradialis. All this is with a body weight in the morning of 160lbs and a lean mass of 150Ibs. My height is 6’ 3/8”. I was feeling the best in my life although hangery at sometimes and a little irritable I had optimal energy and work capacity; I did a slow cut of 300 calories eating a minimum of 2850 calories I was very active so I could actually cut on those calories. Eat no junk food because I had no desire to eat junk food! Eating a very balanced from all food group getting all my micros getting 8-9 hours of sleep everyday drink around 2 gallons of water everyday. I have been only working seriously out 3-4 months. Working out twice a week doing the Naturally enhanced program with the correct amount of volume not to overtrain. And I was born with a low amount of fat cells. But then one week I burned 3500-4000 calories a day eating most of them back because of my insane appetite but then I got screwed because I am bipolar and the lack of body fat in me reduced the serotonin in my brain and even though I was on 600 mg of Q a day and 1800 mg of L a day my appetite got annihilated I was hungry but did not have the desire to eat at 5-6% body fat! I had the drink some ensures then I could eat a bit. Now I am trying to gain two pounds of fat the get in my optimal range 6-7% body fat. I had body dysmorphia because of my low muscle mass because I had and thought I was 7% body fat when I was more like in the low 5% body fat range because I could bearly see my lower ab line because of my low muscle mass and I saw a guy on alphashred with way more muscle and shredded to the bone take a big pinch of his belly fat and I took a big pinch of mine in the same place and I was the same thickness! I also did a more formal skin fold test and I got 4 mm next the my belly button a vertical pinch! That is the same as Tristyn Lee! A day a go I was extremely depressed because of the low body fat this has lasted half a week. The moral of the story be ETREMELY carful when getting to a low body if you have mental health problems and are on a medication NEVER get below 6% body fat! And if you don’t have a lot of muscle mass even if you get shredded your abs especially the last ab line will be barely visible if you have all the signs I had that I explained of being shredded and you have mental health problems and are on meds and feel good GAIN a couple pounds of fat which is what I am trying to do. You could get completely screwed and become anorexic because of extreme appetite loss from major depression. Eat a lot of full fat cheese and fatty meats for your brain and you can get a lot of carbs in by fruit juice coattail cans and dried fruit nuts and nut butters are also good too. Your brain especially needs the saturated fat. I feel a lot better now when I eat a ton of saturated way more than unsaturated fat. This is the best video on UA-cam about the optimal body fat I have seen many videos on this topic this is the one I was looking for exactly. It explained everything I found it today on my birthday. I very good birthday present. Edit: I am still trying to get over insomnia even when I am taking prescribed C a powerful med that helps you sleep. Edit 2: I took out the names of the mental health pills I took and replaced the with letters.
Quite a story, and definitely a lesson there for some people who are always trying to get shredded. Grass isn't as green as they think. Sometimes it's a very fine line between optimal health, then you go 1-2% lower and life goes to shit.
Truly great video. I watch mostly muscle building videos all day at work for years. Been feasting on your channel the last week. I'm around 20% want to be around 15%. 5'10" 205 good amount of muscle. So far not able to stay in calorie deficit and hate cardio. Kinda stuck here but slowly gaining muscle. Feel great but still have some belly and side fat.
Started playing volleyball a couple months ago and my knees and feet are really feeling it…. I had a strength look good in shirts focus but I’m really wanting to drop a lot of weight now. Fat don’t fly but I’m not sure how much losing weight will help in that department as I used to play basketball and never had ups in high school. I’m only 5’5” as well… maybe spiking is a fools goal
Having been all over the bf% chart (from 40% all the way down to somewhere around 5% and went hypogonadal and insane) Gotta say I was absolutely, undoubtedly my best moodwise/personalitywise/energywise at around 15-20% BF. Shits way more important if you wanna get a girl than being shredded. Currently pretty damn lean. Assuming single digit bf% but who knows. but I eat a metric shitload of food(3000 kcal+). My retail job as a customer service manager demands I do with how much movement/activity/customer bull-shittery is involved. Wish I could say its the best of both worlds, but sometimes its really hard to sleep, and some days are just in the shitter regardless of how much I eat. Other days are fucking magical. It's all a crapshoot. Definitely more stable at a higher bf%, but I'm cool enough with how it is now.
Looking at your picture, it's crazy how lean you are, but you really should keep focusing on getting bigger. Just eat everything in sight if you can eat 3K+ and look like that.
When I wrestled in high school I was in the 8-12% BF range depending on which class I was wrestling (152 or 160). That one year that I dropped even lower was miserable (at 145 lb, no clue what my BF was, but I was ultra lean)... Now that I'm older, I think my target is much more reasonable. I'm ~20% right now and I'm working toward 15-17%. Totally agree with your "ideal" generalizations. :)
Yea my goal when I finally cracked down starting firmly in the 20s was 13-15%, thought 12% or below required too much strictness to maintain. Then I kept going and realized how easy it was for me to maintain a low% without being obsessive while still progressing in the gym so my range is 9-12% which is cool cause anything below 8% doesn't even look that good to me lol. I'm willing to trade looking more "skinny" in clothes throughout the year to not have to worry about dieting too much when it's "hoe ready" season 😆(plus honestly I'm struggling to be consistent eating enough in this lean bulk phase anyway)
off topic but steve shaw from massive iron (awesome channel) gave you a shout out during his last live when someone asked what other fitness channel he recommends. like u guys both, so that was awesome
I feel really well at 11%-14% BF, and can sustain without suffering too much 10% BF. Beyond 15% BF I just don't feel comfortable and my appetite drops dramatically.
Well here I am, trying my hardest to "bulk up" to what would maybe be 12%, but instead I'm losing weight and the veins on my abs keep popping more Felt great at what may have been 9-10%, striated shoulders and all, but now it's just getting too much, I started eating fast food just to get my calories up
Again nice and honest information and opinion. When I was a triathlete I needed to be as lean as I could have been. Hence the name of my channel. Back then my cycling was at 4.8 watts/kg, which was pretty good. The easiest way for me to get to that number was to get leaner. That number was imporant as I wanted to run a comfortable marathon of the bike and always though that 4.5 watt/kg was the minimum I needed to qualify for Kona. Today I have a different out look. I was to feel and look good. That's all. I still jog for fun but speed is of no consequence. I think I am around 15 or so now. I look fine, feel great and have 2 glasses of wine with dinner daily. Works for me.
I'm a cyclist too, slippery slope, my FTP was high 4.X also....got lean, number went up, gained weight number went down BUT at a heavier weight I was able to recover quicker, train harder and felt better on longer rides...overall I raced better at 185 vs 175 and had better results....sounds like you have priorities right!
@@motominded5275 I changed my channel name to Fit After 50nas no one knew what power|weight was ;) Priorities change and for now I am good where I am at. Have not been on a bike in a few years. Wonder what the FTP is now. Might be fun to try.
Great video man. Good to see more down to earth and realistic youtubers in the fitness community, that are actually trying to help lol. Keep up the good work, it's inspiring 👊🏿
Hey Geoff, good video. The story about being a runner and overtraining stuck with me. I find myself in a similar situation, particularly with balancing your sport, lifting, and social life+how you feel. For me my sport is Muay Thai. My sport, lifting, and managing my social life all have different requirements to perform optimally. Often each's requirements will be negative for the other, causing me to be in a tri-balancing act. For example, heavy push days are great for bodybuilding but sore shoulders are terrible for fighting. I don't want to abandon any of them, what did you do to manage this when you were a runner? Also, Sergeant Thickness is a great addition to the GVS-verse
I didn't lift as a runner. And didn't have much social life. Work was as an English teacher, ~10-15 hours a week. So was basically all in on running (which compounded the overtraining).
20% with a slight abs outline IMO. Also depends on how muscular you are and your bone structure. Some men look decent at higher bodyfat percentages and some other need to be below 15% to look good
Yea it depends, everyone stores fat differently, for sure. I tend to store it on the abs and chest more, with VERY little on the back, a bit on the arms and legs.
That discomfort of "too low bodyfat" does not count if you are loosing weight right? To determine this you would need to go into a maintenance phase and see how you feel.
Correct, often things normalize when you are eating more and are no longer dieting. So you might go from 20% to 14% and due to "diet fatigue" feel kinda crap, but then up your carbs a bit and feel totally fine. This is referring to more of a long term maintenance.
One simple critique I have about this video. It's actually not high body fat percentage that causes a lot of those issues. 1) People with higher BF% tend to eat like garbage. Processed foods, high sugar, and both of those combined with no cardio. 2) Any extra body weight within a range is unhealthy whether that's fat or muscle. Your body suffers when you have a high amount of tissue. High muscle mass can cause some of the same issues as high body fat (cardio-vascular fatigue, pressure on organs, etc). Visceral fat makes this a bit worse, but *any* excess tissue is bad, broadly. 2a) Because of this, it's important for bodybuilders to stay relatively lean and eat healthy because they're going to be heavier in general. Weight is the number one factor for health, not fat. If you're going to increase your weight significantly with muscle, you had better make damn sure every other aspect of your health is in check. Especially especially if you're blasting your body with androgenic compounds which have an even worse effect on health and blood pressure. That's why high BF% should be avoided for bodybuilders. It's simply a factor of limiting the amount of tissue your body is trying to sustain to be the healthiest possible while putting on excess muscle.
When in training I was regularly around 12-14% of body fat, only once have I gotten 10,5%. After not training for half or a whole year and not taking care of my diet I go up to 16%, only once have i gotten up to 17-18%. So I have a pretty good metabolism and active style of life. Because I'm continuosly active for a longer period at the moment I'm at 12% but I'm aiming to go down to 10% during this and every other summer and stay around 12-15% during winter for maximal muscle gains. At 12% I don't see any side effects to my training and sport life (soccer, tennis, table tennis)
Yea im much stronger now at 18-20% but I don’t like the way i look as much. At 12% i looked great and felt ok but I didn’t really eat much carbs because the protein and fat is more satiating. Without the carbs i was weaker on every lift. 18% fills out a shirt more tho
Probably won't do a full video as I can answer it here. Depends on the lift, bench basically scales up until quite high BF % (look at Julius Maddox) but something like the deadlift a belly can get in the way of a good setup so might not want to be as well rounded. Olympic weightlifting you'd think that leanness is kinda important but Lasha is somewhat high BF % so it's clearly not much of a disadvantage really. I'd say probably low to mid 20s, but even into the low teens it's possible to be very strong. 10% and under often strength degrades especially if natural.
Given how I'm currently obese and nobody in my family is lean except my untrained nephew who's likely at 15-ish % and my previously intermediate-lifter oldest brother at about 18%-20%, I get the feeling that my range will be more like 14%-22%.
Most people don’t go slow enough to figure out what optimal bf % is it’s rushed especially with people following bodybuilding protocols it took you maybe 2-4-8 years to put on all the muscle you have now you were forced to wait for the results but people want to be shredded now and go way way too fast then end up losing on their muscles slowing metabolism now you need to cut your calories. Vitruvian physique when he was close to his show said he was eating close to 2100 calories which sounds so low. If he wasn’t doing it for competition he could’ve gone slower and maintained a better set point. Usually you get the side effects of low bodyfat from going too steep
Will try. 95% of my viewers are male. So it's tough to put out content that is female specific, if it gets low click through rate then it impacts all subsequent content. You can add ~8-10% to get female numbers, that conversion is pretty good.
My book SWEAT is still 50% off, can grab a copy here:
www.verityfit.com/product-page/sweat
Thank you so much for the support and allowing me to keep making videos!
Could u make videos on leptin and insulin ? I think they play a big part in body fat
@@user-zk4dv2nx8k ya. And will be in the next book.
@@GVS cool thnx
Just copped one, expect a review coming soon.
Is your book only an eBook? Or can it be a paper back?
Great video man, the breakdown for how you feel at different BF%'s is gonna be really helpful for a lot of people out there, especially the newbies.
Awesome breakdown! 100% right on most influencers not talking about the side effects of staying at single-digit body fat (or they have access to "supplements" that make it easier) Whatever the case, happy to see a realistic overview for people looking at body fat percentages. I found 12 - 15% Body Fat to be the "sweet spot" with occasional dips to lower percentages. Personally, trying to stay leaner than 10% body fat is a recipe for misery. Quality of life, training performance, libido, and productivity take a massive hit.
Appreciate that! Your strategies will definitely help people get leaner in a sustainable way!
Jeff cavalier has bags under his eyes 24/7 and literally looks half dead the way he is, not sure how that’s “training like an athlete”
IKR? His sunken eyes and sharp cheekbones scream for a sandwich.
More or less a shredded zombie 💀
@@olympic-gradelurker Yeah and hes also getting old so being that lean is definitely getting worse for him
more like juicing like an athlete, that's the only way it's maintainable and you can also perform.
You're coping
15-20%. A lot of people think 20% is fat but the ab definition is still there to a degree and I'm well bigger than at the lower end. I think a lot of people's "15%" is actually closer to 20 in actuality.
Yes I get people telling me I'm 12% bodyfat because I have delt definition and biceps veins. Not so much!
I don't get any abs definition if I don't get lower than 15%. It sucks
@@TheKrisk In my case there is some barely visible abs when flexed at 18%, at 16% they are barely visible not flexed, at 14% they are pretty good when flexed, at 12% they are good not flexed but have that lower belly, at 10% the lower belly is good and there are a lot more veins on the arms and everything is popping
@@TheKrisk build bigger abs. Don't use a belt. Do big compound movements!
@@TheBcoolGuy that's all I do. Not the most genetically blessed. To put it in perspective 110kg bench press, 60kg pullups 60 military press. I can keep a full front lever for 16 sec. It is what it is.
at 25%+ BF, my depression and anxiety were at constant highs... as soon as I was able to get below that, my mental health has been so much better.
15% because you still look jacked in clothes and shirtless as well. I still have great definition, shape size and abs. Still getting stronger and no longer miserable eat what i want.
You must have good ab genetics , as you can see them at 15% body fat
@@sumona8632 yeah i dont see my abs at 15% at all hahaha
@@sumona8632 If you hypertrophy your abs enough you can see them at higher %s
@@alfredodulli8098more hypertrophy. Eddi hall got 35% bf with abs. No excuse. Get to work.
"my neighbours brought me rice because they thought I was starving to death", I don't know why but I laughed so hard at this
I thought it was a local custom or something until I realized that they were just...very concerned haha
When I read it I imagined an old chinese couple bring him some rice cakes kkkk
You have some very decent neighbors.
@@MrThomazSatiro same. Some old couple.
This is such a great video.
I feel like absolutely dogshit above 15-17% and anything below 8%.
My sex drive is highest around 10-12%, and I’ve noticed when I’m above 15% things just take a turn.
Yeah I find the 15-18% range to be pretty nice, still fairly muscular and feel good.
Finally got a discount code, my mans moving up in the world. 🥳
Jason Blaha would say that the perfect body fat percentage is 35+
Nah he promotes the 10-20% range these days
Hilarious video brother, but I agree w/ what you said. Optimal BF really depends on the individual as you said.
I’ve noticed a shift as I’ve gotten older...my body is happier at 12%-15% now, while when I was younger I could be sub 10% easily all year long because feeling great b/c of an absurdly fast metabolism & very active lifestyle.
Hi fitlabb glad to see you back, hope you are going well with your UA-cam channel and coaching career, PS loving your channel and looking forward to it growing and getting the recognition you deserve
@@davidlangley3511 Thank you for that comment David. It’s nice to get a really kind & positive note like that for a change, and I really appreciate it! Working hard to get my next video done shortly, and glad you’re enjoying my content so far. 👍
Metabolism and active style has a big part in this discussion. I'm pretty satisfied with 12% at 32 years of age but I'll try to get that 10% (only once have I gotten 10,5% two years ago) just to see if it's for me or not.
I am definitely DOWN WITH THE THICKNESS!
Golden comment
11% definitely ideal for me. Easily maintained, feels good, still make decent strength gaines and muscle gains. I just like the lean look, one of the main reasons i got into fitness, i cant not have abs lol
Can"t believe you said Sergeant Thickness with a straight face
Please show some respect for Sergeant Thickness
@@GVS guess I should call him Mr. Sergeant Thickness
“A myriad of maleficent maladies”-nice alliteration Geoff. Your academic side is appreciated 💎
"Myriad of maleficent maladies." Awesome alliteration achieved! Great graphics, too.
Great tips I kind of found out the hard way my body fat percentage was so low it was effecting my strength. Probably a rare problem for most but for context I'm 6'6 and was weighing 170lbs. Ended up hitting a wall with strength increases so i decided to try getting bulkier. Now at 210lbs my strength is still able to consistently grow and I personally think i look just as good. Though fans of popping abs might disagree lol
Yup. Is a cost of leanness, many bodybuilders in shredded condition aren't nearly as strong as they look. Leanness looks great in pictures or videos especially with perfect lighting, but in the "real world" where people wear clothing, 15% looks much better than 5%.
Lennox Lewis was 6'5 and 250 lbs lean. You have room to add plenty of weight.
@JoshBenware it's always weird to reference a exceptional athlete as a benchmark. Lewis was a freak man
Love how you put the bloat lord in your thumbnail
I was 9% at my leanest and felt like complete shit, except in refeed days. Those days would literally bring me back to life. Now I’m at around 22% and feel a lot better hormonally but my performance in the gym & running has seen an impact. So now my goal is to go back down to around 15-18% and chill there for a while.
First saw 'Why I stopped taking creatine' video. And now binge watching all the videos. Excellent content. Straight to points.
I would put myself between 16-20% during my bulk season, and maybe 12-15% the rest of the year. I try to keep some fat on for my endurance sports and it really helps me stay healthy. Those 6k cal ruck marches will smoke tf out of the lean guys.
this isn’t the average bmi, it has to be noted that it’s selecting for people who got dexa scans, which has to be demonstrated to be able to be generalized to the general population, that was not shown.
I love the editing in these videos. Also, that wojak pyramid was _chef's kiss._
I've worked hard to get down to 16%.my lowest was 15.2%. I find it very very difficult to get below that. I'm in a 500cal deficit and still lifting heavy and eating enough protein. Will keep going. 12% would be a dream for me!
Me too
Comment for the algorithm, keep up the good stuff!
YOU may not like it, but Yama is what peak human performance looks like
It also makes a difference how lean you've been most of your life. I'm 53 and have had a swimmers physique all my life. When I bulk, it ain't pretty, got that skinny fat look. So I find maintaining around 15% to be pretty easy. Things don't get a little tough until I'm down to about 12%.BF
I agree 15% seems good. It’s also a nice round number
Would be nice if you showed the graphics for girls bf%.
Keep the good and realistic job on the channel. Peaaceeee
Thanks :) I'd add ~8-10% to get approximately what that would mean for a female.
Feel like its best to be like 10-12% in summer and like 15-16% in other seasons
Yea that's a good range, especially if naturally leaner.
I like they way I look the best at 12%, but below 15% for too long and I'm tired, irritable, hangry, trouble sleeping, etc. I'm the strongest around 20%, but hate the way I look. I try to stay in the 15-18% range. Strength is more important than the way I look.
At one point I was around 10 percent, and it was terrible. I had very little energy and make damn near no strength progress for months. I had abs but it was not worth it, and I had to get at least 15,000 steps a day to not gain fat
Mark Rippetoe just turned a new shade of pink after watching this.....GOMAD for life!
As always Geoff awesome truthful and helpful stuff!!
Also: Lactose Tolerant =/= Lactose Immune
I'm definitely Sergeant Thickness walking on the wider side of life, 18-24 is prime time.
I recently got down to the 5-6% body fat range and I actually was around there I had cross striated, glutes, pecs, Vastus lateralis, Traps, lats, and delts. Some straitions on the biceps and triceps. Vascularity everywhere. My obliques went from my Serratus to my hips, and I had a six pack. I had a Christmas tree back when relaxed, when sucking in my face I could see my Zygomaticus minor look it up. My muscle on that medial side of my foot was striated! I had separation in calf and perennials. Separation in the hamstrings when bending over and I was doing a spilt you could see my gracilis muscle and hamstring separation. You can also see my sartorius and could see the separation in the bicep heads and the long and later head of the tricep. And separation in the Brachialis and Brachioradialis. All this is with a body weight in the morning of 160lbs and a lean mass of 150Ibs. My height is 6’ 3/8”. I was feeling the best in my life although hangery at sometimes and a little irritable I had optimal energy and work capacity; I did a slow cut of 300 calories eating a minimum of 2850 calories I was very active so I could actually cut on those calories. Eat no junk food because I had no desire to eat junk food! Eating a very balanced from all food group getting all my micros getting 8-9 hours of sleep everyday drink around 2 gallons of water everyday. I have been only working seriously out 3-4 months. Working out twice a week doing the Naturally enhanced program with the correct amount of volume not to overtrain. And I was born with a low amount of fat cells. But then one week I burned 3500-4000 calories a day eating most of them back because of my insane appetite but then I got screwed because I am bipolar and the lack of body fat in me reduced the serotonin in my brain and even though I was on 600 mg of Q a day and 1800 mg of L a day my appetite got annihilated I was hungry but did not have the desire to eat at 5-6% body fat! I had the drink some ensures then I could eat a bit. Now I am trying to gain two pounds of fat the get in my optimal range 6-7% body fat. I had body dysmorphia because of my low muscle mass because I had and thought I was 7% body fat when I was more like in the low 5% body fat range because I could bearly see my lower ab line because of my low muscle mass and I saw a guy on alphashred with way more muscle and shredded to the bone take a big pinch of his belly fat and I took a big pinch of mine in the same place and I was the same thickness! I also did a more formal skin fold test and I got 4 mm next the my belly button a vertical pinch! That is the same as Tristyn Lee!
A day a go I was extremely depressed because of the low body fat this has lasted half a week.
The moral of the story be ETREMELY carful when getting to a low body if you have mental health problems and are on a medication NEVER get below 6% body fat! And if you don’t have a lot of muscle mass even if you get shredded your abs especially the last ab line will be barely visible if you have all the signs I had that I explained of being shredded and you have mental health problems and are on meds and feel good GAIN a couple pounds of fat which is what I am trying to do. You could get completely screwed and become anorexic because of extreme appetite loss from major depression. Eat a lot of full fat cheese and fatty meats for your brain and you can get a lot of carbs in by fruit juice coattail cans and dried fruit nuts and nut butters are also good too. Your brain especially needs the saturated fat. I feel a lot better now when I eat a ton of saturated way more than unsaturated fat. This is the best video on UA-cam about the optimal body fat I have seen many videos on this topic this is the one I was looking for exactly. It explained everything I found it today on my birthday. I very good birthday present.
Edit: I am still trying to get over insomnia even when I am taking prescribed C a powerful med that helps you sleep.
Edit 2: I took out the names of the mental health pills I took and replaced the with letters.
Quite a story, and definitely a lesson there for some people who are always trying to get shredded. Grass isn't as green as they think. Sometimes it's a very fine line between optimal health, then you go 1-2% lower and life goes to shit.
Truly great video. I watch mostly muscle building videos all day at work for years. Been feasting on your channel the last week. I'm around 20% want to be around 15%. 5'10" 205 good amount of muscle. So far not able to stay in calorie deficit and hate cardio. Kinda stuck here but slowly gaining muscle. Feel great but still have some belly and side fat.
Started playing volleyball a couple months ago and my knees and feet are really feeling it…. I had a strength look good in shirts focus but I’m really wanting to drop a lot of weight now. Fat don’t fly but I’m not sure how much losing weight will help in that department as I used to play basketball and never had ups in high school. I’m only 5’5” as well… maybe spiking is a fools goal
Having been all over the bf% chart (from 40% all the way down to somewhere around 5% and went hypogonadal and insane) Gotta say I was absolutely, undoubtedly my best moodwise/personalitywise/energywise at around 15-20% BF. Shits way more important if you wanna get a girl than being shredded.
Currently pretty damn lean. Assuming single digit bf% but who knows. but I eat a metric shitload of food(3000 kcal+). My retail job as a customer service manager demands I do with how much movement/activity/customer bull-shittery is involved. Wish I could say its the best of both worlds, but sometimes its really hard to sleep, and some days are just in the shitter regardless of how much I eat. Other days are fucking magical. It's all a crapshoot.
Definitely more stable at a higher bf%, but I'm cool enough with how it is now.
Looking at your picture, it's crazy how lean you are, but you really should keep focusing on getting bigger. Just eat everything in sight if you can eat 3K+ and look like that.
Great video and very timely for me. I cut about 20 lbs and and around 17% now. I'll probably take it down to ~13%ish and see how I feel.
How did It go, was It worth It, same goal
@@geminix365I was at 12.5% in may down from around 17% I would say it’s worth it 12% mark really reveals what you have built
When I wrestled in high school I was in the 8-12% BF range depending on which class I was wrestling (152 or 160). That one year that I dropped even lower was miserable (at 145 lb, no clue what my BF was, but I was ultra lean)... Now that I'm older, I think my target is much more reasonable. I'm ~20% right now and I'm working toward 15-17%. Totally agree with your "ideal" generalizations. :)
Helpful video. The vein you described having at 9% is actually still there at 15-18% 😊
Yea my goal when I finally cracked down starting firmly in the 20s was 13-15%, thought 12% or below required too much strictness to maintain. Then I kept going and realized how easy it was for me to maintain a low% without being obsessive while still progressing in the gym so my range is 9-12% which is cool cause anything below 8% doesn't even look that good to me lol. I'm willing to trade looking more "skinny" in clothes throughout the year to not have to worry about dieting too much when it's "hoe ready" season 😆(plus honestly I'm struggling to be consistent eating enough in this lean bulk phase anyway)
12%is ideal..
@@markcrisp07 For you maybe
off topic but steve shaw from massive iron (awesome channel) gave you a shout out during his last live when someone asked what other fitness channel he recommends. like u guys both, so that was awesome
Oh awesome, that was nice of him. Really enjoy his content, very much on point!
10-15 % is where I stay at. I don’t listen to NPCs and I study all of the source material
I see you took my tips! Great video as always too dude
Yama 😂 great video as always
I feel really well at 11%-14% BF, and can sustain without suffering too much 10% BF. Beyond 15% BF I just don't feel comfortable and my appetite drops dramatically.
Man Greg makes the same video gets 100k views after you...you are underatted
Thanks. I'm OK with it.
You are truly a master. Great content and even better way of conveying info! Thanks
Dude, your UA-cam and Quora entries are GOLD! I’m glad I came across your stuff, bro!
Another great video man!
Thanks for helping me set my goals, Buff Jay Baruchel!
Well here I am, trying my hardest to "bulk up" to what would maybe be 12%, but instead I'm losing weight and the veins on my abs keep popping more
Felt great at what may have been 9-10%, striated shoulders and all, but now it's just getting too much, I started eating fast food just to get my calories up
Kyriacos grizzly is the ideal male physique and I won't hear a word against it
Again nice and honest information and opinion. When I was a triathlete I needed to be as lean as I could have been. Hence the name of my channel. Back then my cycling was at 4.8 watts/kg, which was pretty good. The easiest way for me to get to that number was to get leaner. That number was imporant as I wanted to run a comfortable marathon of the bike and always though that 4.5 watt/kg was the minimum I needed to qualify for Kona.
Today I have a different out look. I was to feel and look good. That's all. I still jog for fun but speed is of no consequence. I think I am around 15 or so now. I look fine, feel great and have 2 glasses of wine with dinner daily. Works for me.
I'm a cyclist too, slippery slope, my FTP was high 4.X also....got lean, number went up, gained weight number went down BUT at a heavier weight I was able to recover quicker, train harder and felt better on longer rides...overall I raced better at 185 vs 175 and had better results....sounds like you have priorities right!
@@motominded5275 I changed my channel name to Fit After 50nas no one knew what power|weight was ;)
Priorities change and for now I am good where I am at.
Have not been on a bike in a few years. Wonder what the FTP is now. Might be fun to try.
Great video man. Good to see more down to earth and realistic youtubers in the fitness community, that are actually trying to help lol. Keep up the good work, it's inspiring 👊🏿
Hey Geoff, good video.
The story about being a runner and overtraining stuck with me. I find myself in a similar situation, particularly with balancing your sport, lifting, and social life+how you feel. For me my sport is Muay Thai. My sport, lifting, and managing my social life all have different requirements to perform optimally. Often each's requirements will be negative for the other, causing me to be in a tri-balancing act. For example, heavy push days are great for bodybuilding but sore shoulders are terrible for fighting. I don't want to abandon any of them, what did you do to manage this when you were a runner?
Also, Sergeant Thickness is a great addition to the GVS-verse
I didn't lift as a runner. And didn't have much social life. Work was as an English teacher, ~10-15 hours a week. So was basically all in on running (which compounded the overtraining).
12 makes me feel good about myself and feel energized
A really well-thought out video.
3:25 HAHA! I heard that as David Draiman on 'Down with the sickness'
Great video, interesting how everyone is so different
Great content as always! Keep up the good work!
My comfort zone is around 15-18%, i feel and function fine. At 79 kgs, 40 y.o.
timestamps are great ty
A worthy successor to Igor's original. Well done..
Since I don’t want to feel dead-ass tired all the time my goal is the 13%-15% range
What if I go to negative bodyfat % like Ronnie Coleman? Will my quality of life be good?
The best
I know this is nitpicky, but I like 14% more than 15% lol. better proportions, but I don’t feel like I’m starving like if I’m down to 12-13%
20% with a slight abs outline IMO.
Also depends on how muscular you are and your bone structure.
Some men look decent at higher bodyfat percentages and some other need to be below 15% to look good
Yea it depends, everyone stores fat differently, for sure. I tend to store it on the abs and chest more, with VERY little on the back, a bit on the arms and legs.
Also, replace the clock battery already.
Nah, has always been dead. Never have used it.
That discomfort of "too low bodyfat" does not count if you are loosing weight right? To determine this you would need to go into a maintenance phase and see how you feel.
Correct, often things normalize when you are eating more and are no longer dieting. So you might go from 20% to 14% and due to "diet fatigue" feel kinda crap, but then up your carbs a bit and feel totally fine. This is referring to more of a long term maintenance.
Excellent video. Would have loved a mention of age and its relation with bodyfat.
Great vid! I do like VP a lot, though. He's great.
I've noticed my quality of life went way up getting down to 8-10% probably going to aim to maintain that in the summer and 10-12 in the winter
I liked for "down with the thickness". 😂
One simple critique I have about this video. It's actually not high body fat percentage that causes a lot of those issues.
1) People with higher BF% tend to eat like garbage. Processed foods, high sugar, and both of those combined with no cardio.
2) Any extra body weight within a range is unhealthy whether that's fat or muscle. Your body suffers when you have a high amount of tissue. High muscle mass can cause some of the same issues as high body fat (cardio-vascular fatigue, pressure on organs, etc). Visceral fat makes this a bit worse, but *any* excess tissue is bad, broadly.
2a) Because of this, it's important for bodybuilders to stay relatively lean and eat healthy because they're going to be heavier in general. Weight is the number one factor for health, not fat. If you're going to increase your weight significantly with muscle, you had better make damn sure every other aspect of your health is in check. Especially especially if you're blasting your body with androgenic compounds which have an even worse effect on health and blood pressure.
That's why high BF% should be avoided for bodybuilders. It's simply a factor of limiting the amount of tissue your body is trying to sustain to be the healthiest possible while putting on excess muscle.
Oh, you've got a sponsor, good for you!
Yes! Thank you to casein for sponsoring this one!
@@GVS I cant tell if you're being serious about this or not
@@thegentleman4874 very much not
When in training I was regularly around 12-14% of body fat, only once have I gotten 10,5%. After not training for half or a whole year and not taking care of my diet I go up to 16%, only once have i gotten up to 17-18%. So I have a pretty good metabolism and active style of life. Because I'm continuosly active for a longer period at the moment I'm at 12% but I'm aiming to go down to 10% during this and every other summer and stay around 12-15% during winter for maximal muscle gains. At 12% I don't see any side effects to my training and sport life (soccer, tennis, table tennis)
Good video.
9:44 that caption killed me 💀
Yea im much stronger now at 18-20% but I don’t like the way i look as much. At 12% i looked great and felt ok but I didn’t really eat much carbs because the protein and fat is more satiating. Without the carbs i was weaker on every lift. 18% fills out a shirt more tho
The secret to feeling great when under 10% is to lift fake weights... just ask Jeff
Lol
They'll be shipping 10 tons of Technical Grade Casein weekly to my home starting Monday, thank you 😤
Try the Industrial Acid Casein, it's really pretty amazing.
@@GVS Okay, if I'm not making all kindsa gains, it's on you
@@Dew0ne do whatever the *[redacted]* you wanna do!
bro i laughed so hard at 8:45 god damn thats so fucked up. Sorry maybe my weird humor but god damn Geoff stop scaring your neighbors
I guess less than 12-13% for me isn't gonna work, I wake up hungry at night, low libido and my joints take too much time to recover after training.
Yea not great signs. I'd go up a bit.
Down with the thickness. Yep I was right, looks as good in writing as it sounds
I’m waiting for a video on best body fat for strength. What’s the optimal body fat for the average person to push big numbers consistently.
Probably won't do a full video as I can answer it here. Depends on the lift, bench basically scales up until quite high BF % (look at Julius Maddox) but something like the deadlift a belly can get in the way of a good setup so might not want to be as well rounded.
Olympic weightlifting you'd think that leanness is kinda important but Lasha is somewhat high BF % so it's clearly not much of a disadvantage really.
I'd say probably low to mid 20s, but even into the low teens it's possible to be very strong. 10% and under often strength degrades especially if natural.
Given how I'm currently obese and nobody in my family is lean except my untrained nephew who's likely at 15-ish % and my previously intermediate-lifter oldest brother at about 18%-20%, I get the feeling that my range will be more like 14%-22%.
10 to 13% is perfection. Everything pops and your hormones remain healthy.
Lmao at the thumbnail
my left ear enjoyed this
Geoffrey, great content. How about some content about how to become a pretty good runner while weight training just the upper body, like I do?
Sure can add it to the list.
Awesome. I think lots of people would like this. I personally have legs that are too big for my body. Did lots of biking all my life.
I think for health probably around the American standard of 60 percent body fat is optimal for snow storm survival!
Very informative.
And for some reason you had me pondering whether sumo wrestlers fat shame each other . . . 🏋️♂️
They probably skinny shame :)
mistake in the timestamps, 2x too low bf
Yup corrected, thanks!
Most people don’t go slow enough to figure out what optimal bf % is it’s rushed especially with people following bodybuilding protocols it took you maybe 2-4-8 years to put on all the muscle you have now you were forced to wait for the results but people want to be shredded now and go way way too fast then end up losing on their muscles slowing metabolism now you need to cut your calories. Vitruvian physique when he was close to his show said he was eating close to 2100 calories which sounds so low. If he wasn’t doing it for competition he could’ve gone slower and maintained a better set point. Usually you get the side effects of low bodyfat from going too steep
can you do another one for females? most, if not all, body fat videos are for males with barely any mention of females (‘:
Will try. 95% of my viewers are male. So it's tough to put out content that is female specific, if it gets low click through rate then it impacts all subsequent content. You can add ~8-10% to get female numbers, that conversion is pretty good.
Are you ever going to review Mark Rippetoe? He seems good but has strong opinions on the trap bar deadlift and RPE.
Yea eventually. Disagree with a good amount of his stuff.