When it comes to fat burning, and fat loss, there is always this “no man’s land” between “I’m not fat” and “I’m really lean and beautiful!”. For most men this happens at about 12-19% body fat, and for women between 18-25% or so.

No doctor will complain that you are about to die of an obesity related disease, and your friends will still say what a nice figure you have. But you know that muffin top is just a little too big for your liking!

As your training age progresses, assuming you are good with your food choices, and stay lean all the time, your body will get “used” to a lower, more lean body fat percentage. I used to be a really fat boy, but with not too much effort and even eating lots of food, I stay at somewhere around 12% all year.

But the time has come for me to push the limits again. I have been as low as 5-6% before but I lost so much weight. (I was only 71kg then!) But as my own experience, knowledge and skill improves, I am going to try to reach 5% body fat at close to 80kg. This would be my best physique ever. That is the goal over then next 12 weeks or so.

However, goals must come with ACTIONS or else they are pretty much USELESS. It is like the clients who come to me and say they want great results, but they want to eat cereal for breakfast and instant noodles for lunch. It just isn’t going to happen.

Here are the actions that I will take over the next 12 weeks to achieve my goal. I like to write goals in present tense because they have the highest chance of adherence. Your brain lives in the present not the past/future.

• I eat 6 meals per day
• I eat meat and nuts at breakfast
• I eat only foods that are not allergic to me (no tomatoes, carrots or chilli)
• I eat 1.2-1.5kg of meat every day
• I eat these choices even when eating outside of home
• I eat outside of home only once per week
• I train 3 days out of 5 with some days 2x/day
• I do 1/3 fat burning workouts, and 2/3 strength and muscle maintaining workouts
• I use licorice cream on week days and off on weekends
• I use far infra red sauna 3/week for at least 20 mins
• I schedule my own training into my callender and nothing will get in the way of that.
• I use 40g of BCAA during each workout
• I eat whey, glutamine, glycine and greens post workout
• I use carnitine and R-ALA before workouts
• I sleep by 11pm every day

If I do all those things consistently, I don’t see how I can NOT be leaner while maintaining all my muscle mass. If you write down a list like this, I’m sure you can achieve your weight loss, fat loss, or mass building goals as well.

Of course there is room for adjustment along the way, but the fundamental habits shown above will stay the same. Stay tuned for updates!