My Journey To 15% Body Fat

I’ve never really been someone who could say that fitness was a huge part of my life. I’ve always enjoyed exercising, but there have been plenty of times when I’ve been inconsistent, eaten too much, or simply put it further down the list of priorities. Over the last few months, though, I’ve approached things slightly differently.

My goal has been relatively simple: get myself into better shape, gain some strength and ultimately reach around 15% body fat. What I’ve found interesting is that the closer I’ve got to that goal, the less it has felt like a short-term diet and the more it has started to feel like a lifestyle change that I hope will be permanent.

I started by focusing on the basics rather than trying to completely overhaul everything overnight. I concentrated on eating in a calorie deficit while making sure I was getting plenty of protein. My diet is vegetarian, so protein has always been something I’ve had to think about a little more, but foods such as Huel, Skyr and vegan protein have made it much easier to consistently get around 130–140g of protein a day, based on my goal weight.

At the moment, I’m eating roughly 1,900 calories a day. It isn’t particularly restrictive, and I’ve found that I can eat very similarly most days without feeling like I’m constantly hungry. Especially around bedtime!

The other big change has been my training.

I currently train in the gym three times a week, with my sessions generally lasting around 45 minutes. The focus is primarily on resistance training, and I’ve gradually started to see improvements in both my strength and muscle definition.

It feels good to know what your maximum lift is and then beat it in the next session, whether that means increasing the weight or even managing one extra rep.

One thing I’ve also found surprisingly useful is having dedicated gym clothing and a good pair of training shoes. It might sound like a small thing, but there’s something about putting on your gym kit that helps put you into the right mindset. Once I’ve got my gym trainers tied I’m much less likely to talk myself out of the workout.

It almost creates a separation between normal life and training. I’m not sitting around in my everyday clothes wondering whether I can be bothered to go to the gym — I’ve already changed, I’m ready to train and it’s become part of the routine.

The shoes themselves have also made a difference. Having something comfortable and suitable for the type of training I’m doing makes the sessions feel better, particularly when I’m doing exercises that require a solid and stable footing. They don’t have to be the most expensive or fashionable shoes either. For me, it’s more about having something that feels right and becomes associated with training.

That has probably been one of the most rewarding parts of the whole process. Seeing the number on the scales go down is great, but being able to increase the weight I’m lifting, seeing more definition in my shoulders and arms, and noticing that my clothes are fitting differently feels much more meaningful.

I’ve also increased my general activity. Rather than relying entirely on formal exercise, I now aim for around 8,000 steps a day. I’ve found this much easier to maintain than trying to force myself to do lots of cardio sessions every week.

I still enjoy my running, and my current 5k time is around 25 minutes, with a 10k taking me roughly 52 minutes. Running isn’t the main focus of my training anymore, but it’s something I want to keep in the mix.

Perhaps the biggest lesson for me has been that progress is much slower than you might expect.

There are days when the scales barely move, or even go in the wrong direction. There are weeks where you feel like nothing has changed. It would be very easy to think that what you’re doing isn’t working, but then you notice that your waist has gone down, your clothes feel looser, you look more defined in the mirror, or you lift a weight that you couldn’t previously manage.

My weight is now around 143lb and my waist, measured around my belly button, is roughly 78cm. I’d estimate that I’m currently around 17% body fat, so the next stage is getting that final couple of percent down to my 15% target.

Interestingly, though, I’m not in a huge rush to get there.

The goal has changed slightly from simply wanting to weigh less to wanting to look and feel better while maintaining as much muscle and strength as possible. I’d rather take a little longer and build habits that I can actually maintain than crash diet my way to a particular number.

That’s probably the biggest difference between this attempt and previous ones. I’m not really “on a diet”. I’m just training regularly, eating reasonably well, getting my steps in, keeping my protein high and trying to be consistent.

There will always be days when I eat more than planned or miss a workout. That’s fine. One meal or one missed session isn’t going to undo months of work. The aim now is simply to keep going.

15% body fat is the target, but the bigger goal is to get to a point where maintaining that level of fitness feels completely normal. And I think I’m getting there!

Adam Warren