Q: Hi there, my question is in relation to question 1977 answered on the 28th January 2007. How did you work out that I should lose two thirds of my weight as fat in order to get to 10 per cent body fat? You also said that that my weight would go from 13 stone to 11.5 stone. 11.5 stone is still within the healthy range for my height of 6 foot two inches ? it is quite a light weight. do you have to quite light in weight generally - to have a low body fat? I'm a bit slow on the uptake but you mentioned going through cycles of cutting and bulking ? I've always been reluctant to bulk but if I was to bulk up from 11.5 stones I'd actually not be putting on new muscle but rather putting the muscle back on that I lost when I lost weight to get to 10 per cent body fat ? so say at 13 stone I had seven stone(random figure) of muscle I lost 6 pounds of muscle to get to 10 per cent leaving six stone seven pounds bulking up by six pounds of muscle would bring me back to my original amount of seven pounds. Thanks for your great advice.

A: What I meant to say is that when a (younger) male goes on a cut with a good nutrition and exercise program, for every three pounds of weight he loses about two pound will be fat, so two thirds of the weight lost will be fat. Similarly, during a well-executed bulk about two thirds of weight gained will be muscle. This way through several cycles of cutting and bulking it's possible to lose fat, gain muscle, and lower body fat percentage while ending up with roughly the same body weight as when you started.

Let me do a simple example with numbers. Suppose you start at 180 pounds and 20% body fat (so 20% of 180 or 36 pounds of your weight is fat.

Cycle 1:

- Cut for 4 months and lose 18 pounds of which 12 (two thirds of 18) will be fat. End at 162 pounds and 24 pounds (36 - 12 = 24) of fat or about 15% body fat (24 / 162 = 14.8%).

- Bulk for 6 months and gain 18 pounds of which 12 pounds (two thirds of 18) will muscle and about 6 pounds fat. End at 180 pounds and 30 pounds of fat or about 17% body fat.

Cycle 2:

- Cut for 4 months and lose 18 pounds of which 12 will be fat. End at 162 pounds and 18 pounds (30 - 12 = 18) of fat or about 11% body fat.

- Bulk for 6 months and gain 18 pounds of which 12 pounds will muscle and about 6 pounds fat. End at 180 pounds and 24 pounds of fat or about 13% body fat.

You can see now how after two of these cut-bulk cycles and about 20 months time you will have lost 12 pounds of fat and 7% of body fat while ending up at the same initial weight as when you started (obviously new muscle mass replaced the lost fat). It's not a fast process and it doesn't always go as smoothly as I wrote it up, but this is the steady approach that anyone disciplined enough can follow. Now losing fat below this 12-13% body fat range can become a lot more difficult for a lot of people. Nevertheless, the same cut-bulk approach should still be used -- it's just that the progress could become even slower as you get to ever lower body fat (some people are luckier than others and their bodies can achieve lower body fat easier, but most people starting at higher body fat have to work very hard to get all the way down to six-pack).

Hope this makes sense and helps you in structuring your program. If not, just post here again (or start a blog) -- it's always great to hear back from people following my advice after a long time. Good luck!