Back To Hst After 6 Years. Previous Gains. New Goals And Concerns

[Totentanz]

That's such a great statement and advice. Achieving goals is what motivates me to work hard. If I was to change my goals midway I would completely lose interest.


On a side note, referring back to the interesting conversation above, I wasn't really aware that 10% bf is not healthy (or easy) to maintain. I am 34 now and my goal is to maintain 10% bf for as long as I can once I achieve a LBM that I am happy with. Are you guys saying that it's not a good idea (health wise)? Is there a specific age that it starts becoming unhealthy and/or impossible?

It really just depends on your natural set point. If you are naturally fatter, then maintaining a low % will be harder. But some people are naturally lean and so it's easier to maintain without your hormones getting all out of whack.

As long as you can keep your hormones in line (testosterone, etc) then there is no reason you can't maintain 10% for most of your life.

 

[leonardopm]

Any clues on how to estimate hormone level? Libido? Strength? I believe is not practical nor cheap to keep testing hormones.

I believe one could estimate his set point based on the difficulty to lean down below a certain level. Makes sense??

 

[Totentanz]

I can't help you with that, all the measures you mentioned are subjective. Here in the states, there are many online services for getting blood work done that are fairly cheap. Don't know what you have down there.

Set point would basically be whatever you naturally were before you started training, but as I said before, it worsens with age. For example, I was around 6-8% bodyfat most of my life before I started lifting. Now, if I don't eat to maintain and just eat based on hunger, I will slowly lose weight, leading me to believe that my set point is still lower than my current level of leanness. You'd have to use some educated guesses along with knowing your body.

 

[leonardopm]

I can't help you with that, all the measures you mentioned are subjective. Here in the states, there are many online services for getting blood work done that are fairly cheap. Don't know what you have down there.

Set point would basically be whatever you naturally were before you started training

I can assure we aren't as advanced as you concerning facilities to do tests. It doesn't seem to be a major issue anyway.

About set point you probably is right. I restarted weight training about 15 months ago after a 3 year complete layoff and I remember to have restarted considerably leaner than I'm now, so probably I didn't reached my point yet.