Nov 4, 2026 · 9 min · 4 segments
In this video, I discuss whether 12% or 50% body fat should be the goal for men. The answer might surprise you, as both of these numbers make sense at different points of the journey. Listen to…
Chris WrightHost
Now, in my opinion, guys, to kind of explain this with a little bit of detail here is that you should be looking to get as lean as possible, okay? And this isn't just about getting as lean as possible because, you know, you're going to have the abs and you're going to have the six pack and aesthetically, it's going to get you to the best position.
There is a logic behind this as well that I actually think that for a lot of men, 15% body fat is like the lean point is actually not enough.
We're trying to get in shape so that we can stay there for the rest of our lives.
We're doing one big diet properly so that once we've got the physique that we want and we've achieved it, we know that we can sustain low body fat or reasonably low body fat and we can stay there forever.
If you don't get as lean as you can on a diet phase, then chances are that as you start to go through a reverse diet phase where you start to increase your calories, you're gonna gain a bit of body fat.
It's very normal that when you go into like a kind of lifestyle phase or even like a bit of a lean gaining phase where you're gonna start gaining muscle, body fat levels are going to increase a little bit.
It's just what happens when you're a natural, you know, even if you're taking TRT guys, it's very normal.
The body fat percentage to creep up a little bit as you start to increase your food.
So the advantage of getting leaner on a diet phase is that as you do start to creep up a little bit, as your calories increase, you go from say 2000 calories per day to 3000 calories per day.
So even if you go from being at like 10% up to then 13 or 14%, you could be on high calories, right? So you could be able to sustain that 13, 40% so much easier.
So to answer the overall question here, what should we be aiming for, 12 or 15%? It should be 12% on a diet phase, like at the leanest possible place.
This is why we get all of our guys, all of them, but a lot of them to do photo shoots because that is a great target to get yourself to that 10, 12% where you just look insane.
You know, coming to London, all of our guys, our coaches, we get our guys in elite level shape.
These are guys that are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, but come and do our photoshoots and look absolutely insane.
And then we know that we have done then the hard work of getting them lean, that when we then push their body fat or their calories up, their body fat naturally increases a little bit, which is very healthy.
So then they would sit in the right region of around 14 to 15, even 16% body fat.
Some of these guys don't need to have super lean six-packs all year round, being 16, 17% body fat for a lot of men, you're still going to have an incredibly healthy, aesthetic, lean physique, which, you know, take your shirt off, you're going to look really, really cool, really good, wear whatever clothes you want, they're going to fit all in the right places.
So ideally, what we want to do in the diet phase is get lean, okay? We need to push ourselves beyond where we actually thought we would maybe want to get to.
Now, in my opinion, guys, to kind of explain this with a little bit of detail here is that you should be looking to get as lean as possible, okay? And this isn't just about getting as lean as possible because, you know, you're going to have the abs and you're going to have the six pack and aesthetically, it's going to get you to the best position.
There is a logic behind this as well that I actually think that for a lot of men, 15% body fat is like the lean point is actually not enough.
We're trying to get in shape so that we can stay there for the rest of our lives.
We're doing one big diet properly so that once we've got the physique that we want and we've achieved it, we know that we can sustain low body fat or reasonably low body fat and we can stay there forever.
If you don't get as lean as you can on a diet phase, then chances are that as you start to go through a reverse diet phase where you start to increase your calories, you're gonna gain a bit of body fat.
It's very normal that when you go into like a kind of lifestyle phase or even like a bit of a lean gaining phase where you're gonna start gaining muscle, body fat levels are going to increase a little bit.
It's just what happens when you're a natural, you know, even if you're taking TRT guys, it's very normal.
The body fat percentage to creep up a little bit as you start to increase your food.
So the advantage of getting leaner on a diet phase is that as you do start to creep up a little bit, as your calories increase, you go from say 2000 calories per day to 3000 calories per day.
So even if you go from being at like 10% up to then 13 or 14%, you could be on high calories, right? So you could be able to sustain that 13, 40% so much easier.
So to answer the overall question here, what should we be aiming for, 12 or 15%? It should be 12% on a diet phase, like at the leanest possible place.
This is why we get all of our guys, all of them, but a lot of them to do photo shoots because that is a great target to get yourself to that 10, 12% where you just look insane.
You know, coming to London, all of our guys, our coaches, we get our guys in elite level shape.
These are guys that are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, but come and do our photoshoots and look absolutely insane.
And then we know that we have done then the hard work of getting them lean, that when we then push their body fat or their calories up, their body fat naturally increases a little bit, which is very healthy.
So then they would sit in the right region of around 14 to 15, even 16% body fat.
Some of these guys don't need to have super lean six-packs all year round, being 16, 17% body fat for a lot of men, you're still going to have an incredibly healthy, aesthetic, lean physique, which, you know, take your shirt off, you're going to look really, really cool, really good, wear whatever clothes you want, they're going to fit all in the right places.
So ideally, what we want to do in the diet phase is get lean, okay? We need to push ourselves beyond where we actually thought we would maybe want to get to.
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