The key to drastically dropping your body fat and creating the lean, chiseled physique your after is by getting into something called a -fat loss phase or a -body recomposition.

Designed to drastically lower your body fat  while  increasing your strength on key lifts – meaning that you’ll be able to simultaneously drop your body fat AND gain muscle mass IF done properly – such that when you do lean down, you’re not simply skinny.  You’re shredded.

BUT the problem is – most people in your situation  don’t  go about doing this properly.

Instead, they’re often doing at least one, or in some cases, all of the following:

1) Not progressing in the gym

2) Severely restricting calories.

3) Performing excessive cardio

Why is this an issue?

Well, let’s start – point 1.

When you have a decent amount of muscle you can look good at higher levels of body fat than those – less muscle, simply meaning that; performing the  right  exercises and consistently getting stronger on them is what you need to prioritize – as this will be the key in you developing adequate muscle mass in the right places.

The problem – point 2?

Eating too little often does more harm than good, especially in the case of someone looking to lean down.

In fact, as shown in this  2009 paper  by Redman and colleagues:

“Excessive calorie restriction causes a dramatic drop in your metabolism which prevents further fat loss and significant muscle loss.”

What happens when you throw in point 3 and add excessive cardio into the mix?

Well, it just worsens the whole problem. Since we know based on this  2011 meta-analysis  from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning research:

“The more cardio an individual performs and the longer the duration of each session, the more it interferes – muscle size and strength gains.

And as a result, you end up at virtually the same body fat you started out at but – less muscle, AKA the -skinny fat body type.

BUT, on the other hand, when the  right  methods are used here’s what happens.