What is the most effective way for a female endomorph (40 + age) to get rid of the last bit of excess body fat around the waist and hips. I have dropped from 32% bf to 20% and follow a strict high-protein and veg diet. I also do intense weight training and crossfit workouts 4 times a week. Recommend

I have a hard time picturing a female endomorph at 20% body. Considering the average female has about 25% body fat, and ectomorphs still tend not to be below 16%, that's not a criticism, but more of a compliment. You're either doing extremely well for an endomorph or perhaps you're not as much of an endomorph as you may have been led to believe. Based on this information I'd say you're probably more of a mesomorph at that body fat percentage. 'Essential' female body fat is 12-14%, when you get down into that range it typically expresses itself as a physical problem, things like false anorexia and menstruation issues tend to present themselves.. That being said... Try carb cycling. The body responds to change with adaptation. If you've been following the same diet for an extended period of time the body has adapted to that the same way it would adjust to your workouts if they were always the same. Carbs get a bad rep, but manipulating carbs is actually one of the most effective dieting strategies (ask any bodybuilder or figure competitor you know) you could utilize. Hence why a lot of people have success initially on high protein, low carbohydrate diets (at least at first). Women in particular tend to make the mistake of being strict with their carb intake, when there is evidence to suggest that they tend to need more carbohydrates than men (as a percentage of calories). The evidence comes down to hormone regulation. Women secrete more Growth Hormone (GH) than Men (percentage wise, and probably because they have significantly less Testosterone), low carbohydrate diets, plus a lot of hard training, is stress to the body (any way you cut it). This kind of stress increases GH even more, which can lead to GH resistance, which bumps up it's secretion even more. You've probably heard of Insulin Resistance (not good), well GH resistance is also potentially bad (again more so in women due to secretion levels). This saturation can affect a bunch of other hormones like IGF-1, Leptin, Insulin, Somatostatin, which in turn can mess with the adrenal hormones, and potentially thyroid hormones, essentially throwing the female body out of whack. See when you originally went on this diet, your homeostasis (the balance within your body) was altered. And initially cutting out the carbohydrates probably boosted your GH in a positive way, increasing insulin sensitivity (the opposite of resistance) and altering the other hormones I mentioned above in a good way. Good enough to facilitate losing 12% body fat. After a while though your body starts to habituate to this diet, and what was formally a sweet spot in your dieting has now swung in the opposite direction, making the last few percentage points harder to lose. Now that you've habituated to the diet, the best way to shake free of your current plateau is to make changes to it. Now there are a lot of ways to carb cycle. There are also a lot of carbohydrate options available to you that will work. The easiest way to start carb cycling is to eat a higher amount of calories via carbohydrates on training days. It's ideal to put them post-workout of course. Now it sounds like you're eating paleo, but you don't specify so I have no idea what your preference for consumption might be. Maybe you're just eating protein and veggie as a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. Anyway, you can increase your carbohydrate consumption enough with paleo sources if you are, and if you're not, I like to mix in grain carbohydrates into the mix too depending on tolerance. They can be the source of some good nutrients when consumed in moderation. I know, grains are bad right? No...not really...not any more than fat was bad for you 20 years ago. Add a serving (depending on tolerance, some people legitimately have issues with gluten for instance, which is easily avoidable) of something like the following post-workout: Sweet Potatoes/Yams Potatoes (I know another no-no right? Potatoes get a bad rep too) Other starchy tubers like Yuca, Beets, Carrots (you'll need slightly more of these than you would potato variations or yams, due to carb quantity) Fruit, especially those higher in sugar content like bananas, grapes, dates, etc... Sprouted and/or Soaked Legumes/Beans (Lentils, Split Peas, Black Beans, etc...) Whole relatively unprocessed grains and starchy seeds (a starchy seed being amaranth or quinoa for example, as opposed to sesame or sunflower seeds). Soaking/sprouting negates much of the anti-nutrients some people hear about. I'm partial to Steel Cut Oats or Rice personally, but even sprouted flour-less bread works too. Essentially it should look like you're consuming 300 or so extra calories on workout days only, then consuming what you would normally consume on non-training days. However, you might have to tweak things. Maybe you should eat some tubers or legume with most meals even on non-training days (because you're in a chronic calorie deprivation). You can troubleshoot this approach by potentially adding carbohydrates to other meals and moving the most simple carbohydrates to post-workout. Working with a coach can really help. Another way to carb cycle that is popular in a variety of diets, particularly the 'Slow Carb' diet, is a cheat day. Essentially you give yourself an opportunity to provide a little energy balance by consuming the above carbohydrates in higher quantity one day a week (not as easy, nor as effective in my opinion, and it's important to remember that the slow-carb diet uses legumes at every meal already, so the carb disproportion isn't as great. Change is what is important here though). In this case your cheat day is often significantly higher in calories than the other days, but provides a little sanity to an otherwise restrictive diet. Yet another way to carb cycle is one I dig a little bit more than just a cheat day in terms of practicality, though you may of heard it referred to as the 'Anabolic Diet.' This approach is that you consuming mostly protein, healthy fats and minimal carbohydrates during the week and on weekends you switch the fats out for carbohydrates. This means 2 days a week of higher than normal caloric intake, but it is also very effective for fat loss purposes and weight maintenance. There are also other carbohydrate manipulation (cycling) diets like Carb-Back Loading and Carb-Nite Solution which use a similar carb cycling trick (Carb Nite Solution is more for weight/fat loss though), but if you're interested I suggest you pick up the book to troubleshoot that approach, it's a little more complicated than I can do justice to here. And carb cycling can get even more detailed in the bodybuilding and figure communities as they use it for show prep. Dry carbs and water manipulation, crazy stuff... Anyway, lastly, try to reduce the stress in your life. Take up meditation. Introduce Yoga or other relaxation techniques into your routine. Take vacations. Stretch, take Epsom Salt Bathes, use Jacuzzi's/hot tubs/saunas/steamrooms. Things that calm you down and stimulate the nervous system in soothing ways. Hard exercise and caloric restriction (via high protein, low carb dieting) is interpreted as stress by your body the same as any other. Stress hinders progress, and contributes to hormonal issues. If you have a high stress job, and you combine that with inadequate caloric intake, plus really hard workouts, you have a very big hurdle to overcome for that last little bit of fat/weight. Give your body a little bit of a break.

1. Tim Ferriss's Slow Carb diet 2. Low intensity fasted cardio in the morning