How low is too low of an extended caloric reduction to try to get lean?

Hey everyone, so I've been training pretty consistently for a few years now and have gone through a few longer cycles of bulking and cutting. I'm 5'9 and began working out at about 132~ish lbs and was very skinny. After a few years of bulking/cutting and working out 3/4 times a week I was at about 170lbs (I use a rolling average of a consistent days in a row to calculate my weight) in April of this year (I would say around 20-22% bodyfat). I was eating about 2800-3000 calories at that time and putting on 0.5~ish lbs per week. Since then I have continued cutting slowly and am now at 160 lbs and visually look like I am about 15-16% bodyfat (I can see my abs but it doesn't look super impressive by any means). I have been slowly tapering down my calories about 100 calories a week every time I didnt see a decrease on the scale for that week and I am now at the point where I am at 1800 calories, and have been doing 1-3 HIIT sessions a week of biking (6-7 sets each) so I don't have to drop the calories any further. Macros are at Fat: 41g, Carbs: 203g, Protein 155g. I was doing workouts I developed in my Kinesiology undergrad when I first started working out, then I did All Pro's Beginner Routine for about a year or so and for the last 8-10 months I've been doing the Fierce 5 Novice Routine but still manage to increase my weight nearly every week or so. Therefore I have stuck to this program and will probably advance to the intermediate program soon. I feel like by the end of my bulk I had developed a pretty good muscle and strength base and had reason to cut because I wanted to get relatively lean.

So now that you know all that. What would you recommend I do at this point? I would like to continue to lose weight maybe to 152~ish pounds (hopefully around 9-12% bodyfat) in order to be lean and see abs more defined/lose the remaining adipose still on the hips/back so that I can have a defined 6 pack, vascularity, etc. The issue is that I don't think I can drop the calories lower than at the point I am currently at and the cardio is already pretty intense and it doesn't seem likely to be able to add any more and still have the proper recovery. I'm afraid it will definitely be detrimental to my workouts and strength to a significant degree. Obviously there are also many healthy implications as to why I don't want to drop my calories anymore. Please let me know what you recommend. Thank you!


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