Fatter than normal for my weight and height?

canadianman1995

First off, I'm 5'8 163lbs but I've lost 40lbs since January, I used to be around 200lbs. I have seen a lot of progress but I feel like at 163lbs I'm supposed to have less fat than this. My thighs are still pretty big and my stomach and chest is still full of fat. I follow a good diet, 1500 calories and not a single food in my diet is unhealthy. I do eat a lot of sugar though so I'm usually 20 grams over my sugar intake but I cant see that being a huge issue.
I calculated my body fat %, and I'm at 14.50% at the moment. I took some pictures to give you guys a better idea of what I look like and maybe you guys could tell me if I look normal for 163lbs and I'm just being self conscious or if I look abnormal for 163lbs and 5'8.
I should mention that I also work out maybe once a week which I know I need to improve on...
Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/4eoxX

SLLRunner

Hi,

Have you tried weight lifting?

Are you sure you're only 14.50% body fat? That sounds kind of low to me, but I could be wrong.

canadianman1995

SLLRunner wrote: »

Hi,

Have you tried weight lifting?

Are you sure you're only 14.50% body fat? That sounds kind of low to me, but I could be wrong.

That's what it came up when I measured myself. I even looked up the different measurements online to make sure I was doing them correctly so I'm pretty its around 14%.

and nah I don't have the equipment to do it at home and I can't start going to the gym because the very little amount of money I make is going towards buying a car.

greaseswabber

Look up body weight exercises. There is plenty you can do at home with no equipment. I'll spot you one

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

canadianman1995

greaseswabber wrote: »

Look up body weight exercises. There is plenty you can do at home with no equipment. I'll spot you one

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

I think I might start doing that but how many times should I do it? Just once a day or should I do multiple sets? And will this help me loose excess fat?

Kida_Adeylne

canadianman1995 wrote: »

greaseswabber wrote: »

Look up body weight exercises. There is plenty you can do at home with no equipment. I'll spot you one

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

I think I might start doing that but how many times should I do it? Just once a day or should I do multiple sets? And will this help me loose excess fat?

I do three 'sets' of this exercise as he suggests, 3 times a week. This won't make you loose fat, per se, but it will increase your muscle mass if you currently don't do any strength. If you maintained your current weight while doing strength training, your body composition will change so that you have more lean tissue. Because lean tissue is denser than fat, someone who is your weight/height could have a dramatically different (fitter) look than you because they have more muscle to fat.

canadianman1995

Kida_Adeylne wrote: »

canadianman1995 wrote: »

greaseswabber wrote: »

Look up body weight exercises. There is plenty you can do at home with no equipment. I'll spot you one

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

I think I might start doing that but how many times should I do it? Just once a day or should I do multiple sets? And will this help me loose excess fat?

I do three 'sets' of this exercise as he suggests, 3 times a week. This won't make you loose fat, per se, but it will increase your muscle mass if you currently don't do any strength. If you maintained your current weight while doing strength training, your body composition will change so that you have more lean tissue. Because lean tissue is denser than fat, someone who is your weight/height could have a dramatically different (fitter) look than you because they have more muscle to fat.

Alright thanks! And I also have a lot of fat down in my hips and thighs. My thighs are 24 inches and I would like to get them skinnier, not girly skinny but just normal looking mainly because I don't want to have to wear looser fit jeans and I don't like how built legs look. Would these same exercises help my thighs get skinnier or would I have to do other types of exercises?

MKEgal

Try this body fat calculator, based on measurements.
http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy
If nothing else, it will give you a second opinion.
The chart it gives for reference says that 14.5% is in the fit range for men.

Looking at your pictures, yes, you still have some toning & fat loss to accomplish, but you're not doing too bad so far. I'd be more concerned with the abdominal fat than the legs, because abdominal fat is linked to various bad health outcomes.

But either way, the way to change your shape is to eat less than your body needs, do cardio exercise, and resistance training (even body-weight exercises).
Both weightlifting and high-intensity interval cardio have similar after-burns, which are both higher & for longer than steady-state cardio. See the study abstract here: url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25675374

And much as it's frustrating, you can't really affect where the fat comes off. Look at your male relatives to see a family pattern. What you can affect is the underlying muscle, how you'll look once the fat goes away.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Honestly you just look like you've lost 40 lbs in 3 months. When you lose that quickly, especially without resistance training, you can end up sacrificing muscle.

I don't think you look bad at all though and I would second the recommendation to lift or do body weight exercise.

It doesn't really matter what your exact body fat % is imo. It's a good idea to have a ballpark idea because you want to make sure you're getting enough protein. The normal recommendation is 1 gram of protein per pound of lean mass, so if you truly are around 15% body fat then that means 85% of your weight is lean mass. So you'd eat 0.85 x 163 or 138 grams of protein. But other than that, just go by what you see in the mirror. Body fat calculators are pretty inaccurate and so are the scales that claim to read it.

Finally, 1500 calories is not enough for a man. You should be eating a fair bit more. Generally 1800 is recommended as a bottom limit for men, 1200 for women. The larger your deficit the greater the loss of lean mass, especially if you're not getting adequate protein.

Sued0nim

canadianman1995 wrote: »

First off, I'm 5'8 163lbs but I've lost 40lbs since January, I used to be around 200lbs. I have seen a lot of progress but I feel like at 163lbs I'm supposed to have less fat than this. My thighs are still pretty big and my stomach and chest is still full of fat. I follow a good diet, 1500 calories and not a single food in my diet is unhealthy. I do eat a lot of sugar though so I'm usually 20 grams over my sugar intake but I cant see that being a huge issue.
I calculated my body fat %, and I'm at 14.50% at the moment. I took some pictures to give you guys a better idea of what I look like and maybe you guys could tell me if I look normal for 163lbs and I'm just being self conscious or if I look abnormal for 163lbs and 5'8.
I should mention that I also work out maybe once a week which I know I need to improve on...
Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/4eoxX

You're my height and roughly my weight and I am at target weight and I'm a girl, but it's about body composition not actual weight, if you had the right musculature you could be very happy at this weight (I am)

If you're worried about your body composition you need to either bulk and cut or recomp.

Either way you need to build muscle through a progressive lifting programme. Personally I'd eat at maintenance and get into a decent lifting programme like stronglifts5x5 (there are a large number of others)