Lowering body fat percentage

ricolifee

I'm 160cm, 54kg female.

I'm by no means "fat" but I checked my body fat percentage online (included measurements etc) and I'm at about 26%

I've read online that for a female to start to show more muscle definition (abs etc) that about 18% is on the right track.

So my question is, how long does it take to lose body fat percentage? How long will this goal realistically take me? Any tips?

I'm eating roughly 1000-1300 calories each day

nordlead2005

If you want to drop BF%, then what you really want to do is maintain as much muscle as possible while losing fat.

To do that, eat sufficient protein (0.64-0.82g/lb of bodyweight), lift heavy weights (A program like StrongLifts5x5, Starting Strength, Fierce 5, or others), and eat at a reasonable deficit (lose 1% of your bodyweight or less per week and you have to make sure you get sufficient nutrients).

based on what you posted you want to shed ~5.25kg of fat, and if we assume you lose 0.5kg/week and lose no muscle (we are just doing theoretical estimates, so this works for me) it would take ~10.5 weeks. Realistically it'll take longer for various reasons (consistently on point with the diet, maybe lose a tiny bit of muscle, improper starting estimate, slowing down the rate of loss as you get closer as 1% per week is tough, etc...). 21 weeks is more realistic, and if you go based on reducing BF% by 1 per month/month, then 34 weeks. If you do even worse (quit the diet, don't lift weights, or whatever), then it could be significantly longer.

Basically, don't worry about timeframe, just start a reasonable plan now and keep plugging away until you get the results you want.

scolaris

Thanks for that answer! It was very informative!

ricolifee

nordlead2005 wrote: »

If you want to drop BF%, then what you really want to do is maintain as much muscle as possible while losing fat.

To do that, eat sufficient protein (0.64-0.82g/lb of bodyweight), lift heavy weights (A program like StrongLifts5x5, Starting Strength, Fierce 5, or others), and eat at a reasonable deficit (lose 1% of your bodyweight or less per week and you have to make sure you get sufficient nutrients).

based on what you posted you want to shed ~5.25kg of fat, and if we assume you lose 0.5kg/week and lose no muscle (we are just doing theoretical estimates, so this works for me) it would take ~10.5 weeks. Realistically it'll take longer for various reasons (consistently on point with the diet, maybe lose a tiny bit of muscle, improper starting estimate, slowing down the rate of loss as you get closer as 1% per week is tough, etc...). 21 weeks is more realistic, and if you go based on reducing BF% by 1 per month/month, then 34 weeks. If you do even worse (quit the diet, don't lift weights, or whatever), then it could be significantly longer.

Basically, don't worry about timeframe, just start a reasonable plan now and keep plugging away until you get the results you want.

Brilliant answer, thank yoy