how long to reduce body fat%

jessicadawn1978

Hi all,

According to the calculation on a height/weight/body fat machine I am 28% body fat. I'd like to be around 20-21% and to achieve the reduction over the next 2-3 months or sooner

Can anyone tell me if this is a realistic expectation please? As I've no idea how long it could take to change body composition. Of course I realise diet and exercise are the biggest contributors to changing composition, and I need to address the excess sugar in my diet as a priority to reduce fat but could anyone help with expectation based on the following

Height - 4"10
CW - 112 lb
Body fat 28%
Workout - 6 days per week 45 mins lifting (heavy) 45 mins HIIT cardio (spin cycle intervals) generally by burn approx 500 calories per session
Calorie intake 1200 most days, up to 1400/1500 once or twice per week
Protein 100gm on lifting days

Changes I intend to make in next week to diet - reduce refined sugar, reduce alcohol (that and chocolate are my sugar contributors),


Thank you for your help, pics on my profile if that helps. Also I'm on vacation currently so my diary has not been accurate or a true reflection in the last two weeks in case you wish to look

StrictlyPro

You personally should probably lose at most 1lb\week if you want to maintain whatever muscle mass you have.

FP4HSharon

If you're exercising & eating right, I've found that you tend to lose an average of about 1% body fat, w/every 2 lbs you lose. But when you are VERY close to your goal weight (this does not apply to earlier in your journey), then your weight may go up. When I was at 15% I weighed 118.5, but just going down in body fat to 14%, my weight went up to 124 & stayed there.

EDollah

To go from 28 to 20 percent body fat at your weight (112 lbs) you'd need to lose 11-12 pounds of fat and no muscle. That sounds doable. If you do lose some muscle you would need to lose a corresponding amount of fat to achieve 20% bfp.

stepplax

I would not really put much trust in machines that tell you bf %s. The protein seems a little low to me personally. I based my current macros(protein vs carbs vs fat) /calories on a combination of IIFYM.com and this article here: http://www.simplyshredded.com/layne-norton-the-most-effective-cutting-diet.html . Additionally, I don't change my diet for off days. TDEE incorporates activity level and basing your calorie intake off it would do so also. Note that TDEE is an estimation and should be tinkered with if results are not in line. 1-1.5 pounds a week seems to be the standard. Good luck!

jessicadawn1978

Thank you all, I've tried the IIFYM calculator that is really useful as I didn't know where to start with macros thank you!

11-12 lb sounds a lot more to lose but appreciate that is fat loss to be replaced with muscle gain is that right?

j6o4

You should aim for 0.5-1 lb lost a week and that will help you get to your goal within 2-3 months