lowering my body fat percentage?

sunnyogachick

hi all!

so i've been working out a lot and have seen great results from changing my diet. i feel so much stronger and enjoy working out. my issue is my body fat percentage. how does one decrease the amount of body fat? is that what "cutting" is? as a girl, I'm not sure what exercises are most beneficial. is this all in cardio? any suggestions would be much appreciated! again, I enjoy the gym and I enjoy eating well. So I don't know what I need to do or change in order to become more muscle and less fat.

thanks

terbusha

Hi, Great question. Reducing your body fat % stems from a combination of a calorie deficit and exercise. A great form of exercise is heavy resistance training, including weight lifting. That's been the biggest component of my exercise routine that let me lose 64 lbs. Nutrition is also a big part of the equation though. Setting an appropriate calorie goal is pretty important. You first need to figure out where your maintenance calorie level is. I set my goal by progress I'm making towards my goal. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for a week. If you lose 1-2 lbs, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few weeks, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

Allan