HOW to decrease body fat?!

gcineas

I realize that having a low body fat percentage is a much more accurate marker of someone's level of fitness. Right now I am at a decent weight for my height (128 at 5'6") but my body fat percentage is 24%. At 24% this is a very high level of body fat. I can make the number on the scale go down but I can't seem to make my body fat percentage go down. Ideally, I would like t o be anywhere between 14-18% body fat. Right now I look slim but I have no tone or definition and I HATE the skinny fat look.

Can someone please help shed light on HOW to decrease my body fat percentage? Please don't leave vague answers like I need to eat more or lift more... I need details.

To give you an idea of my regimen/lifestyle , I work out around 6 days a week and I try to do it in 2 sessions. One session for cardio and one session for weightlifting or circuit training. Right now I pretty much only eat raw foods --for protein I eat tuna twice a day and drink a protein shake at lease once a day. I have trouble eating all my required calories for the day but that is something I am working on. I can lose weight at the snap of a finger but again my body fat doesn't budge.

PLEASE HELP.



EDIT: I'm a girl. I want to have a low body fat percentage because I like the look. In terms of working out I lift pretty heavy. I even worked out with a body builder for two months for training. During this time I had my *kitten* kicked doing things from power lifting to circuit training. I lost massive amounts of weight but still never got that definition or tone... something is not adding up. I also do HITT cardio about 3 times a week.

Angela4Health

bump

bparr

tag for later reading.

teebeegeebee

Where are you obtaining your body fat percentage figure from?
sounds like something does not add up ?
have you had someone else calculate the figures for you ??

Christyp123

I think you should research the effects of not eating your recommended amount of calories while working out. It sounds like you are doing all the right things (including weights, not just cardio), except for the lack of calories. That's the red flag. You have to fuel the machine. I hope you are able to figure out what works for you. Good luck.

CharlieJuliette

Bump...

I suspect the answer will be to keep working at it. It takes time to build muscle. But I'd love to hear the expert view on this.

ZachyABaby

I'm 14.25% BF. It happened for me with changing to a low(er) carb lifestyle. Before switching over to lower carb I had the same dilemna. Would maintain around 5-10 lbs loss anytime I got into the gym, but still looked puffy.

You're not really being specific enough about your workout regimen, either. I lift heavy so naturally I've had gains in muscle mass. Muscle mass burns more fat. All the "quick reps, high reps!" stuff is bull**** and will leave you about where you're at now.

Russellb97

Log your calories of course.

Then eat the majority of your calories at night and avoid carbs during the day.

Keep your daily carbs to 25%, fat 25-35% and Protein 40-50%

Shoot for 20 or less net carbs before 5pm, the rest after 5pm. Allows for a pretty normal dinner!

Doing this I went from 220lbs with 12%bf to 205lbs and 8% bf

Less day carbs forces your body to burn more fat for energy while your metabolism is peaking.

nursegessica

as far as i know.... low fat high protein diet with plenty of water intake. must do way more strength training (even if that means more push-ups and old school exercises).... pretty much what i was taught at my weight loss clinic

StateOfActivity

14-18% body fat is very very low. Around 20% is where you'll start to see muscle definition.

If you want to gain muscle, you can't be at a caloric deficit. You need to be eating more than your maintenance calories, which will probably be the hardest for you. This means you have to eat all your exercise calories, PLUS some. Also, you need to be getting enough protein, 1g per pound of lean body mass- which means somewhere around 100g of protein a day.

liagarden

off subject but IMHO (and it's not just opinion: lots of warnings on the web, in Whole foods, etc) I would not eat tuna every day or twice a day, due to amount of mercury in the large fish)

shander7

bump, I'm in the skinny fat group too, I'm 5'5 and 110, but still look too soft for my liking.. no clue what my body fat is though.. how do you figure that out?

ZachyABaby

google it.
http://www.linear-software.com/online.html
6 different ways to calculate.

BobertC

The best way I know is to increase the weight you are lifting and change up your cardio with something like circuit training. just doing a "normal" routine workout will just maintain

gcineas

I'm obsessed with tuna...is it really bad?

mkennedym

first off, you might want to try getting a real body fat measurement from a doctor. scales are error prone when it comes to body fat detection.

next, if you lose weight your body fat percentage will decline. if it is really bothering you, lose weight until you get to 16-18% and then try to put on half a pound of muscle a week (slowly so that fat doesn't build up again on you, and if a little does then you know you can get rid of it).

weight lifting should be a tough workout, don't just go through the motions. your aerobic exercise should also be tough. you should be sweating. if you aren't sweating, you are basically wasting your time because your aerobic exercise isn't strenuous enough to burn a lot of calories quickly.

you probably don't need to exercise twice a day for 6 days. try to do cardio (real cardio, heart rate in the 70-80% of max range) 4 days a week and lift weights 3 days a week. focus on really working your muscles when you do weight lifting.

and for your diet, just keep a 500 calorie restriction on it and the fat will melt off (especially if you are keeping consistent with your exercise).

drink plenty of water
take a multivitamin

shaunshaikh

It's impossible to say without looking at your diet.

alpha2omega

The body breaksdown the food you eat, specifically Carbohydrates, into glucose, fructose, and galactose. Glucose is what fuels muscle contraction. Any glucose not needed right away gets stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen. Once these glycogen stores are filled, the remaining glycogen gets stored as bodyfat. When you exercise, the body uses the stored glycogen in your muscles and liver first. Once these reserves are exhausted, the body will start using stored glycogen(bodyfat) as energy to fuel your muscles. That's why they say you typically start to burn fat after 20 minutes of cardio. Losing bodyfat has to do mostly with balancing your diet. If you eat too many carbs, a portion of it will be stored as bodyfat. If you eat to little carbs, the body will start to breakdown protein for its glycogen needs. Protein is needed to maintain and create lean muscle. If your body starts to break down protein, your muscles will be starved of the proper nutrients and result in less lean muscle. The key is to lose weight slowly to ensure your burning fat and not muscle. Typically, you don't want to lose more than 2 pounds per week to ensure your maintaining as much lean muscle as possible. Eating the proper amount of fats and protein are also vital since they also provide additional fuel and help to maintain muscle mass. You seem to be doing the needed resistance training to maintain muscle and cardio to aid in fat burning so I would definitely concentrate on your food intake and make sure you are providing your body what it needs. At your weight, a small difference in calorie intake could lead your body into starvation mode. This means you should definitely be eating your exercise calories.

AlwaysWanderer

bump

Bviera

Are you female? Women's bodies are designed to have a higher fat percentage than men (and it also varies according to genetics and race, etc.). 24% fat content is pretty healthy and it's my understanding only hardcore athletes are really in the 14-18% level. If you're female, any advice that's worked for men might not apply in your case.

seckler

BUMP!!!

liagarden

Not "bad." Just the bigger the fish (higher up the food chain) the more toxins accumulate. One reason people think eating meat increases risk of cancer.
It is a fact that high levels of mercury are found in tuna, also swordfish, etc. i had a brochure around here somewhere showing the safest fish to eat. But, if you start thinking about that, you start thinking about over-fishing, endangered fish, "farm-raised" vs. wild, etc. I drive myself crazy.
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (Michael Pollan--many excellent books) More info later.

Do you like canned salmon? I do. I clean it up (skin and bones), little mayo, wine or balsamic vineger, capers, chopped onion. Yum! It's easy to poach a chunk of fresh wild salmon--or even pan-fry (sautee)---with a little lemon pepper, and eat it for 2 or 3 days with a few romaine leaves. Quick lunch.