Body Fat and Weight loss Goal?

LPC020409

I need some help setting my goal for weight loss. I’ve lost a little over 40 pounds so far and bought a scale yesterday that measures body fat. Here are the figures it gave me (I’m going off of memory because I forgot my notes at home):

Weight: 185
Percent body fat: 39%
Pounds of body fat: 72

So my first goal is to get below my body fat percentage below 30% and at some point I would like to be below 25%. Can someone help me figure out how many pounds I should lose to reach my goals? I don’t know if I losing 7 pounds would get me below 30%. Thanks for your help.

timlord

just concentrate on inches and BF % lost
I can't stress enough how the scales suck. Weight fluctuates so much because of water, stress, etc
If you lose 10 inches and 10 per body fat isnt that better than 10 pounds? That 10 pounds can be water!
I would be glad to help in any way
Good Luck!

sophjakesmom

it will depend on how much exercise you get in. I would definitely incorporate strength training and cardio into your workout schedule. That will help you loss fat and keep muscle, which is critical to body fat percentage.

Good luck to you!:drinker:

erickirb

I need some help setting my goal for weight loss. I’ve lost a little over 40 pounds so far and bought a scale yesterday that measures body fat. Here are the figures it gave me (I’m going off of memory because I forgot my notes at home):

Weight: 185
Percent body fat: 39%
Pounds of body fat: 72

So my first goal is to get below my body fat percentage below 30% and at some point I would like to be below 25%. Can someone help me figure out how many pounds I should lose to reach my goals? I don’t know if I losing 7 pounds would get me below 30%. Thanks for your help.

This is next to impossible to figure out as you will lose muscle while losing weight. To limit the amount of muscle you do lose make sure to get a lot of protein 20-30% of total calories should suffice (MFP defaults to 15%) and make sure your caloric deficit is not too large (a goal of 0.5 or 1lb loss per week is recommended), and you must do strength training to ensure you wont lose much muscle

If you lost 7 lbs and 100% was from fat that would be you at 65 lbs of fat at 178 lbs which would be 36.5%. So you would have to lose a lot more than 7 lbs of fat to have your BF% below 30%. Assuming you lose all fat and no muscle you would have to lose 24 lbs to be less than 30% BF, assuming the BF% is correct. this would put you at 48 lbs of fat at 161lbs for 29.8% BF, but most likely if you lose 24 lbs of fat you would also lose 2-5 lbs of muscle which means you would have to lose 30+ lbs to get you BF% below 30%

thetrishwarp

Based on my calculations, you need to lose 19lbs to have a body fat % of 29%.

185 x .29 = 53
53 + 113 (lean body mass: weight - lbs of body fat) = 166.
185 - 166 = 19

mzenzer

It's going to change over time but this site has the formula you can use to figure it out.

http://www.healthchecksystems.com/bodyfat.htm

erickirb

Based on my calculations, you need to lose 19lbs to have a body fat % of 29%.

185 x .29 = 53
53 + 113 (lean body mass: weight - lbs of body fat) = 166.
185 - 166 = 19

??

if she lost 19 lbs she would have 53 lbs of fat at 166 lbs which would be a BF% of 32% (53/166), your calculation assumes she would still be 185lbs 53/185=28.6%

LPC020409

Thanks. I workout most days doing a mix of cardio and strenght. I lost a good part of my weight doing cardio alone but just recently started doing weights.

LPC020409

Thanks. I didn't factor in losing muscle as well as fat while losing weight. I've recently started trying to get more good protein in my diet and not just focusing on low calorie or low fat foods. When my scale tells me I've hit my goal of being below 30% bodfat, I plan on getting my body fat measured by a trainer both as a reward and to see how if scale is telling me the truth.

LPC020409

Thanks. I'm going to check out that link.