Man body fat % takes forever to lower am I doing it right?

Guitarjon

Hi guys, I understand the general gist of loosing weight and wanting to loose body fat not lean muscle. Therefore I always generally eat my protein allowence, often going over on Protein and under on fat and carbs.

I eat a lot of lean meat such as chicken, turkey and have a healthy dose of omega 3 and 6 type foods such as tuna, salmon, nut oil etc.

I have lost around 22kg but have only lost 7% body fat. Does this sound about right or am I loosing muscle? I started with 39% body fat and am now 32% using the same scales at the same time.

Im not really interested in my weight overall as I think the whole BMI thing is over rated and I would like to me leaner, even if it means I am heavier. I know I need to start with the weights to get the lean mass but my prime focus. I also understand that weight training aids fat loss too but I know in the past I have shifted my focus to weight training and got disheartned that the scale wasn't coming down! I'm hoping to start with the weights once I am around 25% body fat.

I have started running, I do a lot of weight orientated circuit training (low weight with a high intensity). I play squash and go swimming.

claremillerphoto

Bump

Guitarjon

Title should say My body fat percentage is taking forever to lower. Am I doing it right?

laddyboy

Are you eating a surplus or at a deficit? Showing your food log would help.

BeautyFromPain

To really lower body fat, lift HEAVY!

Also, how much lower is your fat and carbs? They're still very important macros that our body needs.

solarpower03

Eat properly in deficit. It is fairly easy to be around 15%. After that it becomes tough if you are targeting single digits.

AngelAura777

Try lean gains it might work for you www.leangains.com

sathor

to me, you failed to give certain info, IE, what was your weight when it was the higer BF% and the lower, and from that, what was your core weight at point A and at point B? Did lean body mass go up or down, etc.

robin52077

you're doing a lot of things right, especially what you eat, but I just want to say that you are wasting your time with low weight/excessive reps circuit training.
Switch that to heavy weight squats, bench, deadlift, rows, and presses, and you'll preserve more muscle.
The stronglifts 5X5 program is awesome.
Every other day, one day is squat bench row, the other is squat, overhead press, deadlift.
Start with light weight (or just the bar if you need to, 45 pounds). Do 5 sets of 5 with 30-60 seconds rest in between, then move on to the next exercise. Takes half an hour to 45 minutes every other day. Each time raise the weight by 5 pounds total for that exercise (2.5 lbs on each side of the bar). Deadlifts you raise by 10 lbs each time, 5 on each side.
When you fail 5X5 at a particular weight, try again next time without raising it. If you fail the same weight 3 tries in a row, deload by 10%, the go back to adding 5 lbs each time.

It works. A scrawny little girl like me is squatting 100 pounds and deadlifting 120.
Light weights will get you nowhere.

Hakarn

IE, what was your weight when it was the higer BF% and the lower

I agree with this, you cannot calculate muscle lose without knowing this information. If you were around 140 kg to start, then you probably did lose some muscle mass. If you were ~160 kg to start, you may have broken even. And if you were ~180 kg, then you may have gained some lean mass.

You would probably need to eat over 200 grams/day of protein to not lose muscle (again depending on your current size). I am not a nutrition expert, though, so do not quote me on that number

EDIT: It is normal to lose some muscle mass while dieting. I've read that runners can lose up to 20 pounds (9 kg) when training/dieting for a race. If you have been at a current weight/muscle amount for a while, it is easier to recover the muscle once you stop dieting than it would have been to gain it from nothing starting out.

unsound

Couple other points to keep in mind (I'm not an expert either): first, yes, changing your body composition is a slow process. You don't say how long you've been at it, but don't get discouraged. You're simultaneously metabolizing fat and building new muscle tissue -- that's a lot of work for your body to go through. Second, don't worry too much about avoiding healthy fats. My overall impression is that it's a good idea to keep carbs low, obviously you want to keep your protein high, but I don't think eating fats will hurt your effort. You should do a little research on body recomp strategies like Leangains and/or Intermittent Fasting. And finally, ditto what everyone else said about lifting heavy, heavy, heavy...

Guitarjon

Thanks for the input so far guys.

To clear things up a little.

On January 6th this year I had a body fat percentage of 39% and I weighed 131kg.

Today I weight 108kg and have 32% body fat.

I am 5 foot 10 if this helps.

Unfortunatly, I didn't think to start taking measurements until around march time and have again reduced all the numbers here.

A few years back I used to be a gym member but am no longer part of a gym. Therefore, I try to do everything I can either at home or outside. I don't have much equipment and the highest weight dumbells I have only go upto 5kg so 10 with them both. I have been dipping in and out of the 30 day shred which I need to start up again as I fear I'm starting to get floppy. I used to do heavy lifts at the gym as part of a total body work out but I'm trying to do as much body weight exercise as I can at the moment so I don't need to fork out for a gym membership.

I do quite fancy a gym membership again at some point but I'd rather get a bit further without if I can and use the gym as a reward. I know health comes before money but with work and lack of cash getting to the gym is gonna be hard. Obviously I am making time for exercise now but money is another worry for the next couple of years (until the marridge and honey moon is paid for).

I should add, I am not worried about healthy fats and quite clued up there. I am currently on a deficit through MFP to loose 2pounds a week which I am achieving. Sometimes more, sometimes less but round abouts.

unsound

For serious bodyweight workouts, have you seen the book You Are Your Own Gym, by Mark Lauren? It's a good investment.

sathor

On January 6th this year I had a body fat percentage of 39% and I weighed 131kg.

Today I weight 108kg and have 32% body fat.

...I didn't think to start taking measurements until around march time and have again reduced all the numbers here.

that third line is a red flag to me, but since you didn't provide the math, you started Jan 6 with a lean mass of 79.91 kg, and are now at 73.44 kg lean, meaning you lost overall 23 Kg, of which 6.5 Kg was 'meat' and 16.5 Kg was fat, ie, 72% of what you lost was fat, and 28% of what you lost was muscle.

---

for those that think in #:

that third line is a red flag to me, but since you didn't provide the math, you started Jan 6 with a lean mass of 175.8#, and are now at 161.6 # lean, meaning you lost overall 50.6 #, of which 14.3 # was 'meat' and 36.3 # was fat, ie, 72% of what you lost was fat, and 28% of what you lost was muscle.

strikerjb007

I hope you are using a fat caliper and not a crappy electronic scale.

To lower your body fat all you need is 4 things:

- Eat at a deficit (500 or more) but whatever you eat make sure it's good stuff.
- Cardio and some weight training to maintain your lean muscle.
- Patient.
- Commitment.

The absence of any of those 4 will not lead to 6 pack.

strikerjb007

I hope you are using a fat caliper and not a crappy electronic scale.

To lower your body fat all you need is 4 things:

- Eat at a deficit (500 or more) but whatever you eat make sure it's good stuff.
- Cardio and some weight training to maintain your lean muscle.
- Patient.
- Commitment.

The absence of any of those 4 will not lead to 6 pack.

Guitarjon

On January 6th this year I had a body fat percentage of 39% and I weighed 131kg.

Today I weight 108kg and have 32% body fat.

...I didn't think to start taking measurements until around march time and have again reduced all the numbers here.

that third line is a red flag to me, but since you didn't provide the math, you started Jan 6 with a lean mass of 79.91 kg, and are now at 73.44 kg lean, meaning you lost overall 23 Kg, of which 6.5 Kg was 'meat' and 16.5 Kg was fat, ie, 72% of what you lost was fat, and 28% of what you lost was muscle.

---

for those that think in #:

that third line is a red flag to me, but since you didn't provide the math, you started Jan 6 with a lean mass of 175.8#, and are now at 161.6 # lean, meaning you lost overall 50.6 #, of which 14.3 # was 'meat' and 36.3 # was fat, ie, 72% of what you lost was fat, and 28% of what you lost was muscle.

Thanks for those calculations. Handy to know. I guess most people expect to loose some muscle when on a deficit right?

Striker, I am using a crappy scale as its all I have to hand at the moment, my justification is that I tested it against my friends and it was the same. I also thought that even if the % it gives isn't totally correct it will still show the difference as long as I don't suddenly switch methods of measuring my body fat. I'm no where near 6 packs and it isn't really a goal of mine.