How do you decrease your body fat percentage?

kassiebby1124

Like, is there a way to do it? People keep talking about it...Is it just exercise and diet?

GauchoMark

more specifically, diet and lifting weights.

kierstin1976

Your diet has to be pretty clean and you can't eat what you want as long as you lose weight. Strength training and cardio.

GauchoMark

actually, I should expand that a little. You can decrease body fat % just by losing weight as long as you maintain your current muscle mass. Any exercise and the proper diet will help with this, but you tend to lose some muscle along with fat if you only do cardio and diet. To prevent this muscle loss, you need to also do some weight training and make sure you are eating an appropriate amount of protein.

kassiebby1124

What constitutes a "clean" diet? I just eat enough to get to my cal intake but it's just a combination of what I've eaten...

GauchoMark

my idea of "clean" eating differs from a lot of people on here, but in my book you set up your carb/protein/fat macro goals and stick to them. I use 40% carb, 35% protein, and 25% fat. If you can meet your macro goals eating pizza, hamburgers, and french fries and stay inside of your calorie limits, then more power to you!

Obviously, if you set healthy macros, it is going to force you to eat a certain way. In my case, if I eat a hamburger, I would probably have to really limit fat intake the rest of the day. It forces your diet to be more balanced and doesn't let you get too "heavy" in any one area.

As a side note, I also try to keep an eye on sodium since it can cause a lot of water issues and isn't good for you anyways.

kassiebby1124

I tried to Google what a macro is, but I couldn't quite grasp the concept..What is it?

GauchoMark

macro-nutrient. Essentially how much protein, fat, and carbohydrate makes up your diet. Fat has about 9 calories/gram and carbs and protein has about 4.

MFP allows you to set up percentages for these things using the advanced setting for your goals. As a rule of thumb, most people that are trying to maintain muscle mass recommend 0.75-1 gram of protein per lb of lean body weight, but you can do some research on it and decide what seems best for you and your fitness goals.