What is an average body fat % loss timeframe?

andeey

For weight loss, we hear an average of 1-2 pounds per week as average/reasonable. What about body fat % loss? Assuming the same method is used consistently, what body fat % loss is generally accepted as average or reasonable and over what time frame (i.e., 2% loss over 1 week)?

Disclaimer: not looking for a "quick fix" in this area or debate over the best methods of measuring, just checking some results I've been getting and after searching the forums, haven't found anything on rate of BF% loss. Cheers!

Acg67

It would depend on what your current bf is, the fatter you are, the more you can lose per month, the leaner you are the less you can

andeey

It would depend on what your current bf is, the fatter you are, the more you can lose per month, the leaner you are the less you can

Same as losing body weight, no?

But we still hear of "averages" on losing weight and I'm just looking for the same for BF%, if it exists.

KarmaxKitty

I, too, had this same question this morning. I think it might be either a complicated question or a complicated answer. Looking forward to seeing the answers.

WaterBunnie

This isn't really possible to answer because a very overweight person may lose 5lbs in a week against a slimmer person's 1lb but the percentage of the total they have to lose may be much less than the slimmer person's by comparison when you are talking fat percentages.

SammieGetsFit

"While it is a well-accepted guideline that you should aim to lose no more than 1 to 2 lbs. per week, body fat percentage loss has not been as well studied and no official guidelines exist. However, the American Council on Exercise says that a 1 percent body fat loss per month is generally safe and attainable.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/345345-healthy-body-fat-percentage-loss/#ixzz20oC5XXGL"

Also:

"You can expect, on average, to lose 1% to 3% of your body fat per month, but the range of loss varies widely between individuals because there are so many variables that affect body composition, including age, gender, amount of body fat and muscle mass that you start with, and a myriad of hormones that control how efficient your body is at storing fat and metabolizing it. Unlike body weight, where no more than two pounds per week of loss is recommended, there are no standards or guidelines for how quickly to lose body fat or gain muscle because there hasn't been enough research to determine what a healthy body fat percentage is." http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=79216

"Unlike the well-researched and accepted guideline that an individual should lose no more than 1-2 pounds per week, body fat percentage loss is not as well studied and no official guidelines have been published. Still, most experts agree that a 1% loss per month is generally safe and doable. However, it is important to recognize that most methods of measuring body fat (such as calipers, bioelectrical impedance analysis, etc) are prone to measurement error and detection of small changes in body fat percentage is just as likely due to this error as it is an actual change in body fat. Thus, it’s best to wait a couple of months to recheck body composition to see if you’ve made progress." http://www.acefitness.org/blog/112/what-are-the-guidelines-for-percentage-of-body-fat

Goal_Line

On average my percent body fat dropped 1% every 2.5 weeks. Through the first part of my journey.

I totally agree that this is a very complex question that an average will probably be meaningless. It depends where you start, the nature of your workouts, nutrition, rate of fat loss, etc.

Mcmilligen

My current goal is to get down to 18% body fat, as my weight alone is not a clear representation of where I really am. I am also interested to hear some responses!

Spartan_Maker

Anecdotally, in November of 2011, I was 308 lbs. and 41.7% body fat. Today, eight months later, I'm 208 lbs. and 19.7% body fat. On average, then, I've lost 12.5 lbs. and 2.75% body fat per month.

For most of my journey, I aggressively restricted calories and carbohydrates -- typically eating 10% above BMR, 100 grams of carbs or less, and exercising two hours a day (strength training and low intensity cardio). My protein intake was generally equal to my lean body mass -- around 170 grams a day.

chivalryder

That all depends on the composition of the person losing weight.

I'll take myself as an example:

When I started, I was 240 lbs with a BF% of 37% (according to my scale).

My starting lean mass was 151 lbs, so I had 88.9 lbs of fat. My goal BF% is 15%. Assuming I gain no muscle mass at all, that would make my goal weight 174 lbs.

Now, if I were to lose 2 lbs/week, for the first few weeks my BF% would drop by about 0.5%/week. The last few weeks, it would be going down by about 1%/week.

If your bf were a lot heavier than I am, his BF% would drop much slower in the beginning, and increase very, very gradually over time.

Dropping 2% of my BF% in a week would mean I would have to lose 6 lbs/week when starting off. That would be incredibly unhealthy.

Just go by the pounds for weekly goals, but make BF% your ultimate goal.

Sarauk2sf

It would depend on what your current bf is, the fatter you are, the more you can lose per month, the leaner you are the less you can

Same as losing body weight, no?

But we still hear of "averages" on losing weight and I'm just looking for the same for BF%, if it exists.

Are you looking at what your goal deficit/weight loss should be based on your current BF% or what an average expected BF% loss is?

As a rule of thumb, and assuming you are maintaining as much LBM as possible. you will lose about 75% BF and 25% LBM for every lb lost. Obviously, this is a huge generalization, but, as I say, its a good rule of thumb.

yoovie

seriously its honest to god different for everyone.

closest ive heard is, depending on your bf% (lower bf% having a slower loss rate) anywhere from 1-4% loss per month - but obviously thats a HUGE span.

Why dont you see HOW MUCH you can lose in ONE MONTH and make your own personalized chart to track progress.

escloflowneCHANGED

I average about 2% per month

andeey

Thank you to everyone for your answers and resources shared!

heybales

It would depend on what your current bf is, the fatter you are, the more you can lose per month, the leaner you are the less you can

Same as losing body weight, no?

But we still hear of "averages" on losing weight and I'm just looking for the same for BF%, if it exists.

Can't really express it that way though if you think about it. Because 2 lb loss is going to translate to different % of bodyfat depending on weight of person and their percentage of bodyfat.
As as you lose weight the same 2lbs means more bodyfat, if possible to still maintain that high a loss.

200 lb person and 150 lb person with 30% body fat.
60 lbs fat compared to 45 lbs fat.

If each loses 2 lbs and it happens to be fat.
29.3% fat now compared to 29.1% fat.

Loss of 0.7% to 0.9% fat.

Now you've fallen easily into the inaccuracy of most methods of getting bodyfat%, even the cheaper Bodpod was 5% estimated.

Plus you would see numbers move so slowly.

Most people want to see numbers move quicker.

Grissay

I think it really depends on your goal.

Mine is to be 20% bf. Right now I'm 165, 31%. That means I'm carrying 51 lbs of fat an 114 lean mass.
I used a Fat2Fit Calculator to determine what my goal weight should be.. 143
At 143, 20% bf would be 28.6 lbs of fat. That means 22 of the 23 lbs I have to lose have to be from fat.
So for me, my goal would be to lose 1 lb/week
~0.6% bf/week depending on my weight.


But I know it can't all be fat
When I started this year was 205, 41.5%. So 85 lbs of fat
I lost 40 lbs, 34 of those were fat.

This is all so confusing!!!!!

heybales

I think it really depends on your goal.

Mine is to be 20% bf. Right now I'm 165, 31%. That means I'm carrying 51 lbs of fat an 114 lean mass.
I used a Fat2Fit Calculator to determine what my goal weight should be.. 143
At 143, 20% bf would be 28.6 lbs of fat. That means 22 of the 23 lbs I have to lose have to be from fat.
So for me, my goal would be to lose 1 lb/week
~0.6% bf/week depending on my weight.


But I know it can't all be fat
When I started this year was 205, 41.5%. So 85 lbs of fat
I lost 40 lbs, 34 of those were fat.

This is all so confusing!!!!!

You just made it very unconfusing by using your stats - excellent results too.

At least you know what some of the loss was likely from. May happen anyway, but sure hate to lose the LBM earlier rather than later when not needed to carry the extra weight.

journalistjen

When I was working out really hard and eating well, I lost an average of 2 pounds per week, and I lost 1 percent body fat in a month. I was doing cardio and strength training.

secretlobster

It also depends on how much of your existing body mass is lean mass... It's a sliding scale. You're right, the closer to your weight goal you get, the harder it is to lose weight. Same with fat loss. So it depends on how much *fat* you actually have to lose.

cordianet

I think the problem here is that human nature being what it is, we try to think of this as a linear equation, but it's actually more logarithmic in nature. What I mean by this is that if you look at loss in terms of percent of body fat, initially we tend to lose faster, with the loss slowing down over time.

In other words, it's more like this:


instead of this:


I dealt with this when setting my own goals by using an equation such as this: Goal %BF = Known %BF - ( Known %BF * 0.02)

The .02 is reasonable for me, your number may be more or less based on many factors. For example, for me, at 40% body fat, it was reasonable to expect a drop to 39.2% in one week. Week 3 would have been 39.2% - (39.2% * .02) or 38.4% This continues on such that at 20%, it would drop to 19.6% in one week. Hopefully you can see that the % dropping gets smaller over time.

I hope this makes sense, but I'm afraid I may have just confused the issue even more!

andeey

I think the problem here is that human nature being what it is, we try to think of this as a linear equation, but it's actually more logarithmic in nature. What I mean by this is that if you look at loss in terms of percent of body fat, initially we tend to lose faster, with the loss slowing down over time.

<snip>

I hope this makes sense, but I'm afraid I may have just confused the issue even more!

That makes perfect sense and what I was really trying to do without posting numbers that I thought everyone would get stuck on is checkpoint myself. I lost 9% BF and then was static (bouncing back and forth a % or so) for a couple of months and then another 5% drop. So that seemed weird. All the time, I've been losing weight and inches, so I wasn't "worried" about the BF% loss, I know it's happening in due time, but the drastic drops seemed weird. Thanks for the charts and calculations!