Losing weight vs fat question?

chrissyhy
chrissyhy Posts: 32
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! I've decided that I dont need to lose weight, but rather reduce my body fat by 10 percent. But I have a question. I know that when you "lose weight" you lose a little bit of everything (fat, water, organ size etc). And when you lose body fat, well you lose body fat. But what do you do different to lose fat versus weight? When you lose weight you eat right and exercise along with resistance straining, same thing with reducing body fat, right? So what do you do different to reduce body fat percentage compared to losing weight? Also how much does 10 percent of body fat weight for someone 5'5 and 120 pounds? Thanks!

Replies

  • RockandRoseRebel
    RockandRoseRebel Posts: 35 Member
    The short answer is to lose fat and not muscle, you need to eat at your BMR, lift weights, and get plenty of protein. For the details, I'd recommend the book "Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess" and the Fat2Fit radio book and/or podcasts (most of their podcasts are free off of iTunes).
  • dhakiyya
    dhakiyya Posts: 481 Member
    you can lose fat while drastically reducing how much you lose of other tissues like muscle. Here's how:

    - lift heavy weights- your body won't burn muscle that you actually are using unless you're starving yourself
    - aim for slow and steady fat loss, if you're losing more than 2lb in a week it's highly unlikely to be all fat (there are some exceptions but if you're close to your goal weight/body composition then you're not going to be an exception)
    - if you've already got a low body fat percentage and just want to improve it a little, then half to one lb weigh loss is safer
    - eat regular healthy meals
    - eat plenty of protein
    - have refeed days when you eat all your TDEE calories

    Also, I'm currently working on increasing my lean body mass, I lost a lot of fat, I think I lost around 5lb of lean body mass with it, which is not too bad compared to how much LBM you can lose by doing crash dieting etc, given that you can't avoid losing a little lean body mass, but my body fat percentage was in the mid 30s and currently it's 23%. so it can most definitely be done. Currently I'm trying to increase my lean body mass by 5lb and decreasing my body fat percentage to 20%. I'm alternating between eating at a deficit and eating at a surplus to do this. However even if you're eating at a deficit all the time because you have a lot of fat to lose you can greatly minimise lean body mass losses.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Where did you come up with the fact that you need to lose 10% body fat if you do not know what that will look like or know your current BF%?

    At 120lb and 5 5 you do not have 10% of body fat to lose.

    If you lose weight, you will lose LBM, unless you strength train to maintain as much of that as possible. However whether you do or do not, you will still lose weight if you lose body fat. The weight loss may be less than the fat loss due to an increase in water weight assuming you do a decent strength training routine, but net, net, you will likely lose weight.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    The short answer is to lose fat and not muscle, you need to eat at your BMR, lift weights, and get plenty of protein. For the details, I'd recommend the book "Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess" and the Fat2Fit radio book and/or podcasts (most of their podcasts are free off of iTunes).

    No. Perhaps you meant your TDEE. No one should be eating at their BMR. Unless you are in a coma.
  • taekwonkenpo
    taekwonkenpo Posts: 1,004
    bump for later review
  • carlom18
    carlom18 Posts: 174 Member
    Well as someone above said. First find out your BF % before saying what you want to lose. Say for example your 20% and your 120 pounds, then 24 pounds is fat, the rest is lean body mass (muscle, bone, organs etc) so if you want to lose 10%, then you want to lose 12 pounds OF FAT. You will lose some muscle and you weight will drop while doing that, but as others above said, weight lifting minimizes muscle lost.

    Correct me if I'm wrong lol!

    Just research recommended BF% for males/ females and see where you want to reach.
    :smile:

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