HOW to decrease body fat?!

bump

Where are you obtaining your body fat percentage figure from?
sounds like something does not add up ?
have you had someone else calculate the figures for you ??

Bump...

I suspect the answer will be to keep working at it. It takes time to build muscle. But I'd love to hear the expert view on this.

Log your calories of course.

Then eat the majority of your calories at night and avoid carbs during the day.

Keep your daily carbs to 25%, fat 25-35% and Protein 40-50%

Shoot for 20 or less net carbs before 5pm, the rest after 5pm. Allows for a pretty normal dinner!

Doing this I went from 220lbs with 12%bf to 205lbs and 8% bf

Less day carbs forces your body to burn more fat for energy while your metabolism is peaking.

14-18% body fat is very very low. Around 20% is where you'll start to see muscle definition.

If you want to gain muscle, you can't be at a caloric deficit. You need to be eating more than your maintenance calories, which will probably be the hardest for you. This means you have to eat all your exercise calories, PLUS some. Also, you need to be getting enough protein, 1g per pound of lean body mass- which means somewhere around 100g of protein a day.

bump, I'm in the skinny fat group too, I'm 5'5 and 110, but still look too soft for my liking.. no clue what my body fat is though.. how do you figure that out?

The best way I know is to increase the weight you are lifting and change up your cardio with something like circuit training. just doing a "normal" routine workout will just maintain

first off, you might want to try getting a real body fat measurement from a doctor. scales are error prone when it comes to body fat detection.

next, if you lose weight your body fat percentage will decline. if it is really bothering you, lose weight until you get to 16-18% and then try to put on half a pound of muscle a week (slowly so that fat doesn't build up again on you, and if a little does then you know you can get rid of it).

weight lifting should be a tough workout, don't just go through the motions. your aerobic exercise should also be tough. you should be sweating. if you aren't sweating, you are basically wasting your time because your aerobic exercise isn't strenuous enough to burn a lot of calories quickly.

you probably don't need to exercise twice a day for 6 days. try to do cardio (real cardio, heart rate in the 70-80% of max range) 4 days a week and lift weights 3 days a week. focus on really working your muscles when you do weight lifting.

and for your diet, just keep a 500 calorie restriction on it and the fat will melt off (especially if you are keeping consistent with your exercise).

drink plenty of water
take a multivitamin

The body breaksdown the food you eat, specifically Carbohydrates, into glucose, fructose, and galactose. Glucose is what fuels muscle contraction. Any glucose not needed right away gets stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen. Once these glycogen stores are filled, the remaining glycogen gets stored as bodyfat. When you exercise, the body uses the stored glycogen in your muscles and liver first. Once these reserves are exhausted, the body will start using stored glycogen(bodyfat) as energy to fuel your muscles. That's why they say you typically start to burn fat after 20 minutes of cardio. Losing bodyfat has to do mostly with balancing your diet. If you eat too many carbs, a portion of it will be stored as bodyfat. If you eat to little carbs, the body will start to breakdown protein for its glycogen needs. Protein is needed to maintain and create lean muscle. If your body starts to break down protein, your muscles will be starved of the proper nutrients and result in less lean muscle. The key is to lose weight slowly to ensure your burning fat and not muscle. Typically, you don't want to lose more than 2 pounds per week to ensure your maintaining as much lean muscle as possible. Eating the proper amount of fats and protein are also vital since they also provide additional fuel and help to maintain muscle mass. You seem to be doing the needed resistance training to maintain muscle and cardio to aid in fat burning so I would definitely concentrate on your food intake and make sure you are providing your body what it needs. At your weight, a small difference in calorie intake could lead your body into starvation mode. This means you should definitely be eating your exercise calories.

Are you female? Women's bodies are designed to have a higher fat percentage than men (and it also varies according to genetics and race, etc.). 24% fat content is pretty healthy and it's my understanding only hardcore athletes are really in the 14-18% level. If you're female, any advice that's worked for men might not apply in your case.