Lowering Body fat %

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clafairy1984
clafairy1984 Posts: 253 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
After weeks of feeling discouraged and s**t about myself due to scales not shifting, despite how hard I work at the gym and how sensibly I eat....I've decided to ignore the scales and BMI (both crap ways to measure my progress when I'm building muscle) and go on body fat mass and percent instead. Dared to measure my percentage at the gym this morning, to discover it's nowhere near as bad I assumed (so relieved, must have gained lot more muscle than I thought). I'm only 5% and 4kg over (about 9lb as opposed to the 3.5St BMI dictates) which seems like nothing after my loss so far (used to be over 50% now 35%) Definitely given me the boost I need to regain my confidence and determination to hit my goals. On a mission to get my % down by 10% . So screw you BMI and your almost obese classification! Muscle weighs more than fat, and I'm on route to gaining a strong, healthy and fit body composition. I can do this!! However...... realistically how long does it take to burn body fat to lower my % ? I have no idea what a healthy or realistic rate of loss is to know how im doing.

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  • Jams009
    Jams009 Posts: 345 Member
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    How did you measure your bodyfat %? It's extremely difficult to get an accurate measurement, so I'd recommend using as many different tests and methods as you can and taking an average if you want to get serious about it.

    10% is Extremely low for a woman btw. Like super shredded, almost dangerously low (below 8% puts you at risk of organ failure). It will be very difficult to acheive that.

    As you get leaner you need to slow down your weight loss to avoid losing muscle as your body trys to hold on to the last of it's emergency stores. 1lb per week is probably good until you get into the teens, then 0.5lb as you get lower. And if you haven't already, get lifting to prevent losing muscle along with the fat.



  • MelissaLimeKiwi
    MelissaLimeKiwi Posts: 121 Member
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    I think she meant go from her current 35% down to 25%. I also am on a mission to lower body fat and I'm at 35% too- according to my scale anyways.
  • MelissaLimeKiwi
    MelissaLimeKiwi Posts: 121 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I was thinking I could lower my body fat by 1% each month, so my goal is to go from 35% to 25% in 10 months.
    This based off my scale reading that I lost 1% body fat in the last 30 days.
  • clafairy1984
    clafairy1984 Posts: 253 Member
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    Yeah, meant over by 10, not to 10 lol. 1% a month sounds realistic. I just want something to gauge not being fat anymore by really
  • BoxerBrawler
    BoxerBrawler Posts: 2,032 Member
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    BF can only truly be lowered through your nutrition / calories, etc. Exercise is wonderful but it doesn't "burn fat", it burns calories which in turn will lower your BF % as you gain muscle assuming you're doing a combination of weights and cardio. When I have my BF measured I use calipers, hand-held and my Aria scale to make sure I can estimate properly. They are all within pretty close range of each other. Don't eat low fat, eat healthy fat :smile:
    I hope this helps.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    It depends on how dedicated you are when you are lifting and the routine that you are in. Personally, I suggest getting a trainer. They will teach you the ins-and-outs of how to gain muscle. There is a lot behind the nutrition of losing bodyweight as well. If you are "feeding your muscles" you must focus on eating a lot more protein (i.e. if you weigh 110 lbs. aim to eat 110 grams of protein) and less sugar.

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