Is it possible to drop 5% body fat in 6 weeks?

There's a promotional challenge by a fitness program /club locally. The gist of it, they make you pay $500.00 deposit, and within 6 weeks you got to drop 20 or more pounds or 5% body fat if you want to see your money back. They give you meal plan and a trainer to work out for 1 hour three times a week . So this seems like a very harsh and aggressive approach to begin with, only would work if you have a lot to lose. I really don't. I'm working on recomp, technically in maintenance, but working on recomp, with the intention to drop my body fat a little lower. Right now, by the calculator, my bmi is just over 24%. I weight 147-148lbs, and I'm 5'7". So by numbers, i can lose 5% and i would like to. The question is, is it even realistic and safe to do in 6 weeks time frame? My gut feeling that it's not. What do you guys think?
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Replies

  • nrbutton
    nrbutton Posts: 165 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    You're confusing Body Mass Index and Body Fat %. With a BMI of just over 24, you are just barely out of the Healthy weight range, and so losing 20 pounds in 6 weeks is an overly aggressive goal for you.

    Please be advised that the methods of measuring body fat % a health club would be likely to use are not considered to be accurate. I'm sure they are not going to spring for a DEXA scan, and if they plan to use a bio-impedance scale, that is easily affected by things like amount of hydration.

    This contest would also run counter to your goals of recomp - in order to win, you would sacrifice lean muscle mass, which is the last thing you want to do.

    The promo is 20+ lbs OR 5% body fat
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member

    I asked how they are going to figure out the body fat percentage lost, and the answer was "measurements taken at weigh in". So no dexa. I also would like to stress out that i don't have extra 20 lbs on me to lose, maybe 7-8 max, but that's it. I think i would look awful, because right now I'm happy with the way i look, i just want to get rid of a little extra padding on my legs, so my muscles are more defined. Thank you for pointing out my mixing the bmi and body fat, you're right. And wanted to ask, when you say
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    You're confusing Body Mass Index and Body Fat %. With a BMI of just over 24, you are just barely out of the Healthy weight range
    what do you mean? I checked, and it seems to place me in the middle of healthy weight.
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member
    Daddy78230 wrote: »
    5% or 20 lbs in 6 weeks doesn't seem unhealthy. Assuming, which ever is met first. Recommended, healthy weight loss is 0.5 to 1.0% per week.

    For a person with your stats, but with body fat to lose, 5% would be 7.35 lbs loss over 6 weeks, or 1.23 lbs per week.

    20 lbs over 6 weeks is about 3.34 lbs per week, doable for a big person that's more than 334 lbs.

    Thank you for your calculations, it helps. I was more interested in this promo for the fact that you get personal trainer to work with you, not so much for the weight loss. The body fat reduction is something i would like too, but not looking for the aggressive ways. I would be happy with 0.5 lbs a week, if it works out, and not too worried if not. So i guess, i will pass on it.

    Thank you, everyone for your help to clarify this.
  • 30kgin2017
    30kgin2017 Posts: 228 Member
    Daddy78230 wrote: »
    5% or 20 lbs in 6 weeks doesn't seem unhealthy. Assuming, which ever is met first. Recommended, healthy weight loss is 0.5 to 1.0% per week.

    For a person with your stats, but with body fat to lose, 5% would be 7.35 lbs loss over 6 weeks, or 1.23 lbs per week.

    20 lbs over 6 weeks is about 3.34 lbs per week, doable for a big person that's more than 334 lbs.

    I think BF and weight have been con
    icemom011 wrote: »
    Daddy78230 wrote: »
    5% or 20 lbs in 6 weeks doesn't seem unhealthy. Assuming, which ever is met first. Recommended, healthy weight loss is 0.5 to 1.0% per week.

    For a person with your stats, but with body fat to lose, 5% would be 7.35 lbs loss over 6 weeks, or 1.23 lbs per week.

    20 lbs over 6 weeks is about 3.34 lbs per week, doable for a big person that's more than 334 lbs.

    Thank you for your calculations, it helps. I was more interested in this promo for the fact that you get personal trainer to work with you, not so much for the weight loss. The body fat reduction is something i would like too, but not looking for the aggressive ways. I would be happy with 0.5 lbs a week, if it works out, and not too worried if not. So i guess, i will pass on it.

    Thank you, everyone for your help to clarify this.

    You arent going to lose just body fat so to lose 5% BF its going to mean losing more than 7.35lbs. Adequate protein and strength training will help reduce muscle mass lost but wont eliminate it. I imagine you would probably need to lose at least 10lbs to lose 5% body fat with your numbers.
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member
    icemom011 wrote: »
    There's a promotional challenge by a fitness program /club locally. The gist of it, they make you pay $500.00 deposit, and within 6 weeks you got to drop 20 or more pounds or 5% body fat if you want to see your money back. They give you meal plan and a trainer to work out for 1 hour three times a week . So this seems like a very harsh and aggressive approach to begin with, only would work if you have a lot to lose. I really don't. I'm working on recomp, technically in maintenance, but working on recomp, with the intention to drop my body fat a little lower. Right now, by the calculator, my bmi is just over 24%. I weight 147-148lbs, and I'm 5'7". So by numbers, i can lose 5% and i would like to. The question is, is it even realistic and safe to do in 6 weeks time frame? My gut feeling that it's not. What do you guys think?

    What calculator are you using?? Your BMI is 23.2.

    I am 5'7", and right around 149. No way would I bet on dropping 5% BF in 6 weeks.

    I haven't recalculated in a while, libra shows 24,1 for my bmi. Thank you
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member
    I guess i was wrong about Libra. It says bmi 23.3 and body fat 21.6, trend 21.7. Should have paid more attention
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    icemom011 wrote: »
    I asked how they are going to figure out the body fat percentage lost, and the answer was "measurements taken at weigh in". So no dexa. I also would like to stress out that i don't have extra 20 lbs on me to lose, maybe 7-8 max, but that's it. I think i would look awful, because right now I'm happy with the way i look, i just want to get rid of a little extra padding on my legs, so my muscles are more defined. Thank you for pointing out my mixing the bmi and body fat, you're right. And wanted to ask, when you say
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    You're confusing Body Mass Index and Body Fat %. With a BMI of just over 24, you are just barely out of the Healthy weight range
    what do you mean? I checked, and it seems to place me in the middle of healthy weight.

    Now that I know your BMI is actually 23.3 I withdraw my comment :)

    bmi-weight.gif