Which is easier?

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Gabbie361
Gabbie361 Posts: 16 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Is burning fat % or loosing lbs easier? Military accepts me at 155lb or 28% body fat. I'm at 175 and 35% body fat. I'm running alot and doing strength excerising. However I seen lbs go down but very little difference in body fat.

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  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,746 Member
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    You're doing both right now as we speak.

    Most methods of estimating body fat are way off.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,994 Member
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    Losing the pounds.

    At 175 lbs and 35% BF, you're carrying 61.25 lbs of fat. You would have to lose 17 pounds of nothing but fat if fat were all you were losing to hit 28% BF (at 158 lbs, with 44.25 lbs of fat), and losing nothing but fat is pretty much impossible.

    Plus, it's probably easier and definitely cheaper to find an accurate, well-calibrated scale that (hopefully) will match the scale the military will weigh you on than to find an accurate, well-calibrated method of tracking your BF% that (hopefully) would match whatever method the military will use.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    What method does your military use to estimate body fat?
    May well be measurements.
    Suggest you use the same method - while not at all accurate it will tell you if you are on track or not.

    If your weight has gone down over an extended period of time in a calorie deficit then you are losing fat whether whatever method of estimating BF% you are using says.

    But in reality the 155lbs goal is a definite and measurable target that you can know with certainty you have hit or not. That's the goal to go for.

  • Christi2705
    Christi2705 Posts: 8 Member
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    Losing pounds, given that you aren’t trying to gain muscle at the same time. You can “lose” quite a bit in just water weight then the rest is just simple calorie deficit.

    However if you are also trying to build muscle at the same time then you are going to less of a difference in actual pounds. But you will see a quicker (however not fast) drop in body fat.

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