Reduce body fat % ?

As someone who has been working with clients on fat loss for several years, my recommendations would be to combine heavy weight training (weights you can lift for no more then 5-6 reps without losing form and doing 3-5 sets of each exercise with a 2-4 minute rest between sets and a variety of exercises for the total body without repeating the same muscle group two days in a row) followed by cardio to get the most fat burn for your exercise time. Circuit training, resistance for endurance (light weight and high repetition), toning classes, etc. are great for working the type one muscle fibers that are needed for those types of activities, but the heavy weights are needed to work the type 2 muscle fibers that are what have to be worked so they aren't broken down and burned in place of fat during the workouts. The cardio after working those type two fibers from heavy weight training will burn primarily body fat because the muscle glycogen will have been mostly used by the weights first. As for nutrition, the 1200 calorie rule is not accurate for everyone. In fact, it is not accurate for most people. Ideally, to burn fat while maintaining or even gaining lean tissue (yes you can gain lean tissue on a deficit but it is additional glycogen storage that is needed to fuel the heavy weights not muscle fibers for the first 4-6 months), I recommend finding an estimate of your total daily energy expenditure that is determined based on your body composition, activity level, and exercise and eating no less then 80% of that. So, if you add your BMR and activity not counting exercise and your exercise Calories burned and get a TDEE of 2000 Calories for the day, then you should eat no less then 1600 Calories that day so that the body doesn't look to muscle for Calories to burn instead of body fat. If you need help figuring your Calorie needs, PM me and I'll be glad to figure it for you.

I wasn't saying that a person should strive to lose a certain amount of pounds that matches their body fat percentage.

That's the result of the equations you posted. Which is why I asked where you got the equations from.

Treetop57, my equation doesn't show that a person has to lose the same amount of pounds that equals to their body fat percentage. But, yes, the formula shows that the future body fat percentage will make the current body fat percentage and future pounds of fat match.

I don't know if you have ever found out your body fat percentage, but you can't do so without the following status being known: Your gender, your height ,your age and your weight. The formula I have shared is the standard formula for everyone.

I wasn't saying that a person should strive to lose a certain amount of pounds that matches their body fat percentage.

That's the result of the equations you posted. Which is why I asked where you got the equations from.

Treetop57, my equation doesn't show that a person has to lose the same amount of pounds that equals to their body fat percentage.

You're right. I misread that post where you misinterpreted what I had asked. In any case, you have still not answered the question: Where did you get those formulas from?

Intermittent Fasting is a good way to reduce body fat %

What worked for me was regular weight training (2 or 3 sets of about 10 reps per exercise), two 40-minute random hill cross-trainer sessions a week, and really watching what I ate - that's what brought me to MFP. I was running a 300-500 calorie deficit a day under the MFP target for a while but now try to be much closer. In 6 months my body fat percentage has dropped from 24.5% to just over 14%. Still hoping to maybe lose a little more!

I am with you on the high percentage of body fat. I had mine tested by DEXTRA machine. Mine came back at 34% which was surprising to the techician too. I am within the "normal" range of weight for my height and age (though I still want to lose 15 pounds) The best explaination I've been told is that my years of crash dieting caused the higher fat percentage. I have struggled with my weight my entire adult life and when you go on extreme diets, your body metabolizes your muscle before fat. So when I started eating and gaining weight again, I gained back all fat. Do this several times over 20 years.... I have a higher fat percentage then if I would have just stayed fat all those years. I finally lost weight the right way but am still at a high fat. I will continue to strength train and run to gain muscle and lose fat! Good luck and keep an eye on your goal!

I could be wrong, but a dextra machine is a dexa scan. If so, then a person's body fat percentage will be higher, because the dexa scan includes the fat in your brain, bones and organs.), whereas body fat scales, handheld monitor, bod pod and dunk test don't.

You're right. I misread that post where you misinterpreted what I had asked. In any case, you have still not answered the question: Where did you get those formulas from?

Search it.

I should have given up the first time you refused to answer the question.

Over and out.

thanks everyone alot of good information

After losing some weight, I went to get the body fat % checked yesterday. It came out so high(above 30%). Even the people checking were surprised because they didn't see me as one who would have such a high body fat %. Especially when they say my "ideal" weight is 7 lbs less than what I am now. They did not give me any reasons why it should be the case. Also I have lost weight but not inches....

I also do decent amount of strength toning in my workouts. 30 mins zumba toning and two 40 mins toning classes in a week.

I have two questions:

1) Why? Why is the body fat % so high? I understand no one is an expert here but any reasons you might have can help me figure out what I am doing wrong

2) What do I do to reduce it? Does anyone have suggestions of some strength training workout dvds? Or some exercise suggestions? Some routines you might follow and works for you? Any dumbbell routines?

Lift heavy and EAT.

What is bod pod testing? For body fat %?

Yes. You can go to this link to see what a bod pod is. http://www.health.utah.edu/PEAK/Services/Health_Fitness_Testing/Bod_Pod.html

bump

As someone who has been working with clients on fat loss for several years, my recommendations would be to combine heavy weight training (weights you can lift for no more then 5-6 reps without losing form and doing 3-5 sets of each exercise with a 2-4 minute rest between sets and a variety of exercises for the total body without repeating the same muscle group two days in a row) followed by cardio to get the most fat burn for your exercise time. Circuit training, resistance for endurance (light weight and high repetition), toning classes, etc. are great for working the type one muscle fibers that are needed for those types of activities, but the heavy weights are needed to work the type 2 muscle fibers that are what have to be worked so they aren't broken down and burned in place of fat during the workouts. The cardio after working those type two fibers from heavy weight training will burn primarily body fat because the muscle glycogen will have been mostly used by the weights first. As for nutrition, the 1200 calorie rule is not accurate for everyone. In fact, it is not accurate for most people. Ideally, to burn fat while maintaining or even gaining lean tissue (yes you can gain lean tissue on a deficit but it is additional glycogen storage that is needed to fuel the heavy weights not muscle fibers for the first 4-6 months), I recommend finding an estimate of your total daily energy expenditure that is determined based on your body composition, activity level, and exercise and eating no less then 80% of that. So, if you add your BMR and activity not counting exercise and your exercise Calories burned and get a TDEE of 2000 Calories for the day, then you should eat no less then 1600 Calories that day so that the body doesn't look to muscle for Calories to burn instead of body fat. If you need help figuring your Calorie needs, PM me and I'll be glad to figure it for you.

Hi Tonya,

Just out of curiosity, your recommendation to eat 80% of TDEE, is that before or after exercise? In other words, should my total calories or net calories be at 80% of TDEE?

Bump

I always eat 100g+ of protein a day.

I was going to suggest Kettlebells.
It combines cardio with some strength and really helped me.