How long to lower body fat % ?

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moe5474
moe5474 Posts: 162
in Health and Weight Loss
I went for a fitness evaluation at my gym last week and was told to focus on lowering my body fat percentage rather than dropping pounds. Below are my stats....

Female
26 years old
5'9
CW 148
GW 135 (steady weight before I started a desk job)
Body fat - 23%

My trainer told me to shoot for 18-19% body fat. If I work really hard (diet and exercise), about how long will it take me to get there? She said anywhere from 3-6 months.

Does that sound right? I hate that it takes so darn long to see results. I know this is because I'm closer to my goal weight, but it still makes me impatient :(

Replies

  • TGIBriday83
    TGIBriday83 Posts: 68 Member
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    like anything involving getting into shape and losing weight if you want the best results its going to take time. to really get to a solid body fat % you need to put in the time and work to lose the fat and build some quality lean muscle. naturally the harder you work the faster the results, but you don't just want to try and crash diet to get to your goal because it'll never last. i would think though to get from 23% to around 18% wouldn't be terribly difficult and I'd probably lean more towards the 3 month time frame if you dedicated yourself, worked at it, combined weights with cardio, and didn't slip up on your diet. Best of luck to you!

    Also remember that by going for a body fat percentage goal and not a weight loss goal don't be discouraged by a lack of results or even weight gain on the scale if you're incorporating weight training. you'll be gaining muscle which means any loss of weight will be negated to an extent because muscle is heavier and denser. But! the results should be more dramatic and noticeable.
  • moe5474
    moe5474 Posts: 162
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    like anything involving getting into shape and losing weight if you want the best results its going to take time. to really get to a solid body fat % you need to put in the time and work to lose the fat and build some quality lean muscle. naturally the harder you work the faster the results, but you don't just want to try and crash diet to get to your goal because it'll never last. i would think though to get from 23% to around 18% wouldn't be terribly difficult and I'd probably lean more towards the 3 month time frame if you dedicated yourself, worked at it, combined weights with cardio, and didn't slip up on your diet. Best of luck to you!

    Also remember that by going for a body fat percentage goal and not a weight loss goal don't be discouraged by a lack of results or even weight gain on the scale if you're incorporating weight training. you'll be gaining muscle which means any loss of weight will be negated to an extent because muscle is heavier and denser. But! the results should be more dramatic and noticeable.

    Well right now I've incorporated much for weight lifting and HIIT intervals into my workouts...hopefully they will work!

    And I've deiced to step away from the scale while I work towards this goal. Obviously if my clothes stop fitting I'll need to revisit it, but (as you stated) I'm afraid that I'll get discouraged or freak out if I saw the scale number increasing. Yikes!

    Here's the 3 months :)
  • jodiex92
    jodiex92 Posts: 56
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    I strength trained 2x a week and lost 5% in a month. I also went spinning once a week and ate a high protein diet. I think everyone is different, depending how quickly you lose/gain weight. Goodluck:smile:
  • UponThisRock
    UponThisRock Posts: 4,522 Member
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    Some perspective:

    body-fat-percentage-pictures-female.jpg

    female-body-fat-percentage-pictures.jpg
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    For a female, isn't 18% a little on the low side?
  • secretlobster
    secretlobster Posts: 3,566 Member
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    Some perspective:

    body-fat-percentage-pictures-female.jpg

    female-body-fat-percentage-pictures.jpg

    I don't remember growing wimpy yellow grandma weights when I got to 20% bf
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    like anything involving getting into shape and losing weight if you want the best results its going to take time. to really get to a solid body fat % you need to put in the time and work to lose the fat and build some quality lean muscle. naturally the harder you work the faster the results, but you don't just want to try and crash diet to get to your goal because it'll never last. i would think though to get from 23% to around 18% wouldn't be terribly difficult and I'd probably lean more towards the 3 month time frame if you dedicated yourself, worked at it, combined weights with cardio, and didn't slip up on your diet. Best of luck to you!

    Also remember that by going for a body fat percentage goal and not a weight loss goal don't be discouraged by a lack of results or even weight gain on the scale if you're incorporating weight training. you'll be gaining muscle which means any loss of weight will be negated to an extent because muscle is heavier and denser. But! the results should be more dramatic and noticeable.

    This kind of made me feel better. I started focusing on body fat last month. I gained on the scale but lost 3 inches. At first, I wasn't happy about it, but the more I think about it, the more it seems okay.
  • moe5474
    moe5474 Posts: 162
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    Some perspective:

    body-fat-percentage-pictures-female.jpg

    female-body-fat-percentage-pictures.jpg

    Oh wow this is great! Thank you so much :) It definitely helps with regards to giving me some sort of perspective

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