What standards apply to a reduction in body fat percentage?
As the new year approaches, millions of individuals are deliberating their resolutions, many of which are likely to contain challenging nutritional and physical fitness objectives. It is understandable that fitness experts and consumers alike would want to know how much body fat they may anticipate to shed given the growing simplicity of assessing body composition and the proven advantages of lowering body fat percentage. Body fat percentage loss is not as thoroughly researched and has no formal recommendations published as opposed to the widely acknowledged recommendation that someone should not lose more than 1-2 pounds per week. However, the majority of experts concur that a monthly loss of 1% is typically safe and manageable. To determine whether you've made progress, it's best to wait a few months before checking your body composition again. This is because the majority of methods for measuring body fat (such as calipers, bioelectrical impedance analysis, etc.) are subject to measurement error, making it possible to miss even small changes in body fat percentage.
How can my body fat be reduced?
Since weight loss without exercise will result in loss of lean mass as well, losing weight alone won't necessarily result in significant reductions in body fat. You must improve your diet, engage in aerobic exercise, and remember to lift weights to increase your lean mass if you truly want to lower your body fat percentage. If you don't, around 25% of every pound you lose will come from lean, calorie-burning muscle. You can use the following helpful method to predict roughly how much weight you'll need to lose in order to achieve your optimum body fat percentage, assuming you engage in resistance exercise and all the weight you lose is made up of fat:
**CAUTION: If you hate algebra, please disregard this formula and skip to next paragraph.
Desired body weight = Lean body weight/(1-desired body fat percentage)
Desired body weight = how much you will weigh when you achieve your desired body fat percentage.
Lean body weight = how many pounds of rock-hard, lean tissue you have right now (to know this you have to get your body composition measured. Basically, what is not fat is lean).
Desired body fat percentage = your goal body fat percentage (in decimal form).
For instance, Angela is 120 pounds and 25% body fat (30lbs fat, 90lbs lean). Her target body fat percentage is 20%. How much weight will she have to shed (assuming that all of it is fat)?
Desired body weight = 90/(1-.20) = 113lbs
So she would need to lose 7lbs to achieve her goal (120-113=7).
What is the ideal level of body fat for me?
Remember that the ideal body fat percentage for men and women are different since women need a greater body fat percentage to sustain menstruation and the ability to bear children (see chart).