Body Fat %

[eerie_reverie]

I want to get leaner.

 

I'm 5'8, 145ish lbs, 22% body fat. I want to get down to 18-19%.

 

By my calculations, I should drop about 10 lbs.

 

10 lbs should not be hard to lose... but IMO my lifestyle is already pretty healthy and I am not interested in joyless dieting.

 

I lie eating healthy but I do not want to stop being a foodie. I just need some tips as to what kind of small tweaks I can make to eventually get to 18-19% body fat and stay there.

 

My typical diet:

 

Breakfast: 2 egg omelette with ham, cheese, and veggies

Lunch: 1 serving meat, 2 servings veggies (ex: chicken breast, sweet potato, brocolli)

Dinner: Big bowl of veggies and shrimp.

snacks: 1 cup greek yogurt + honey + berries, 2 cups grapes, 3 tablespoons peanut butter + carrots, 2 servings nuts

 

I don't eat fast food and I rarely eat junk. I try to avoid flour and sugar, though I will eat a "bad" snack occasionally (ex: a cookie) (2-3 times/ week)

 

I used to drink 2 beers / day but have substituted that w/ 1 glass red wine. Am waiting to see results from this change.

 

My exercise routine for the last couple years has consisted of a lot of running and occasional weights, but I'm working on incorporating more lifting and more diverse cardio. I have access to a great gym with all kinds of free classes and am open to any tips on this front. I exercise ~5 days a week.

 

What can I tweak to get leaner?

[DreamerGirl27]

It sounds like you eat pretty healthy. I don't know what to tell you except this, but I don't know if it's healthy. I pretty much only eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. I'm on no sort of routine. Sometimes I eat once a day, sometimes I eat twice. I always skip breakfast, which isn't good, but I never have time. I rarely eat 3 meals a day and snack in between the other 2. I don't know if that's healthy, but it's what I do and I haven't been sick from it ever. Sometimes I eat 5 small meals a day, but I never eat the recommended 3 meals a day. I'd feel bloated if I did. I don't have that much room in my stomach.

 

I'm 5'6" and about 145ish, but I'm trying to get to 130/120ish like I was all throughout high school and early 20's.

 

I gained a bunch of weight due to medications. I'm naturally about 120. I'm naturally a little underweight for my height and I miss that.

[AirbenderAang]

The best I can say is to eat more veggies and less of other stuff. That or exercise more, gain more muscle mass, stop drinking wine, stop eating cookies, or eat less of what you are eating already.

[tman666]

You sound like a prime candidate for intermittent fasting!

 

I personally have switched to a daily intermittent fasting lifestyle using Martin Berkhan's LeanGains (http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html) approach. Basically, I fast for 16 hours of the day and eat my daily intake during an 8 hour window, generally in the evenings. For females, he recommends a 14 hr fast.

 

Practically speaking, it means that I skip breakfast, start my eating with a late lunch (around 1 p.m.), and stop eating after around 9 p.m. ish.

 

The great thing about it is that it helps you mobilize stored fat (especially with fasted training) while still being able to enjoy the foods you like. It's not a "diet" per se, in that you can eat whatever you want. Thermodynamics, of course, still apply. In other words, you still have to eat a good, balanced, high protein diet with a slight caloric deficit if you want to lose weight, just like any other diet.

 

The first couple of days were a little rough, but after that, my body became more and more accustomed to the fasting period, where I'm not even hungry in the mornings anymore.

 

I've been doing this for about 2 months and I've slowly and intentionally lost about 15 lbs. My lifts are steadily and slowly continuing to increase, and I've actually put on a little bit of leg mass. I've eaten more desserts and drunk more beer in the last 2 months than I did previously, by a lot. My clothes are fitting differently (i.e. more loosely). My point is that if you're an athletic minded person looking to lose fat and retain muscle, and you enjoy eating stuff like pizza, cheesecake, and drinking beer, the LeanGains method could be your thing. There are other intermittent fasting methods out there too, but LeanGains is my personal choice because it ties in extremely well with strength training and slow, natural bodybuilding.

[Kamille]

22% body fat is already pretty lean for a woman.

 

The only thing I can see you cutting off is the daily glass of wine. Increasing your muscle tone will also likely help lower your body fat - but it won't lower your weight (especially at your current body fat: muscle weight will replace fat weight). So if leaner is what you're looking for, stick to whatever measure you used to find out your current body fat and ignore the scale.

 

But I am left wondering why you want to get leaner when you are, by the sounds of it, already very lean and healthy.

[Chocolat]

I want to get leaner.

 

I'm 5'8, 145ish lbs, 22% body fat. I want to get down to 18-19%.

 

By my calculations, I should drop about 10 lbs.

 

 

Eerie, do you want to get leaner or do you want to lose weight? It's possible to do one without the other. 145 pounds at 22%bf will look very different from 145 pounds at 18%bf.

 

On the other hand, if you lose 10 pounds, there is nothing to say you will only lose fat and not muscle, so you could end up at 135 pounds and 24% bf.

[eerie_reverie]

You sound like a prime candidate for intermittent fasting!

 

I personally have switched to a daily intermittent fasting lifestyle using Martin Berkhan's LeanGains (http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html) approach. Basically, I fast for 16 hours of the day and eat my daily intake during an 8 hour window, generally in the evenings. For females, he recommends a 14 hr fast.

 

Practically speaking, it means that I skip breakfast, start my eating with a late lunch (around 1 p.m.), and stop eating after around 9 p.m. ish.

 

The great thing about it is that it helps you mobilize stored fat (especially with fasted training) while still being able to enjoy the foods you like. It's not a "diet" per se, in that you can eat whatever you want. Thermodynamics, of course, still apply. In other words, you still have to eat a good, balanced, high protein diet with a slight caloric deficit if you want to lose weight, just like any other diet.

 

The first couple of days were a little rough, but after that, my body became more and more accustomed to the fasting period, where I'm not even hungry in the mornings anymore.

 

I've been doing this for about 2 months and I've slowly and intentionally lost about 15 lbs. My lifts are steadily and slowly continuing to increase, and I've actually put on a little bit of leg mass. I've eaten more desserts and drunk more beer in the last 2 months than I did previously, by a lot. My clothes are fitting differently (i.e. more loosely). My point is that if you're an athletic minded person looking to lose fat and retain muscle, and you enjoy eating stuff like pizza, cheesecake, and drinking beer, the LeanGains method could be your thing. There are other intermittent fasting methods out there too, but LeanGains is my personal choice because it ties in extremely well with strength training and slow, natural bodybuilding.

 

Thanks tman, I was hoping you'd post.

 

I'm not sold on this "intermittent fasting" thing tho. Why does it matter what time I eat, if I am eating the same number of calories...? I am failing to see how the science here is adding up.

 

I looked at the website you linked, and being a morning workingout person, it seems like the recomendation is for me to load up on BCAA (whatever that is) before and after the workout, but avoid eating for a couple of hours. Can that be right...? I was always taught to try as close after a workout as possible.

 

Even tho I'm not sold, I might try this. I think it would mesh with my lifestyle pretty well. I'm not that much of a breakfast person anyway.

[eerie_reverie]

22% body fat is already pretty lean for a woman.

 

The only thing I can see you cutting off is the daily glass of wine. Increasing your muscle tone will also likely help lower your body fat - but it won't lower your weight (especially at your current body fat: muscle weight will replace fat weight). So if leaner is what you're looking for, stick to whatever measure you used to find out your current body fat and ignore the scale.

 

But I am left wondering why you want to get leaner when you are, by the sounds of it, already very lean and healthy.

 

I know I'm not fat and I'm thankful I'm healthy, but I feel like for a marginal increase in effort, I could have a head-turning type body. As opposed to just "healthy".

 

My secondary reason for wanting to lose some volume is that I went on a shopping spree when I was about 10 pounds lighter a year ago. As a result, I have a ton of cute clothes that I don't fit into anymore.

 

With my current lifestyle, I am definitively at a maintenance weight. I want to change it up so that my "normal" is a size smaller.

[eerie_reverie]

Eerie, do you want to get leaner or do you want to lose weight? It's possible to do one without the other. 145 pounds at 22%bf will look very different from 145 pounds at 18%bf.

 

On the other hand, if you lose 10 pounds, there is nothing to say you will only lose fat and not muscle, so you could end up at 135 pounds and 24% bf.

 

I want to get leaner and ideally lose a size. I don't care about weight, I was just throwing it out there because most people seem to equate fat loss with weight loss. I go for months without weighing myself.

[tman666]

Thanks tman, I was hoping you'd post.

 

I'm not sold on this "intermittent fasting" thing tho. Why does it matter what time I eat, if I am eating the same number of calories...? I am failing to see how the science here is adding up.

 

I looked at the website you linked, and being a morning workingout person, it seems like the recomendation is for me to load up on BCAA (whatever that is) before and after the workout, but avoid eating for a couple of hours. Can that be right...? I was always taught to try as close after a workout as possible.

 

Even tho I'm not sold, I might try this. I think it would mesh with my lifestyle pretty well. I'm not that much of a breakfast person anyway.

 

Oh believe me, I was far from sold when I first started LeanGains. Hell, I still wouldn't consider myself "sold". If I felt that wasn't achieving my goals doing it, I'd ditch it in a heartbeat. People tend to get emotionally invested in their diet and training programs, which has some positive aspects, but can also have the downside of making it very hard to move on when it's time to move on.

 

You bring up a good point: on one hand, we know that meal frequency doesn't matter in periods of less than 24 hrs or so. The overall effect on the metabolism is the same over a 24 hr period, provided that macronutrients and calories are held constant, whether a person has had 6 small meals or 2 large ones. This is due to the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF); bigger meals create a larger TEF, while smaller ones create a smaller TEF. (http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html)

 

However, the reason that intermittent fasting is effective has to do with how the body uses fuel. Its preferred fuel source is glycogen, which is converted from glucose derived from the food we eat. At the end of the fasting period, the body has used up its stored glycogen and shifts to mobilize stored fat for conversion into fuel. The reason that the LeanGains method is only a 16 hr fast is because the brevity of the fasting period is more conducive to muscle retention or muscle gain versus longer fasting periods.

 

Disclaimer: I know this isn't a very "scientific" explanation. This is because, well, I'm not a scientist, nor have I spent the hours pouring over the research. It's possible that I've missed some sort of key detail or otherwise mucked something up.

 

Since you've stated that you train in the morning, the reason that he recommends taking Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) before and after working out is because weight training without a stream of available amino acids would be pretty darn catabolic (muscle breakdown), which is a bad thing. He even goes as far as to recommend against fasted weight training altogether (http://www.leighpeele.com/martin-berkhan-and-intermittent-fasting-interview). The BCAA recommendation is sort of just a stopgap for preventing muscle loss.

 

Ideally, training would come after meal one. I personally train in the evenings after work, usually after 1 and a half (I'll usually have a banana and maybe a little casein protein immediately prior to working out). There's no hard and fast rules when it comes to this. Early morning fasted (except for BCAAs) training might be more conducive to rapid fat loss, but I would think that it would be very difficult to build muscle on that protocol. Maintaining what you already have would likely be the optimal result.

 

Here's a pretty good write up by JC Deen on IF, for your reading pleasure:

 

http://jcdfitness.com/2010/08/intermittent-fasting%E2%80%93fat-loss-muscle-gain-and-easy-maintenance/

[eerie_reverie]

Well, it's been about 2 weeks, and I THINK I have made some progress - my clothes feel looser - but I have not shed ANY weight. WTF?

 

I have changed my exercise routine to include more weights, more diverse cardio, in leiu of all the running:

 

Monday: 1 hr strength class. The instructor varies the exercises but this class leaves me sore all over to the point where I can barely walk for 3 days.

 

Tuesday: 40 minute spin class. I don't slack off here. I am pouring sweat for 40 minutes.

 

Thursday: 20/20/20 class. 20 minutes cardio, 20 strength, 20 abs. The abs work kills me but the other sections are a breeze.

 

Friday: Run 3 miles

 

Sunday: Long run. 5 + miles

 

I have cut all the bad things out of my diet to where I am only eating veggies, fruits, and meat, and I haven't been drinking alcohol (or sugar drinks) at ALL. What's going on?? Why am I not losing weight?

 

Am I going to have to start counting calories???? This appears to be what all the thin btches do, but I have vowed NEVER to do this. I don't like the superficiality, the obsessiveness. After all, the main reason I work out and eat healthy is to feel good... not to be as small as possible.

 

I want to lose just one size. I am a 6/8, I want to be a 4/6. I've been there in the past and have a closet full of clothes that I really want to wear to prove it.

 

I thought losing 5 pounds was supposed to be easy.

[tman666]

Weight loss can be a tricky thing.

 

There is something known as the "Whoosh" effect when it comes to weight changes. A lot of times, your weight will not budge for 2 or 3 weeks at a time, and then Whoosh! This is obviously not a scientific explanation for why this happens, but it seems to be how most people tend to lose or gain weight: in chunks.

 

If you still haven't made changes in a couple of months, then you have cause for concern. For now, I'd stick to what you're doing and give it a chance to see where it takes you.

 

Also, the fact that your clothes are fitting more loosely is a big indicator that you are likely losing fat. Just because you haven't lost any scale weight doesn't mean you haven't lost fat. You're also likely gaining muscle from the changes you've made in your training schedule.

 

I personally don't think that you need to count calories at this point. It hasn't been long enough to gauge whether or not that's necessary. If you feel like you haven't made any progress in a month or two, then you might consider temporarily tracking your calorie intake, just to make sure you're not inadvertently overdoing it. I would highly doubt that this is the case though.

 

Keep on truckin'...

[eerie_reverie]

Well, my skinny clothes are starting to fit. =) Though I have still not shed a single pound.

 

Now, I'm curious about something. Ever since I first heard situps were were worthelss in high school, I cut them out of my workout routine. Now, I am taking these exercise classes (taught by and generally for women) that feature a s!htload of corework. These girls have us doing situps for 20 minutes a day. Is there any benefit to this??

[JaropolkH]

ââåëè â ãðåõ, êàê áåñ â áîëîòî.

[GrayClouds]

I want to get leaner.

 

I'm 5'8, 145ish lbs, 22% body fat. I want to get down to 18-19%.

 

FYI 145x4% = 5.8 lb

 

Beach Body in 6 weeks

 

Lift x2 week (every 3rd'ish day)

 

Each 3 sets X 8-12 reps:

 

Day 1

Deadlift

Dips

Chins

Tri

 

Day 2

Squat

Bench

Row

Bi.

 

Keep protein at 1.5 g per lb or 210g per day, fat no more the 20% rest carbs

calories +10% lift days

-30% other days

1 cheat day maintenance level or +10%

work hard and add weight progressively. Cut back on cardio to SS 3x week 30 min or walking 45 min.

 

Sit ups have limited returns, as the old saying goes Abs are made in the kitchen. Time better spent lifting like the above program.

Edited April 30, 2011 by GrayClouds

[tinktronik]

You sound like a prime candidate for intermittent fasting!

 

I personally have switched to a daily intermittent fasting lifestyle using Martin Berkhan's LeanGains (http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html) approach. Basically, I fast for 16 hours of the day and eat my daily intake during an 8 hour window, generally in the evenings. For females, he recommends a 14 hr fast.

 

Practically speaking, it means that I skip breakfast, start my eating with a late lunch (around 1 p.m.), and stop eating after around 9 p.m. ish.

 

The great thing about it is that it helps you mobilize stored fat (especially with fasted training) while still being able to enjoy the foods you like. It's not a "diet" per se, in that you can eat whatever you want. Thermodynamics, of course, still apply. In other words, you still have to eat a good, balanced, high protein diet with a slight caloric deficit if you want to lose weight, just like any other diet.

 

The first couple of days were a little rough, but after that, my body became more and more accustomed to the fasting period, where I'm not even hungry in the mornings anymore.

 

I've been doing this for about 2 months and I've slowly and intentionally lost about 15 lbs. My lifts are steadily and slowly continuing to increase, and I've actually put on a little bit of leg mass. I've eaten more desserts and drunk more beer in the last 2 months than I did previously, by a lot. My clothes are fitting differently (i.e. more loosely). My point is that if you're an athletic minded person looking to lose fat and retain muscle, and you enjoy eating stuff like pizza, cheesecake, and drinking beer, the LeanGains method could be your thing. There are other intermittent fasting methods out there too, but LeanGains is my personal choice because it ties in extremely well with strength training and slow, natural bodybuilding.

 

I'm 5 foot 8 and non-pregnant tend to sit at 127-135 lbs. I do the intermittent fasting. Also 3X a week Instead of eating a full lunch I have a wheat germ, protein smoothie.

[eerie_reverie]

FYI 145x4% = 5.8 lb

 

QUOTE]

 

A 4% drop in body weight does not correspond to a 4% drop in body fat percentage, even if all the weight loss is from losing fat.

 

Assuming no increase in muscle and weight loss only from fat, I would need to lose 7.1 lbs to get down to 18%:

 

 

Before

Total Wt: 145

Lbs Fat: =145*.22=31.9

%Fat: =31.9/145=22%

 

After (5.8 lbs lost)

Total Wt:=145-5.8=139.2

Lbs Fat:=31.9-5.8=26.1

%Fat:=26.1/139.2=18.75%

 

After (7.1 lbs lost)

Total Wt=145-7.1=137.9

Lbs Fat:=31.9-7.1=24.8

%Fat:=24.8/137.9=18%

Edited April 30, 2011 by eerie_reverie

[GrayClouds]

want to get leaner.

 

I'm 5'8, 145ish lbs, 22% body fat. I want to get down to 18-19%.

 

By my calculations, I should drop about10 lbs.

 

 

 

After (5.8 lbs lost)

Total Wt:=145-5.8=139.2

Lbs Fat:=31.9-5.8=26.1

%Fat:=26.1/139.2=18.75%

 

18.75% = 18-19%

 

And getting that bug remove from your butt may help you loss two pounds alone.

 

.

[eerie_reverie]

I'm 5 foot 8 and non-pregnant tend to sit at 127-135 lbs. I do the intermittent fasting. Also 3X a week Instead of eating a full lunch I have a wheat germ, protein smoothie.

 

Intesting.

 

May I ask how often you work out? Reading Tman's post about intermittent fasting, I came to the conclusion that it would not work very well for me, since I lift weights first thing in the morning.

 

Do you make the wheat germ and protien smoothie yourself? What else do you put in it?

[GrayClouds]

Intesting.

I came to the conclusion that it would not work very well for me, since I lift weights first thing in the morning.

 

You would just changing your eating/fasting windows.

 

Example:

 

5:30AM BCAA/pre Workout Supplement

6:00Am Weight Training

7 AM First Meal 50% daily calories.

Noon Lunch 20% Calories

5pm Dinner 30% calories

Fast until 7am

[eerie_reverie]

You would just changing your eating/fasting windows.

 

Example:

 

5:30AM BCAA/pre Workout Supplement

6:00Am Weight Training

7 AM First Meal 50% daily calories.

Noon Lunch 20% Calories

5pm Dinner 30% calories

Fast until 7am

 

 

I am not comfortable taking supplements other than protein powder. Would that qualify?

[GrayClouds]

I am not comfortable taking supplements other than protein powder. Would that qualify?

 

leangains.com:

* For fasted training, BCAA or an essential amino acid mixture is highly recommended. However, if this feels like too much micromanaging or simply questionable from an economic standpoint, you could also make due with some whey protein.

Though if you are interested in this program you should spend some time at the website, there is a good deal of information to be learned.

Edited May 2, 2011 by GrayClouds

[thebody]

You sound like a prime candidate for intermittent fasting!

 

I personally have switched to a daily intermittent fasting lifestyle using Martin Berkhan's LeanGains (http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html) approach. Basically, I fast for 16 hours of the day and eat my daily intake during an 8 hour window, generally in the evenings. For females, he recommends a 14 hr fast.

 

Practically speaking, it means that I skip breakfast, start my eating with a late lunch (around 1 p.m.), and stop eating after around 9 p.m. ish.

 

The great thing about it is that it helps you mobilize stored fat (especially with fasted training) while still being able to enjoy the foods you like. It's not a "diet" per se, in that you can eat whatever you want. Thermodynamics, of course, still apply. In other words, you still have to eat a good, balanced, high protein diet with a slight caloric deficit if you want to lose weight, just like any other diet.

 

The first couple of days were a little rough, but after that, my body became more and more accustomed to the fasting period, where I'm not even hungry in the mornings anymore.

 

I've been doing this for about 2 months and I've slowly and intentionally lost about 15 lbs. My lifts are steadily and slowly continuing to increase, and I've actually put on a little bit of leg mass. I've eaten more desserts and drunk more beer in the last 2 months than I did previously, by a lot. My clothes are fitting differently (i.e. more loosely). My point is that if you're an athletic minded person looking to lose fat and retain muscle, and you enjoy eating stuff like pizza, cheesecake, and drinking beer, the LeanGains method could be your thing. There are other intermittent fasting methods out there too, but LeanGains is my personal choice because it ties in extremely well with strength training and slow, natural bodybuilding.

 

I use a diet much like this during my summer months. Of course because it's catered to the BB's they have to call it the "Warrior Diet".

 

And hey... the results don't lie.

[tman666]

I use a diet much like this during my summer months. Of course because it's catered to the BB's they have to call it the "Warrior Diet".

 

And hey... the results don't lie.

 

I would argue that the Warrior Diet is catered less well to bodybuilders and athletes and more to the "average dieter" than LeanGains. However, I have seen a few people use the Warrior Diet with very good results from a bodybuilding lens. I would think it would be hard to optimize athletic performance on the WD, however. Then again, when I first heard the term "Intermittent Fasting", I wrote it off completely as something for idiots and people who didn't have a problem with being small and weak, so my opinion might not mean anything here...

[eerie_reverie]

I read a bit more about the Leangrains diet.

 

I do agree that it would probably help me acheive my goals.

 

Two things are turning me off.

 

I TRY to work out in the mornings, and I don't like how the setup for morning workouts begins with a s!htload of powders/ chemicals. But if it's only protien powder that I can get by on, and I do see results pretty fast, I could probably live with that.

 

The other thing is, I am not a planner. I don't plan my meals, and half the time, I don't even plan my workouts. I TRY to work out in the mornings, but sometimes, I oversleep and go in the afternoons. I don't want to have to keep thinking about what to eat and what time to take which supplement.

 

But perhaps this diet will not be too much of a hassle. Maybe all I really need is to get some whey protient for the days I am going to be working out in the mornings to make sure I have that on hand, and then, just remember not to eat 9 PM - noon.

 

Is it really that easy? I think I'd be able to stick to that.