How to Lower Your Body Fat Percentage
People who carry 30+ percent body fat for men and 35+ percent body fat for women are encouraged to focus on losing weight as their primary goal.
When thinking about this it is important to understand that the goal is not to achieve 0% body fat. Instead, women are aiming to reach 28% body fat while men aim to achive 25% body fat. Based on your current body fat percentage, how much do you need to lose to hit that 28%/25% goal?
Now that you have your goal number you need a plan. And the good news is that what is necessary to see changes is not complicated and it builds a foundation on which you will be able to effectively puruse any body composition, or performance, or lifestyle goals you’d like in the future.
EAT WELL
In order to lose body fat we have to eat less calories each day while also making sure we are getting the right amount of certain nutrients.
Eat Well means to both make good food choices but also to continue to enjoy our food.
We are not starting with cutting anything out. Diets that feel like you are starving yourself of joy and flavor do not work.
Instead, we ad what we need to have in our day in order to reach our goal.
When we have things to focus on eating each day, we do not have time to worry about what we are not getting.
And when we are intentional we are happier and more fulfilled. That means we have a chance to stay consistent and consistency is required to see the results we want. It’s better to be able to enjoy the journey than feel like we are staving everyday.
The Level 1 Nutrition Guide gives you the simplest way to build confidence and to start seeing results. 3 simple steps that you fit to your lifestyle.
MOVE MORE
Our food choices have a tremendous impact on our level of body fat but our daily activity also has a similar level of influence.
Daily Activity does not mean working out. People get discouraged when they think they have to workout like they are training for a marathon in order to change their bodies.
Being active means moving your body throughout your day. Yes, working out contributes toward this, but even the hardest 1 hour workout contributes a small fraction of the total calories you will burn during your day.
When wanting to lose body fat, moving your body as much as posssible each and every day is the best way to burn the most calories (and keep your joints and body feeling as good as possible).
The problem is that life does not always put us in a place to move frequently. Even getting your steps in is a challenge if your 9-5 job is behind a desk and you have kids or other obligations before and after work or if you spend most of your day in the car, or if you are Work From Home and constantly on Zoom meetings.
The Non Exercise Activity Guide gives you some suggestions on how to increase your daily activity and get the benefits you thought you had to go to the gym for.
STRENGTH TRAIN
It is much more fun to think about getting stronger than to think about having to lose weight. Working out does burn calories and when we eat less than we burn that means we lose weight.
But we mentioned above that working out for an hour, even at high intensity, only contributes a small fraction of the total calories you will burn in a day.
The primary use of your workouts during your fat loss journey is to help you build strength. The stronger you are, the more calories you burn even when you are resting and away from the gym.
Muscle is like a furnace that is consuming calories at all times in order to be ready when you need it. Fat is like a junk drawer in your kitchen where you stuff calories you’ll deal with later.
Working out to increase your strength 2-3x per week sets you up to succeed. To increase strength you have to push yourself to the limit of your ablitiy with each workout and then give yourself time to recover. That’s when the muscle becomes stronger.
CrossFit, body building style workouts, and bodyweight training are the most common (and very effective) strength training workouts people utilize. Olympic weightlifting and Power Lifting are higher skill but highly strength focused options as well.
Boot camp style workouts are not as ideal as the focus is often on nothing in particular. However, if this style is your favorite, focus on using full ranges of motion and avoid the urge to race or go fast just for the sake of going fast. The goal is not lung burn but muscle burn.