Do you know that you could be in the healthy BMI (Body Mass Index) range of 18-23, but has high percentage of body fat? Therefore, focus on your body fat rather than body weight as a gauge for good health.
Body fat is the percentage of fat the body contains. Healthy body fat for women is 20-30% and for men is 10-20%. Find out your body fat from the body fat percentage calculator.
High body fat is caused by high caloric diet of refined carbohydrate and lack of exercise to burn off the excess calories. Eating food that have fat in them will not necessarily make you gain body fat.
The only way to lose body fat is to reduce the calories from the food intake and burn off the excess calories with exercise.
Do not be fooled by what your weighing scale tells you. When you are on a weight lost program, it is important to calculate the body fat percentage before, during and after the program. Why?
Researches have shown that many fad diets with little or no exercise can cause one to lose as much lean muscle as body fat. There is a high chance of returning to pre-diet weight resulting in more body fat and reduced lean muscle. You cannot see these changes from the weighing scale, but a body fat measurement will.
Achieving ideal body weight with healthy body fat requires long-term lifestyle change adopting healthy diet and regular exercise. Bear in mind that you can’t pick out what part of your body you want the fat to come off. The procedure is the same.
Check out my earlier post for more information on natural weight (body fat) lost and exercises that burns fat.
Have you measured your body fat yet? Do share and discuss with me.
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I am a 13 year old girl I am 5’5 and I weigh 117 pounds but I have a lot of stomach fat that I don’t want and I can’t go outside and excercise I’m not allowed so what do I do to lose my stomach fat but not lose weight and not have to exercise
Hi Sydney,
As a 13 year old, you are still growing and developing. Your BMI calculated at 19 means that you are not overweight. As a young lady, it is important that you remain active through sports and exercises. It is good for your body as well as your brain development. There is no way to get rid of the tummy fat without exercising. In fact, you should exercise to firm the muscle in the whole body so that you do not lose muscle mass. Plus eating healthy and balance diet will help. Check out my post http://lookgoodfeelgreatalways.com/home/lose-weight-exercising/
I’m a 15 yr old guy and i’m 6’1 and i weigh 185 pounds , i have lots of muscle but also body fat . Like the chest area and stomach , but its not like faaaat ! but just enough to hide my abs , that you can see a little but i want to get rid of that fat over it.
I do swimming everyday for 2 hours after school for my highschool. and i also take CLA , to see if i can lose more fat .
what are your thoughts ? what should i do ?
Hi Thiago,
You are not fat. Your BMI is just about within the normal range. To get definition in your abs, you have combine aerobic training on cardio and weight training on your muscle. Just doing sit up alone is not going to help. You have to work on the general body area. As a 15 yr old, it is important that you eat a healthy diet of good protein, carbohydrate and fats plus lots of fruits and vegetables. Cut all refined carbohydrate and processed food. You will find your body going into fat burning zone naturally.