Body Fat Questions Answered

1. What is Body Fat Percentage?
The percent of fat you carry on your body.
The total amount of fat divided by total body mass, times 100. Includes the essential fat you need to survive

2. What is the percentage of essential fat?
Men: 2-5%. Women: 10-13%.

3. What is a healthy body fat percentage for me?
Depends on your age. Most men should aim for a percentage in the teens to the low 20s. While women should aim for the 20s to low 30s

4. How do I measure my body fat?
There’s a few ways to measure your body fat. Some are more expensive than others though.

Body Fat Caliber: a cheap method, but measurements can be inaccurate.

Electric Reader: another cheap, diy method. Can be a handheld reader or a bf scale. Also not super accurate. With hydration levels causing inaccurate reads.

Dexa Scan: among the most accurate and also the most expensive. Done in a lap using a body scanner. Cost about $250 each time.

Hydrostatic Weighing: also expensive, and highly accurate. Involves being submerged in water.

5. How much body fat can I lose in a month?
Most studies have agreed that aiming to lose about 1% a month. While also keeping your lean muscle.

6. How do I lose body fat?
Just like losing weight in general, you need to lower your food intake, and exercise. Keeping protein intake in a solid range will help maintain muscle.

Mixing high intensity cardio workouts with strength training will help you burn fat while maintaining muscle mass

Basically, eat a little less per day, lift some weights, and do some hard cardio (sprints, intervals, circuits).

At the end of the day, body fat percentage is just another form of keeping track of progress. Just like weighing yourself, and taking regular progress pics.

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