Body Fat Percentage

[UtahSkier]

RetireAge50

Certainly want to keep you and your thread positive, but you should be prepared for reality to disagree with your chart.

While I haven't seen your specific dieting and exercising plan, I suspect your efforts to keep "Other" constant at 137 will be quite a challenge.

I have been trying to achieve your challenge since 1990. While I have failed many, many times, I have figured out what works best for me.

When appropriate, feel free to discuss.

Good luck

 

[RetireAge50]

I've been logging my eating into my fitness pal. Plan is to average about a 500 calorie deficit per day. Trying to figure out the nutrient breakdown as this will likely be important. Here is a graph over the last week:


For exercise doing a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. Also climbing the steps to the 9th floor of my office building 3 times per day 5 days a week. When possible like to play tennis, play basketball, or ride bike in lieu of just walking around.

Been doing various weight machines and free weights 3 days a week with emphasis on heavier weights and less reps to get stronger rather than bigger. But I mix it up a bit too sometimes lighter weights with more reps. All of this weight lifting is done within about 30 minutes.

I really have no idea if any of the above is the right thing, it is just what I am trying for now and all comments are welcome.

 

[UtahSkier]

I like the mix of activity and deficit. But, here is what will happen. The first 10 lbs lost will be mostly water. After that, the weight loss will be a mix (50-50) of fat and muscle lost.

Unfortunately, I cannot relate to 10,000 steps or even the stair climbing.

I base my activity upon Heart Rate... and calories expended per hour.

Here is what works for me... adapt as appropriate.

1. Find your conditioned Max Rate for your age. 220-Age is the rough estimate and is actually accurate for me. Start with 220-age and then after a month of serious activity, go all out and count the heart beats. I have an android phone and have a polar Bluetooth HR monitor. I use a fitness app to record my workout.

2. Find your low activity BMR. How many calories do you burn during the day doing everything but exercise. I think fitnesspal has a section to determine BMR.

3. When running a calorie deficit, my body wants to slow down my metabolic rate. I combat that by performing 24 minutes of daily HIIT. I do this on a stationary bike or elliptical machine. 4 minutes warm up, followed by 5- 4 minute sprint sessions.
A sprint session is the following; A 2 minute sprint (80 second of 75% effort, followed by 20 seconds of 90% effort, followed by 20 seconds of 100% effort). That is then followed by 2 minutes of 50% effort.

During sprints 4 and 5, you should achieve your max heart rate. It usually takes me 2 weeks of conditioning to get there.

In my case, my max HR was 170. During the 50% efforts, my HR would drop by 35 bpm. During sprint 1, my max HR would climb to 135. Sprint 2 would be 145. Sprint 3 would be 155. Sprint 4 and 5, my HR would get to 165+.

All that and I would only burn 200 calories or so.

Continued...

 

[MRG]

I've been logging my eating into my fitness pal. Plan is to average about a 500 calorie deficit per day. Trying to figure out the nutrient breakdown as this will likely be important. Here is a graph over the last week:
View attachment 23092

For exercise doing a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. Also climbing the steps to the 9th floor of my office building 3 times per day 5 days a week. When possible like to play tennis, play basketball, or ride bike in lieu of just walking around.

Been doing various weight machines and free weights 3 days a week with emphasis on heavier weights and less reps to get stronger rather than bigger. But I mix it up a bit too sometimes lighter weights with more reps. All of this weight lifting is done within about 30 minutes.

I really have no idea if any of the above is the right thing, it is just what I am trying for now and all comments are welcome.

What is your activity set to. That controls, in addition to age and sex what MFP tells you that you can eat for calories. I found both my DW and I were off by 250-500 calories per day. Both in different directions, I lost 2 pounds weekly while she lost 1/2 pounds during the same time. Both of us targeted the same 500 calorie a day deficit.
That's with weighing all our foods. Interesting, did you modify your target macros? Mine default to 20, 30, 50 for protein, fat, and carbs.

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[UtahSkier]

The next part is your weight lifting. When running a calorie deficit, the body will prevent starvation by consuming both fat and muscle. You need to tell your body the muscles are still needed and are not to be consumed.

All the literature states you need to lift heavy. But lifting heavy can cause injury as we age. You have to find balance. I have my own routines, but there's a program called strong lifts 5x5 that is a good place to start. When dieting, I like the 5x5 program to achieve heavy weight workouts.

Now we get to the actual fat loss part of the program.... long slow cardio. I get my HR to 75% of MAX HR. For me, that target is 130bpm. I get on the elliptical machine, adjust the level, and go for as long as I can. 2-3 hours if possible. I can usually burn 400 calories per hour.

Now, comes the nutrition.

I eat calories equal to BMR+HIIT+weight lifting. The calories associated with long, slow cardio is my daily deficit and represents real fat lost on that day.

The nutrition itself is also important. When running a calorie deficit, appetite is the biggest challenge. I find that carbs cause me to be hungry, so I minimize them as best I can. I try to become fat adapted (important to burn body fat) and strive for a 40% protein, 40% fat and 20% carb diet.

When starting this program, I have to stage it. The first goal is get strong enough to complete a real HIIT program. The next goal is to get a good weight lifting routine. In the beginning (first month) eat whatever it takes to help your body adapt to the new reality.

Then start cutting carbs from the diet and adding fat... replace that candy bar with 100% Ghiradeli baking chocolate. Replace the baked potato with a salad and avocado and nuts. Processed foods (carbs) and alcohol only promote appetite and work against your goals.

Then, as best you can perform the long slow cardio. What ever activities you perform, the key is your HR. Get it to the 75% of MAX and keep it there as long as possible.

 

[RetireAge50]

MRG, yes modified the goal macros as I wanted more protein to maintain muscles. I set activity level to sedentary since I have an office job.

Utah, thanks for all the information. Everything makes a lot of sense and will try some of it in my plan.

I am trying to make it so what I am doing is what I will do forever so hopefully I can find 2 or 3 hours of fun stuff like basketball or soccer as an alternative to a machine cardio.

Bought a jump rope yesterday, this and the stairs will get my heart rate high. Need to research this along with the weight plan.

 

[donheff]

What did you do to loose 35#? I was 5' 9'' 185# a year ago, lost 18# with a combination eat less and more exercise - I want to shed more, but it seems I am stuck with 165-167#.

Any tips, eat even less? :-(

For me it was simple. I ate low carb foods with a disciplined approach for 6 months (less than 50g of digestible carbs per day). Other than that restriction, I ate as much as I wanted paying no attention to amounts or calories and I continued drinking wine. The relatively high proportion of fat and protein in the foods I ate was more sating than the refined carbs found in processed foods so the few times I actually logged the calories I consumed I was surprised to see how low it was. It felt like more. Over a few months, the pounds dropped off and my belly disappeared.

After about six months eating in this fashion I started experimenting with adding some of the white stuff back into my eating (rice, potatoes, some bread). For the last 3.5 years I maintained my lower number with simply sticking to real food (very little processed stuff), almost no candy or other sugary stuff. E.g., bacon and eggs ~4 times a week.

My conclusion is that for me, as long as I stay away from sugar and large amounts of refined carbs I am fine. I can maintain my weight by watching what types of food I eat without any worries about how much. But for initial loss, going on a fairly strict low carb diet (logging all foods to keep close track) was the way to go. Again - paying attention to the what not the how much. YMMV.

 

[Sea Kayaker]

I lost 60 pounds in the year following my ER...tons of cardio and running a large caloric deficit at least 5 days a week...often as large as a daily 1000 calorie deficit. One MASSIVE mind-shift was getting used to almost always feeling slightly hungry...I would never eat until I felt STUFFED...just enough to feel NOT HUNGRY. The weight started to MELT OFF.

My first year after FIRE was dedicated to losing fat...and I most assuredly sacrificed some muscle mass in doing so. But in the last 6 months I have been doing a combo of diet/cardio/weight training so that while I am still getting leaner, my muscle mass has also been increasing....from a low point of 180 lbs I am now up to 185. If I can get to 190 lbs, 8 or 9% body fat, I am going to call it a day. I don't think single digit BF% is sustainable long term, especially in our 40's and 50's...but I am going to do my best to keep it going for a least the Summer of 2016.

 

[RetireAge50]

Started the Strong Lifts 5x5 today. Thanks for the suggestion Utah Skier.

 

[Georgialivin]

I was at 17% in a bod pod about 10months ago. My goals this year are to gain muscle and stay relatively lean. I would guess I spent most of last year around 16% but I tried to gain a couple lbs lately. I really want to be able to do pistol squats.


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[HFWR]

 

[donheff]

Based on HFWR's chart 12 or even 15% look excellent for men, 20%, even 25% for women.

 

[GreenER]

As I've posted elsewhere, I view health as an investment (1) because health impacts mobility, freedom, and quality of life and (2) because poor health has negative financial implications. Yes, healthcare costs increase with age, but those costs and negative outcomes can be minimized by investing our time, attention, and energy into our health in the same manner we do our financial investments. At least that's how I view it.

+1. This is exactly how I view this! The foods we choose to eat are every bit as important as exercise and other lifestyle choices. An investment in health is one of the smartest investments in your future enjoyment and financial wellbeing.

 

[UtahSkier]

Based on HFWR's chart 12 or even 15% look excellent for men, 20%, even 25% for women.

Yes, those are good targets.

I'm in favor of these vanity numbers as motivation tools.
My vanity number is my belly circumference as measured first thing in the morning as that will be my best number of the day.

My upper limit is 35 inches and that causes me to focus on fat loss only. This is my upper limit as if I get any bigger, I have to buy new clothes.

My goal is 32 inches... which is about 12% bf. I usually hit this target early in the summer and can hold it until the fall. I lose that number as I start my ski conditioning and weight gain program.

Today's measurement was 33.5... which is decent for the middle of the ski season (I am eating a lot of carbs to maintain activity level).

 

[Amethyst]

Indeed...I zeroed in on Mr. 15% as the best-looking one of the bunch.

Based on HFWR's chart 12 or even 15% look excellent for men, 20%, even 25% for women.

 

[audreyh1]

Based on HFWR's chart, half the men in my neighborhood are >>35% body fat.

 

[Lsbcal]

I actually went up a bit in recent years. Probably due to a healthier breakfast.

I could bore you with the details. Instead I'll just say one should aim for a healthy diet, lots of exercise for the body and the mind.

Oh, and do the thing that works in the long run i.e. many years. Don't do the diet yo-yo. There is no hurry. If you maintain good habits (very hard to do) then you will look better and feel better.

 

[Lsbcal]

Where are all those selfies of midsections? You first.

 

[Georgialivin]

I've been using MyFitnessPal to count calories. We both went from obese to healthy BMI over the last 8 months. I did hit a spot at 5 pounds from my final goal that took a while.

Since I had a pretty good idea of calories and macros I found increasing fat and lowering carbs allowed me to reduce my calories and stay feeling full. I'm targeting a 20% protein 40% fats and 40% carbs of my 1900 calories daily. Few weeks later the last 5 were gone. Best wishes.

I also use mfp. I am at about 50% carbs and 25% fat and protein. I'm losing at about 2100 right now but it's the best tool I've ever come across to lose fat. Tracking food and hitting the right macros. I love it. I don't always track, just when I want to lean out a couple lbs


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[HFWR]

Based on HFWR's chart, half the men in my neighborhood are >>35% body fat.

Worse than that...

http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/obesity/

As for what is driving America’s chronic weight problem, there are no definite answers. Scientific studies often reach conflicting conclusions, meaning many theories are out there, but the preponderance of evidence points to the two causes most people already suspect: too much food and too little exercise.

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

http://stateofobesity.org/fastfacts/

 

[redduck]

Never measured this before until recently. Started a unhealthy activity last year and gained some weight. Currently at 21% going to try to get to 10% by 6/20/2016. Anybody else have fitness goals?

For those whose fitness goal is to gain weight, maybe you could share your unhealthy, weight-gaining activity. Sounds yummy.

 

[Amethyst]

There are healthy ways to gain weight. Wouldn't you just know.

For those whose fitness goal is to gain weight, maybe you could share your unhealthy, weight-gaining activity. Sounds yummy.

 

[redduck]

Never measured this before until recently. Started a unhealthy activity last year and gained some weight.

There are healthy ways to gain weight. Wouldn't you just know.

Sure, but RetireAge50 has come across an unhealthy activity that causes weight gain. This activity is probably easier and more fun than the healthy ways. Some forum members might want to at least consider this activity if they knew what it was.

However, some forum members may have already discovered RetireAge50's unhealthy activity years ago--not realizing what they were doing was actually unhealthy. It might be helpful for them to acquire this knowledge.

Plus, hearing of unhealthy activities piques my interest.

 

[Amethyst]

I think RetireBy50 made mention of alcohol as something that needed to be cut way back in order to lose weight. If you're looking for an easy, fun, yet not especially healthy way to gain weight, "drinking a lot of beer" has a long-standing reputation

 

[redduck]

I think RetireBy50 made mention of alcohol as something that needed to be cut way back in order to lose weight. If you're looking for an easy, fun, yet not especially healthy way to gain weight, "drinking a lot of beer" has a long-standing reputation

Darn, I was hoping that it might be more creative (and inspirational) than that.