I’m trying to reduce my body fat percentage and take my body to it’s next level. I’d like some sites that have tips and such for doing so and nutrition guides/tips. I’m also trying to find a site that has a compilation of weightlifting/exercise moves.

I know that the at-home body fat scales are not accurate and are suposed to be used to see how much you gain and lose.. well I gained, i twas 26 to begin with, and now it is 30% body fat. I am 5′4 and weigh 160 pounds but am size 10. I’m so confused, I work out 150 minutes a week (2 to 3 hours) yet I continue to gain fat. how is this even possible?

Also I have a pretty good understanding of nutrition, fitness, weight loss and gain…. i eat pretty normally except for an excess of chocolate, how could that cause me to have so much body fat if I work off all the calories all the time?
“An excess of chocolate,” means that I eat chocolate every day, but I never eat candy bars or anything, its not like I have more than a serving or two of chocolate in any form… its usually random peices of chocolate, never a candy bar. or it is frozen yogurt which contains chocolate.

Currently, I am 5′11, 215lbs, and my bench max is 365lbs. I don’t specifically target bench over other muscles, so this bench max is indicative of my overall upper body strength.

Although most of my weight is from muscle mass, I do have fat I can lose. Also, I could stand to lose some muscle, but I want to keep as much as possible. Ideally I want to weigh 190lbs or so. I doubt I have enough fat I can reasonably lose to get down to 190 soley by losing fat, so I probably would have to lose 5-7lbs of muscle also. Still, I want to limit my muscle loss and maximize my fat loss. In the past, if I have ever tried to lose fat I have not been pleased with my ratio of fat to muscle lost. Whereas I’d preferably want something like 3lbs of fat per 1lb muscle, its more like 3lbs muscle per 1lb fat (my estimation based on how much weaker I get compared to how much weight I have lost)

Here is the plan. I currently lift 4-6 day a week. I think I am going to try to add 45 minutes of consecutive cardio (probably something like 3 sets of 5 min punching bag with 3 min jumping rope in between, then finish with 20 min run, I would do this variety mainly so I don’t get bored), which although I should be doing, I have not been. As for my diet I currently eat like crap, and am almost certainly running a calorie surplus. I figure if I want to lose weight and keep muscle I need to eat a lot better and maintain a fairly small calorie deficit. Probably going to try for 4-5 small meals a day, including 3 servings of vergetables/fruit each day. For two of those meals I will probably have chicken, for one maybe tuna (I have heard eating tuna daily is no good because you might get too much mercury, can anyone confirm or deny this). I might look into lean ground beef as another entree for one of the meals. Any turkey I find has too much sodium, so thats a no go. Salmon is too expensive. Any other nutrition suggestions?

I am thinking if I really want to maintain muscle while losing weight, this will have to be a slow process. So, I would probably be happy with losing 1lb a week, as long as that pound is around 75% fat. Has what I have laid out look good? Any other advice?

Under what conditions will your body fat percentage drop the quickest and fastest. (i.e target weight x 1.5 = grams of protein to eat a day). Please include diet as far as protein fat carbs etc no specific foods. Also what is the target amount of time to keep heart rate elevated to burning fat without burning off muscle at what point does muscle get broken down ?

Now notice I said body fat percentage and not just fat loss. The idea is to lower the body fat increase muscle mass/density therefor lowering the percentage of body fat. Im not looking to gain X amount of muscle and lose Y amount of fat. Im curious as to at what point in nutrition and working out will it be the body fat % drop the fastest.

Obviously its not gonna be EXACT for everyone but im sure there are formulas guidelines etc that can be applied to the general population.

I ask this question after noticing many misconceptions on weight loss and slimming down. Im hoping this will be helpful to others as well as myself.

I’m an athlete- I race mountain bikes and do triathlons. I’m also a vegetarian. I’ve found it difficult not only to maintain proper nutrition while training, but I would really like to lose some weight but have found that most weight loss plans don’t take into consideration the phsyical demands of a competitive vegetarian athlete. Any suggestions?

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