To decrease body fat percentage start with strength training, following a high protein and fibre-rich diet, getting proper sleep, avoiding sweetened beverages, consuming healthy fats, opting for whole grains over refined carbs and increasing cardio exercises. A healthy body fat is essential to carry out certain integral functions. However, excess body fat is linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and cancer, while too little body fat is a sign of malnourishment and underweight. Achieving an ideal body fat percentage varies from one individual to another, and thus, it’s essential to create an individualized plan that caters to one’s individual needs. Continue reading to find accurate answers to your doubt of, how do i decrease body fat percentage?
What is Body Fat Percentage?
How do I decrease body fat percentage is a frequently appearing question; however, first, it’s essential to understand what body fat percentage is. In simple terms, body fat percentage is the total mass of fat divided by the total mass of the body. One can calculate body fat through a Body Fat Calculator, which helps determine how much of your weight is derived from fat compared to lean tissue, like bones, muscles, and organs. It’s considered best to measure yourself early in the morning, right after freshening up, as it helps arrive at an accurate measurement. Body fat percentage depends on various factors such as age, sex, genetics, lifestyle, activity levels, diet, and more. 25-31% is considered a healthy body fat percentage for women, whereas for men, it can fall between 18-24%.
What is the Ideal Body Fat Percentage?
The ideal body fat percentage varies depending on several factors, including age, sex, and individual fitness goals. It represents the proportion of a person’s weight that comes from fat compared to their total body weight. Maintaining an optimal body fat percentage is crucial for overall health, as too much and too little body fat can lead to health problems. Generally, having an appropriate body fat percentage helps reduce the risk of chronic diseases, supports metabolic functions, and maintains physical performance and aesthetics. It is also possible to Visually Estimating Body Fat Percentage.
Healthy Body Fat Percentages for Women
For women, a healthy body fat percentage typically ranges from 21% to 35%, depending on age and activity level. Women naturally have higher body fat percentages than men due to biological and hormonal differences, particularly in the breasts, hips, and thighs. Athletes and highly active women might maintain a body fat percentage as low as 14-20%, while women who are more sedentary or older might fall into the higher end of the range. Maintaining body fat within these levels helps ensure hormonal balance, reproductive health, and overall well-being.
Healthy Body Fat Percentages for Men
For men, a healthy body fat percentage generally falls between 8% and 24%, also varying with age and activity levels. Men typically have lower body fat percentages than women due to differences in muscle mass and hormonal profiles. Athletic and highly active men may have body fat percentages as low as 6-13%, while less active or older men might range higher. Keeping body fat within this range supports metabolic health, reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and aids in maintaining muscle mass and physical performance.
How to Lower Body Fat Percentage Quickly?
If you ask yourself, how do I decrease body fat percentage, we are here to put you out of your doubt. One can lower body fat percentage quickly by incorporating a fibre and protein-rich diet, cutting down on processed and sugary foods, avoiding sweetened beverages, practising HIIT workouts, cardio, strength training or cycling and adopting healthier eating habits and indulging in portion control.
How to lower body fat percentage through Diet
Diet is one of the most useful ways to approach the doubt of how do I decrease body fat percentage. Foods rich in fiber, protein and antioxidants help improve gut health and boost metabolic rate which in turn helps one to lose body fat
1. Eat at a Calorie Deficit (and Hit Your Macros Consistently)
When one consumes fewer calories than required and spends more through exercise, they can create a calorie deficit, which helps with weight loss. On average, a 500-calorie deficit can assist in achieving a weight loss of around 0.5 to 1 kg per week. One can estimate their calorie needs through a bmr calculator and create a healthy eating pattern that contains fewer calories. Always make sure that you are fulfilling your requirements for macronutrients through a balanced mix of whole vegetables, whole grains, whole fruits, lean proteins, low-fat or fat-free dairy, including milk, yoghurt, cheese, or fortified soy beverages, or healthy oils such as olive or canola to figure out accurately how to lower your body fat percentage.
2. Focus on Micronutrient-Rich Foods
Consumption of macronutrients is essential for providing energy to the body. However, micronutrients like vitamins and minerals help produce energy, boost immunity, and bone health. The effect of micronutrients on how to decrease body fat percentage fast is twofold. Vitamin D, magnesium, and iron are micronutrients that help in muscle contraction, repair and growth. In contrast, Vitamin B helps in metabolizing proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, which aids in fat loss. Chromium is also imperative in enhancing insulin action, which boosts fat metabolism. Some of the best sources of micronutrients are spinach, nuts and seeds, eggs, berries, legumes, grains or fruits.
3. Include protein and fiber in your diet
Protein-rich foods help promote satiety by increasing leptin levels in the body while also decreasing ghrelin levels. They help reduce body fat percentage by enhancing diet-induced thermogenesis, which is the burning of calories through digestion and muscle mass retention. Fibre intake promotes fullness as it takes longer to digest and promotes bacterial metabolism. They help boost heart and gut health and reduce the risk of diabetes and certain types of cancer. By incorporating protein and fibre into the diet, one can find helpful answers to how to decrease body fat percentage fast.
4. Plan out your carbohydrate intake
Our body requires carbohydrates, which break down into glucose and fuel our body. However, people tend to reduce their carb intake when finding answers for how to decrease body fat percentage fast. An individual’s crab intake depends on several factors, such as age, body composition, lifestyle, activity, sex and more. Although, around 30-50% of your daily calorie intake is recommended to be drawn from sources of complex carbs such as whole grains, fruits, lentils, brown rice, vegetables, beans or legumes. Reducing the consumption of simple carbs such as refined wheat and added sugars is how to lower your body fat percentage. Assessing how many calories should i burn a week can also help in better planning out of carb intake.
How to lower body fat percentage through Exercise
If you are still wondering how do I decrease body fat percentage, exercise might be your answer for it. One can incorporate the various Exercises to lose weight such as squats, pilates, yoga training, weight training and more into their routine to lose fat.
1. Squats (basic squats, sumo squats, jump squats)
Squats are one of the best exercises that lower your lower body, targeting glutes and quadriceps muscles and tightening your core. Hip muscles, Calves, Hamstrings and Obliques are also the muscles that are tightened and toned with squats. Squats are exponentially helpful in burning calories and making your butt firm which leads to improved posture and balance.
2. Pilates and Yoga for Toning
Pilates increases endurance and muscle strength, improves flexibility, posture, and balance, and relieves joint pain. Pilates mainly targets the back and core areas by indulging small movements. It has been proven effective in treating arthritis, urinary incontinence, respiratory conditions, joint injuries, and back pain. Yoga is another excellent way of answering how to decrease body fat percentage fast. From burning calories to providing relaxation and enhancing breathing, yoga has been proven helpful for positively impacting arthritis issues, respiratory conditions, high blood pressure, chronic pain, and type 2 diabetes. Pilates and yoga are also one of the best Home Exercises for Weight Loss.
3. Cardio & Weight Training
Weight training refers to lifting weights, which helps build muscle mass and enhance strength. As the body starts to build muscles, it also helps in boosting metabolism which allows faster burning of calories and aids in fat loss. Resistance training is how to decrease your body fat percentage, lower body fat mass and visceral fat. A 2021 Study by Science Daily that one can lose around 1.4 per cent of the entire body fat through strength training alone.
4. Go for HIIT
HIITs are high-intensity workouts that are followed by short intervals of low-intensity workouts. They are highly recommended to enhance physical fitness and physiological functions and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. HIIT exercises are equally helpful in lowering total fat as well visceral fat along with stimulating muscle mass. Burpees, plank jacks or jump squats are some of the best HIIT exercises to incorporate into one’s routine and approach the doubt of how to decrease body fat percentage fast.
5. Cardiovascular Exercises
Popularly known as aerobic exercise, cardiovascular exercises don’t just lower body fat but vastly enhance cardiac health. They primarily utilize large muscle groups, such as your legs or upper body. The exercise requires controlled breathing and boosts heart rate. Walking, jogging, swimming, or cycling are common forms of cardio exercises. Complement your cardio routine with Zero Calorie Foods to enhance the results.
6. Cycling
Cycling approaches the doubt of how to decrease body fat percentage fast with a dual result of calorie burning and metabolic boost. During cycling, the body utilizes the stored fats and carbohydrates along with increasing your heart rate and pushing the muscles, which boost resting metabolism, leading to the burning of calories even when the body is at rest. By metabolic enhancements, cycling effectively achieves long-term fat loss results.
7. Running or Jogging
Gearing up on those running shoes is how to lower your body fat percentage. Including 30 minutes of running 3 to 4 times per week is recommended. Compared to less intense exercises such as walking, running has a higher energy expenditure, which leads to increased burning of calories. When complemented with a balanced diet, running or jogging can help one achieve weight loss by burning calories even when the body is at rest, lowering belly fat, and strengthening leg muscles.
Other Ways to decrease body fat percentage Fast
It isn’t uncommon to worry about how do i decrease body fat percentage? Lowering body fat is essential for attaining a healthy weight and improving overall health by reducing the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer. Below mentioned are some of the ways of how to lower your body fat percentage:
1. Manage Your Stress Levels
Increased levels of adrenaline and cortisol in the body give way to high glucose levels in the bloodstream. High stress is a leading cause of sugar cravings, which can lead to problems with stress eating or other eating disorders. Excess calories can cause unhealthy weight gain. Thus, it’s important to de-stress through meditation, yoga, or other relaxing practices.
2. Get Enough Sleep
Getting a sound and uninterrupted sleep of 7-8 hours is essential for maintaining ideal body weight and improving overall health. Insufficient sleep is known to interfere with the hormones of leptin and ghrelin, which creates an imbalance in the appetite that can lead to binge eating and the accumulation of excess body fat. Improper sleep also triggers cortisol levels, which can increase stress and cause fat accumulation in the abdominal region. Consuming magnesium-rich foods such as green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains can help boost melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone.
3. Consider a low-carb
Lowering carb consumption to 20 to 57 grams per day can help one figure out how to decrease body fat percentage. A low-carb diet leads to utilization of fat for fuel, which helps in achieving fat loss. Eliminating carb sources such as pasta, bread, and sugary foods and incorporating high-carb fruits, whole grains, dairy, or legumes helps in effectively losing weight and stabilizing blood sugar levels in the body. It will be easier to estimate your carb intake if you figure out How many calories should i eat in a week?
4. Avoid high fat & processed food
Processed foods contain unhealthy fat, calories, and sugar and fewer nutrients. They amount to empty calories without adding much value to one’s nutritional requirements, and people often consume them in excess. They are the leading cause of eating disorders, overeating or stress eating, all of which lead to unhealthy weight gain as well as several chronic illnesses.
5. Use stairs where ever you can
It is claimed that an average human can burn around 500 calories by running stairs for 30 minutes. Apart from following a proper diet and a workout routine, one should incorporate fat loss methods into their daily lifestyle. One such technique would include climbing stairs and avoiding elevators whenever possible. Opting for stairs will help in burning substantial calories while also elevating your fitness levels and giving a break from a sedentary lifestyle, especially for those working 9 to 5.
6. Keep a check of your portion
Incorporating portion control into your routine effectively helps monitor calorie consumption. Portion control refers to regulating the size of food you consume during every meal, which helps keep the calorie count in check and keeps overeating at bay. Some of the portion control techniques include smaller portions of meals throughout the day or using utensils or plates that are smaller in size.
7. HIIT Workout 5 days in a week
Incorporating HIIT workouts five days a week can significantly reduce body fat percentage due to their efficiency in calorie burning and metabolic enhancement. HIIT involves short bursts of intense exercise followed by brief recovery periods, which elevate the heart rate and metabolism, leading to increased calorie burn both during and after workouts through the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect. This intense training also promotes better fat oxidation than steady-state cardio and helps preserve lean muscle mass, which is crucial for maintaining a high metabolic rate.
8. Walk whenever you can
Walking for 30 minutes in an entire day can not only help one to find answers for how do i decrease body fat percentage but also enhance cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat, and boost muscle power and endurance. Walking can help elevate the levels of cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in the body, the hormones that can provide an energy boost and enhance one’s mood. Meanwhile you may also want to hop on to How to Lose 1 Kg in a Week?
9. Get enough rest
Prioritizing 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night helps balance hunger-related hormones like ghrelin and leptin, reducing cravings for high-calorie foods. Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and creating a restful environment—dark, quiet, and relaxed—enhances sleep quality. Additionally, managing stress through activities like yoga or meditation lowers cortisol levels, a hormone associated with fat storage. Limiting caffeine, heavy meals before bed, and screen time can also improve sleep quality, ultimately supporting better metabolic health and fat loss.
What’s the Best Way to Lower Body Fat Percentage?
People often ask, how do i decrease body fat percentage? One can reduce body fat percentage by making a holistic change through a balanced diet, regular workout and lifestyle improvements. Below mentioned are some of the ways to lower body fat percentage.
1. Consume good fats
Although seen in a bad light, healthy fats are essential for boosting heart health, improving metabolism and performing other functions of the body. Unsaturated fats and omega-3s extracted from fatty fish like salmon, olive oils, avocados, and nuts should be consumed in moderation. While also cutting down carefully on saturated and trans fats such as cookies, cakes, potato chips, fast and fried foods, red meat, and whole-fat dairy. Incorporate nuts and seeds or such healthy fats as evening snacks to curb cravings and prompt fullness.
2. Stay hydrated
Fulfilling one’s hydration needs is imperative to following any diet or achieving a weight loss goal. Water helps in enhancing metabolism and also curbs cravings as well as it comes without any calories. Often one can mistake thirst for hunger and end up consuming excess calories and thus it’s recommended to drink 3-4 liters of water everyday to stay full.
3. Drink coffee before workout
Coffee is considerably known to boost epinephrine levels in the body and enhance our nervous system. Drinking coffee prior to workout can help in stimulating muscle endurance while also improving performance and metabolism which accelerates calorie burning.
4. Avoid crash diets
Before going on any diet to approach the doubt of how do i decrease body fat percentage, it’s important to prioritize your health. Any diet plan that you follow should be safe, realistic and sustainable. Crash diets may help one achieve quick weight loss however it can hamper metabolic health in the long run while also causing several nutritional deficiencies. Although, one can try a 7 days weight loss plan to kick start their weight loss journey.
Factors Contributing to high body fat percentage
There are numerous factors which influence one’s body fat percentage and although some of those factors such as genetic makeup, age or gender are out of their control, there are some like level of physical activity, diet, certain social or environmental factors are well within one’s control. Below mentioned are some of the factors contributing to high body fat percentage.
1. Age
As one proceeds to grow with age, they tend to lose muscle and gain body fat especially around the age of 30. During this age, body fat starts taking up more space than body muscle along with increased accumulation of abdominal fat.
2. Sex
Women have 10% higher body fat than men and thus sex also plays a major determining factor in high body fat percentage. Men gain higher muscle mass through the presence of testosterone. While women tend to have a higher body fat owing to pregnancy and lactation as well as increased accumulation of abdominal fat.
3. Genetics
It is claimed that genetics shapes around 40 to 70% of one’s body fat percentage. They also play a significant role in influencing your hunger or fullness signals and where the body stores the fat, however, one can still change the course despite the genetics and achieve positive answers to the doubt of how do i decrease body fat percentage.
Expert Review on How to Decrease Body Fat Percentage?
Dr. Amit Kochar is a nutritionist and he recommends creating a holistic approach for lowering the body percentage. It can be lowered by consuming a well-balanced diet through protein and fiber rich foods, indulging in exercises like HIIT workouts, cardio or weight training. It is also imperative to adopt healthier eating habits, avoid processed or sugary foods, practice portion control and also avoid crash diets. The ideal body fat percentage for women is 25-31% and 18-24% for men. The body fat percentage depends on several factors such as age, gender, genetics, physical activity or diet and thus it’s important to follow a diet plan that is sustainable, safe and long-lasting.
References
“Body Fat Percentage, Body Mass Index, Fat Mass Index and the Ageing Bone: Their Singular and Combined Roles Linked to Physical Activity and Diet.” 2019. NCBI.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6356293/.
“Relationship between body mass index and percentage of body fat, estimated by bio-electrical impedance among adult females in a rural community of North India: A cross-sectional study.” n.d. NCBI. Accessed June 7, 2024.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6659436/.
“A Study on Body Fat Percentage for Physical Fitness and Prevention of Obesity: A Two
Compartment Model.” 2023. Munich Personal RePEc Archive.
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/117158/1/Body%20Fat%20Per-27-4-23%20MPRA.pdf.
FAQs
1. What is the fastest way to lower body fat percentage?
The fastest way to lower body fat percentage is through-
- Consuming probiotics rich foods
- Doing strength training, cardio, HIIT exercise
- Getting enough sleep
- Increasing protein consumption
2. How long does it take to lose 5% body fat?
It is a common question, how do i decrease body fat percentage? Losing 1-3% of body fat a month is considered healthy, thus it can take around 2 months to lose 5% body fat. However, the rate varies on several other factors such as gender, age, body type, lifestyle, diet and more.
3. What burns fat the fastest?
Creating a calorie deficit by consuming fewer calories than what one spends burns fat the fastest.
4. How much body fat percentage can I reduce in a month?
One can lose around 1% to 3% of body fat percentage in a month.
5. What are the 5 foods that burn belly fat?
Five foods that burn belly fat-
- Soluble fibers like fruits, vegetables, and legumes
- Fatty fish like salmon or tuna
- Protein rich foods like eggs, lean meat
- Probiotic sources like yogurt, tempeh
- Detox drinks like green tea, fenugreek seed water
6. How to remove belly fat?
One can remove belly fat by-
- Lift weights
- Eat more protein and fiber
- Avoid processed foods
- Adopt to sustainable diet
- Drink coffee before workout
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