I've Lost Half of My Body Fat!!

I'm not a dietitian and I am not a personal trainer. But for those who aren't familiar with body fat percentage, I will try to sum it up. One website explained it this way: Your body fat percentage is exactly what it sounds like...the percentage of fat your body contains.  Our bodies needs a certain amount of essential fat. If you are 150 pounds and 10% fat, it  means that your body consists of 15 pounds fat and 135 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscle, organ tissue, blood and everything else). So, a person who looks very skinny may still have a higher body fat percentage because they may not have a lot of muscle (lean body mass). Like I mentioned in my first post, I have been dieting for a few months now. My diet is very low in carbs and fats. It's also very high in protein. Let me tell you.... I'm getting pretty sick of egg whites. When I did my first evaluation at the beginning of October, my body fat percentage was at 21.3%. That's a pretty healthy percentage for my age and what my activity level was at. But I am proud to say..... I am now down to 11.5% body fat!!! I've almost cut my body fat in half. I realize that 11.5 is quite low and maybe not so healthy to maintain on a regular basis, but for my competition, it's almost low enough. The crazy part is... I am now 4 pounds heavier than I was at the beginning. I weigh 118 lbs right now. That means I've put on muscle! I feel a lot better about my body than I did in October. It goes to show that the number on the scale really doesn't matter. You need to pay attention to your body fat. And the more muscle you're building, the more calories your body is consistently burning! :)    This is a chart of healthy body fat percentage:
 

Description	Women	Men
Essential fat	10–13%	2–5%
Athletes	14–20%	6–13%
Fitness	21–24%	14–17%
Average	25–31%	18–24%
Obese	32%+	25%+

October 2013

February 2014