[Cats tongue]

So me and a friend of mine signed up for a fitness course called "women on weights". And today was our first class. We didn't get into the weights, but we did get our measurements and body composition stuff done. It was pretty cool.

So my body fat % is 24.5 (roughly) which sounds great to me, right? I weighed in at 141 (2lbs up, but it was midday and after eating...). My measurements were similar to what I've measured recently.

But I have a question, how reasonable is it to have a goal of 21% bodyfar?
Any suggestions for what to eat to get there? Or workouts or something in general?
I'm vegetarian, so should I eat more protein? And what protein?

Haha, I know so much about healthy eating and exercise, but now that I'm determined to get my bodyfat down (now that I know what it is!) I feel uterly clueless...

[kamesennin]

No advice, but I like your progress photos! My body fat is something like 30%, yikes!

[JulieJ08]

I wish I knew my body fat percentage! An online calculator tells me 29%, but I don't expect that to be very accurate. But it's probably good for watching the trend: I started above 35.5 (I was 35.5 at 190# after already losing 7 pounds) .

[Cats tongue]

Nice job guys!

Yeah I think the healthy range for bodyfat is 20-30% or something, with athelets being between 12-20%.

I just wish I knew how to lose bodyfat as a goal sort of thing...

[LandonsBaby]

21% is perfectly reasonable. As for how to get there, well, I'm not sure especially since you are vegetarian. For now I guess I would focus on building muscle and eating well. Don't try to lose weight for a while. Eat to gain muscle. Then when you've gained some muscle mass, try losing fat again by cutting down calories but keeping up protein. I know this is how a lot of people do it.

[Cats tongue]

Thanks LandonsBaby.

That's sort of what I was thinking. To build muscle would you say eat more protein? Or is that just a myth?

[PhotoChick]

Absolutely NOT a myth. The more muscle you want to build, the more protein you need to consume. If you're lifting heavy or doing a lot of hard-core resistance training you need to try to consume a good bit of protein within an hour (pref 30 mins) of your workout.

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