Embarking on a weight loss journey is not just about shedding kilos; it’s about sculpting a body that makes you feel confident and vibrant. One crucial metric on this path is body fat percentage. In this article, we’ll break down what body fat percentage is, how it can be measured, and what each percentage means for your health and appearance. 

Understanding Body Fat Percentage: 

Body fat percentage is the proportion of fat to your total body weight. 

While some body fat is essential for health, excessive fat can have implications on both your well-being and appearance. Measuring your body fat percentage provides a more accurate picture of your overall fitness level than just focusing on the scale.

How to Measure Body Fat Percentage:

1. Calipers: This method involves using skinfold calipers to pinch and measure the thickness of skin in various areas of your body.
2. Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA): BIA devices send a low electrical current through the body to estimate body fat percentage.
3. Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA): DEXA scans provide a detailed analysis of body composition, including bone density and fat distribution.

Breaking Down Body Fat Percentages:

1. Essential Fat (10-13% for women): This is the minimal amount of fat necessary for basic bodily functions. Below this level may lead to health issues.
2. Athletic/Fit (14-20% for women): This range is associated with good health and is typical for athletes.
3. Average (21-24% for women): Falling into this range is generally considered healthy, but improvements can enhance overall well-being.
4. Overweight (25-31% for women): Excess fat in this range may have health implications, and a focus on healthy lifestyle changes is recommended.
5. Obese (32% and above for women): Higher body fat percentages are associated with increased health risks, and intervention is crucial for overall well-being.

The Connection Between Health and Appearance: 

Achieving and maintaining a healthy body fat percentage is not just about aesthetics; it’s about overall well-being. Excessive body fat has been linked to various health issues, including heart disease, diabetes, and hormonal imbalances. Conversely, a healthy body fat percentage can boost energy levels, improve mood, and enhance self-esteem.

As you embark on your journey to achieve 20% body fat, remember that it’s not just a number on a scale– it’s a holistic approach to health and confidence. Embrace the process, celebrate small victories, and focus on the positive changes you’re making in your life. Your body is capable of incredible transformations, and each step you take brings you closer to the vibrant, confident version of yourself. 

Keep moving forward, stay positive, and know that you have the power to shape your own narrative.

You’ve got this!

Whatever your motivation is to look good for summer, here are a few tips you can follow to help you in terms of fat loss:

Exercise Regularly for Fat Loss

To lose fat for summer, you need to burn more calories than you consume in a day. Exercise is a great way to help create a deficit when paired with a reduction in calories consumed. Doing high-intensity workouts, such as interval training or Tabata workouts that incorporate plyometric exercises like burpees and jump squats, is one of the best ways to burn a lot of calories in a shorter amount of time, while also increasing your metabolism for hours after the workout is complete. This way, you end up burning more calories even after the workout is finished.

Resistance training aids fat loss by helping you build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn on a daily basis. This is one of the best tips for fat loss, as more muscle will also help you keep the weight off, even after summer has ended.

Another workout tip that is great if you are able to track your heart rate is to try and work out at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate for optimal fat loss. You can roughly work out your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you are 30 years old, your maximum heart rate will be around 190 beats per minute, and your ultimate fat-burn zone will be between 114 and 133 beats per minute.

Sleep Your Way to a Summer Body

A lack of sleep increases levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and therefore interferes with fat loss. Insufficient sleep also leads to reduced willpower and increases the likelihood of you making bad food choices. Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep a night, and take a nap every now and then. A few tips for improving sleep are:

• Eating foods that are high in tryptophan, such as chicken, beef, or almonds, as it helps your body produce serotonin, which helps you relax at night and go to sleep. Eat these foods at dinner, so that they can have the necessary effect at bedtime.
• Avoid exposure to blue LED light from screens at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep, as blue light exposure reduces the amount of melatonin, the sleep hormone, that your body produces.
• Practice time-restricted eating, where you limit your eating window to at least 12 hours a day, and eat at similar times. This helps to balance your circadian rhythm, which is your body’s natural sleep and waking-up cycle.

Try Time-Restricted Eating or Intermittent Fasting

Fasting for weight loss is perhaps something you did not expect to see on this list of fat loss tips. Reducing your daily eating window is a great way to lose weight, as it helps decrease the amount of time you have in a day in which you can eat. Time-restricted eating is when you only eat within a nine- to twelve-hour window, and intermittent fasting starts when you eat within an eight-hour window and fast for at least sixteen hours. Eating less often is not the only benefit of fasting. When we fast, our bodies go into a state of autophagy, which is the body’s natural cell-recycling system.

Autophagy stimulates lipolysis, which is the process of fat burning, and also speeds up cell regeneration, which can help prevent or reduce loose skin after weight loss. Fasting also stimulates the release of the human growth hormone (HGH), which helps improve body composition by encouraging fat loss and muscle growth.

Try Products from the Herbex Slimmers and Attack the Fat Ranges

At Herbex, we have an incredible selection of herbal products that are all designed to help you lose weight and unwanted fat. By following the fat-loss tips discussed above, paired with products like the ones found in our Herbex Slimmers and Attack the Fat ranges, you can start to lose weight, and be a lot closer to your goal by the time the summer holidays arrive. You can buy Herbex products at any Clicks, Dischem, or major retailer nationwide, or online at Takealot.com.

High intensity–style workouts that incorporate both aerobic exercise and strength training. These circuit workouts can be done with or without equipment. 

• Target: Building strength and muscular endurance. These workouts tend to keep you on the higher end of your heart rate zones and are usually designed in stations for time, with little to no rest in-between.
• Goals: The circuit training method of exercise is good for those people who are looking for weight loss, are in a time crunch, or are looking for overall general fitness, a total-body workout, and toning. Many say this is where you get the most bang for your buck because you can get the results you are looking for in less time.

Aerobic Training

This type of training is generally summarized as meaning “with oxygen” or cardio training. 

• Target: These workouts tend to target the cardiovascular system, mainly the heart and lungs. In most cases it’s associated with running, biking, swimming, jumprope, step class, and other cardio-based exercises. This style of training helps to increase your cardiovascular endurance and open the gap in your heart rate zones.
• Goals: The aerobic training style is good for those looking to lose weight, for specific training programs like marathons, for athletes looking to increase performance and endurance as well as recover appropriately, and for those trying to reduce the risk of chronic illness like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

Heart Rate Training

This type of training is specific to each individual and their personal zones. You can read more here about HR training, but this training method is focused in on zones like fat burn, cardiovascular endurance, peak performance, and recovery. In many cases, HR training is viewed as the all-around best training method there is. 

• Target: Heart rate training helps to increase endurance and sustainability in workouts by allowing you to peak and recover in a way that is specific to your body. Training zones are identified by doing a VO2 test.
• Goals: For anyone and everyone! Typically people training for endurance races like Spartans or marathons, or athletes honing in on max results and recovery, for the person who is totally burnt out after each workout, and all the way to people who are on medications that affect their heart rate.

Flexibility Training

Contrary to what I know everyone is thinking, it’s not just yoga! Forget the general stereotype of moms walking into the gym with lattes, flip-flops, and their yoga mat; this training style is probably the most important, yet the most neglected. It incorporates corrective exercises, stretching (both static and dynamic), and movements from head to toe. 

• Target: To improve flexibility, mobility, range of motion, balance, and better posture.
• Goals: Another method of training that is for everyone! If you are not a yoga person, it’s time to start! Yoga folks, dancers, runners, meatheads: this is for you, too! Flexibility training is for every single person who wants to enhance their training in any way. 

Strength Training

Strength training typically is done with heavy weight but can be done with lighter ones as well. This style of training is directly associated with Newton’s law: mass x acceleration = force. 

• Target: To increase muscle strength.
• Goals: Perfect for those looking to put on mass; can be good for those who don’t have a bunch of time to train; also good if you desire to move heavy things.

What should you do from here? If you are stuck in a rut or want to find the method that is going to be most effective for you, take some time to define your goals, figure out what is realistic for you, and take into consideration your past exercise experience. All these things play into what will work as well as what you like to do while in the gym.