Healthy Body Fat Percentage

You want a healthy body fat percentage, right?

So why are you fatter after you diet?

Let's take an example to show what happens when you diet.

Imagine that you are overweight and want to lose weight. Let's say you weigh 250 pounds. You want to get down to 200. That is a 50 pound weight loss.

Here is the body composition before the diet:

• Weight 250 pounds
• Lean mass 180 pounds
• Body fat 70 pounds
• Body fat 28%

So you are better off than a lot of people. But still that is not a healthy body fat composition.

How much body fat is the right amount? You can find out with this online body fat calculator.

So you go on a diet. It is a usual low calorie diet. Let's say you eat 1500 calories per day.

It's easy at first

You lose weight quickly at first. In the first couple of weeks you might lose 10-15 pounds. It is mostly water weight and stored glycogen. Some of it is muscle. And some of it is fat.

You stay on the diet for a while, losing some fat but a lot of muscle too. Eventually your progress slows and you get discouraged. You go off the diet.

At this point you have lost 40 pounds. That seems pretty good actually. Here is your body makeup.

• Weight 210 pounds
• Lean mass 165 pounds
• Body fat 55 pounds
• Body fat 26%

You lost a lot of weight--40 pounds. You lost 25 pounds of fat. That's good.

But you see, a lot of the weight you lost was lean muscle. You lost 15 pounds of muscle. And it is the lean muscle that keeps your metabolism high.

But then what happens?

You are off the diet now. And you are hungry. So now you go back to your usual eating habits. The weight creeps back up.

And pretty soon you are back up to 250 pounds. Your body composition has changed.

• Weight 250 pounds
• Lean mass 170 pounds
• Body fat 80 pounds
• Body fat 32%

Now you are back to your old weight. But your body composition has changed. You have more body fat. You have gained 10 pounds of fat. And you lost 10 pounds of muscle overall.

You see, at the same weight you now have more fat and less muscle. You have 32% body fat. That is not a healthy body fat percentage.

The wrong diet will make you fat

You now have a lower metabolism, because it is the muscle that burns up the calories.

So now it is even harder for you to lose weight than before. You will probably gain weight even if you eat the same as you did before the diet.

And that is how diets make you fat. Sorry to have to tell you.

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