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Body fat loss

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,466 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    No to mention generally you will perform better with lower body fat in athletic endeavours.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,394 ✭✭✭Transform


    Ush1 wrote: »
    No to mention generally you will perform better with lower body fat in athletic endeavours.
    caring obsessively about it is not the same as performing better - I don't think Lebron or Serena care much but Billy down the road that's 68kg and 5ft10in caring to the point of isolation about his body fat just leads to major issues


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,394 ✭✭✭Transform


    Mellor wrote: »
    The technician palys very littel role afaik. It more to do with machine calibration.
    However, Brian Shaw was 200kg at the Arnolds. That is him in peak competition stages. He also mentioned that he was dehydrated and had to drink a **** load of water. That will screw with the %s too. As it's read as lean mass.
    If he took time off and dropped 40lbs, I'd expect that to be a fair bit of muscle. It wouldn't surprise me if his BF% went up, (which isn't the same as fat mass going to).


    Actual bodyfat % will fluctuationover 1% over a day due to hydration alone. Any variation in calibration will add to that. I'd well believe a 4% range is common.
    But +/-5% is a 10% range, that's a lot.


    Sure, serious athletes only care about performance as it's their goal. But if the goals are aesthetics (and lets be honest most people's are), then fat mass makes just as much sense as a focus. There's nothing wrong with that.

    There's also a lot of hobbyists who obsess about performance under the delusion that are athletes. I'm not picking on cycling, but its a good example. A guy spending $1000's on hardware to lighten his bike by >1kg. Meanwhile he's carrying 10kg of extra body fat.
    we're on the same page really here but I've a big issue with people that care more about or plan fat loss when they haven't got the 3 S's sorted first -
    Sleep
    Social connection
    Stress


    The whole "it's ok people just want to look good naked and become the best version of yourself" perpetuates a culture of performance that's based on an individualistic society which has an inability to know how best to spend their attention so companies do that for them. We're seeing ever increasing rates of addiction, suicide and depression and the focus on the self isn't helping.

    William James
    "Pay primary attention to what we do and express and not care too much for how we feel"

    So "lets best honest most peoples are" isn't good enough and this may seem like a stretch but it's exactly what I see in my work daily and if you talk to smart coaches they're seeing the exact same.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,588 ✭✭✭✭Mellor


    Transform wrote: »
    So "lets best honest most peoples are" isn't good enough and this may seem like a stretch but it's exactly what I see in my work daily and if you talk to smart coaches they're seeing the exact same.

    I think we are on the same page. I'm certainly not suggesting that it's healthy to prioritise aesthetics above all else. Or to obsessive degrees.
    The first things I think people need to look at is quality of sleep, diet and relationship with food, and stress and other triggers that affect those two factors. Get those 3 right and your most of the way to improving health and fitness.

    Smart coaches like yourself and others you refer to are going to work with a higher % of athletes. The member base at a Ben Dunne or FlyFit will mostly (>50%) e concerned with getting "in-shape", looking better, etc. The guys chasing bigger lifts for themselves are the minority, the actually athletes less so again. I don't think there is anything wrong with performance being secondary, as long as you do it the right way.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,446 ✭✭✭Wailin


    More than a slight hint of arrogance from the last few posts lads. All this talk of "athletes" and those that worry about body fat are "weak unathletic" etc etc. Most average folk don't have the time to become "athletes" with demanding jobs, family commitments blah blah blah. Those fitness instructors (some here on this thread) who get well paid to train weak unathletic people to pay for their time to work on becoming athletes should have a bit more of a humble view on the whole fitness industry. Just saying...


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,588 ✭✭✭✭Mellor


    Wailin wrote: »
    Most average folk don't have the time to become "athletes" with demanding jobs, family commitments blah blah blah.
    That’s exactly my point I made above. That the average gym goer isn’t an athlete who only cares about performance.
    Most of them just want to look a bit better and be a bit healthier. For those people targeting bf% is a fine. As long as they aren’t obsessing to the detriment of other health (you clearly aren’t btw)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,466 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    Transform wrote: »
    caring obsessively about it is not the same as performing better - I don't think Lebron or Serena care much but Billy down the road that's 68kg and 5ft10in caring to the point of isolation about his body fat just leads to major issues

    Lebron and Serena being as lean as they are sorta proves my point.

    Obsessive about percentages doesn't make much sense to me same as wishing you were a certain height.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,446 ✭✭✭Wailin


    Mellor wrote: »
    That’s exactly my point I made above. That the average gym goer isn’t an athlete who only cares about performance.
    Most of them just want to look a bit better and be a bit healthier. For those people targeting bf% is a fine. As long as they aren’t obsessing to the detriment of other health (you clearly aren’t btw)

    No for me the body fat is a goal. If I just use a weight as a goal that would be too easy. Cut calories, sit on my hole all day (well, you know what I mean!) and I'm down to 82kg in a few weeks. With bodyfat, I know I'm losing fat but trying my damnest to retain muscle mass as well.

    Down to 18% btw after just over 3 weeks. Strength is down a touch so have lost some muscle too. Should easily hit target of 15% in the next 3 weeks, maybe more if I'm down 4% so far.

    The funny thing is, even though my calories are down, I feel like I'm shovelling more food into me when trying to hit my macro targets, particularly protein.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,466 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    Wailin wrote: »
    No for me the body fat is a goal. If I just use a weight as a goal that would be too easy. Cut calories, sit on my hole all day (well, you know what I mean!) and I'm down to 82kg in a few weeks. With bodyfat, I know I'm losing fat but trying my damnest to retain muscle mass as well.

    Down to 18% btw after just over 3 weeks. Strength is down a touch so have lost some muscle too. Should easily hit target of 15% in the next 3 weeks, maybe more if I'm down 4% so far.

    The funny thing is, even though my calories are down, I feel like I'm shovelling more food into me when trying to hit my macro targets, particularly protein.

    How are you measuring your body fat percentage and whats your macro targets?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,446 ✭✭✭Wailin


    Two ways. Tape and calipers. Both giving more or less the same result so I'm happy with the accuracy.

    Macros are 200g protein, 150g carbs and 67g fat.


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