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If my weight is 170lbs and body fat is 12% and I want to get to 8% body fat how do I work out how many pounds to lose?

stickupkid wrote:If my weight is 170lbs and body fat is 12% and I want to get to 8% body fat how do I work out how many pounds to lose?

Find your lean mass and then divide it by your desired lean mass percentage.
(170*0.88)/0.92= 162.6, so you want to lose 7.4 lbs of fat.

That's assuming you retain all your muscle while you lose the fat, of course!

Thanks for solving problem. So that method works for any percentage. Mutiply weight in lbs by percentange and divide by 0.92. Thanks again

stickupkid wrote:Thanks for solving problem. So that method works for any percentage. Mutiply weight in lbs by percentange and divide by 0.92. Thanks again

Well, assuming your desired lean body mass percentage is 92% (8% body fat), then yes, whatever your lean weight is divided by your desired lean body fat percentage will give you your target weight.

For example, if my lean body mass is 117.5 and I want to have 18% body fat, then that's 82% fat free mass, so I will divide 117.5 by 0.82 to get a target weight of 143 lbs.