How to Effectively Change Your Body Fat Percentage

Your body fat percentage is a measurement of how much of your body is fat. Women should have a body fat percentage under 32 percent and men should aim to keep theirs under 25 percent. Changing your body fat percentage permanently involves making changes to your lifestyle, not just going on a diet. Through building muscle and losing fat, you will alter the composition of your body, look slimmer and become more healthy.

Instructions

• 1

  Build more muscle. In order to get a healthy body fat percentage, you want to increase the amount of muscle in your body while decreasing the amount of fat. To build muscle, plan a weekly strength-training routine. Exercise your muscles just three days a week, giving them time to rest after exercise. Be sure to choose exercises that work both your upper and lower body.

• 2

  Exercise to reduce fat. Cardiovascular exercise burns calories, which helps to reduce your weight. Choose an exercise you enjoy doing so you can stick with it. Don't complain about not having the time to exercise--make the time. Wake up a bit early or exercise instead of doing other unnecessary activities, such as watching television.

• 3

  Make healthy changes to your diet. If you eat too much, especially high-calorie junk foods, you'll never be able to decrease your body fat percentage. Replacing junk food with healthy foods will aid in fat loss.

• 4

  Track your efforts. Every week, take steps to see how well you've done. Use a body fat scale to track your body fat percentage from week to week. Realize that these body fat scales are not always accurate--the measurement can changed based on the amount of water present in your body--but you should definitely see a downward trend over time.

• 5

  Adjust your plan if you are not seeing results. When trying to reduce your body fat, it's common to hit a plateau--a few weeks where you don't see any positive results. If this happens to you, it's time to tweak your routine to start seeing the results you want again. For example, your body may have adjusted to your workout routine, becoming more efficient and burning fewer calories. Try doing a different exercise to see if this makes a difference in your weight-loss efforts.