Osman Mia
Decide your goal in terms of body fat percentage, and calculate the corresponding body fat mass you need to lose. You need to know the body fat mass because this is what you should measure. Remember that if also intend to build muscle, add the additional muscle mass to your current weight before determining the desired body fat mass.
For a male, your body fat percentage is recommended to be below 18% and if you want to be ripped you can go down below 12%. Bodybuilders go down as low as 5%. Me, I'm aiming for 10%. Together with the muscle mass I intend to gain, my weight should be 70kg. So a 10% body fat means I must bring my body fat mass to 7kg.
For a female, your body fat should be below 37%. Below 23% is generally considered very low. Models have a body fat of between 15% and 17%.
Once you've decided your desired body fat percentage, multiply with your current body weight to determine the corresponding body fat mass. As you eat less or fast and exercise, to ensure that you have a calorie deficit, regularly measure to see whether your body fat mass is going down. If it's not, then you'd know there's something you're not doing right. Take the corrective action.
After you've comfortably reached your goals, there's no point to continue losing body fat. You don't want your body fat to get too low.
Similarly, decide the amount of muscle mass you intend to build up. Me, I'm trying to reach 60kg mass. I'll soon be starting to work out the Tim Ferriss method while taking the right amout of protein.
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Now that you have your goals, should you focus on body fat first, or on muscle mass first? This is a common question asked by people who want to do both. You may choose either way and you an intermittently switch between the two. But I recommend you do the one more critical. If high body fat or visceral fat is the bigger concern, then reduce body fat first. If your body fat is at a healthy level, you can work on building your muscles first.
© Osman Mia