How to Lose 1 Percentage of Body Fat

A higher body fat percentage is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and other health problems. Losing 1 percent of your body fat may mean shedding just a couple of pounds. Tweaking your diet and upping your exercise can help you lose body fat and improve your overall health.

Body fat percentage is a measurement of how much of your mass is fat and how much is muscle, bone, organs, connective tissue and other lean mass.

While you can be healthy at many different percentages of body fat, you generally want to be in the range of 25 to 30 percent if you were assigned female at birth or 18 to 23 percent if you were assigned male at birth, according to Penn Medicine.

To figure out how many pounds you need to lose to go down 1 percentage of body fat, you need to know your current body fat percentage.

You can calculate this by taking a few measurements at your waist, hips and neck and plugging those numbers into our Body Fat Calculator.

Then, it’s time to do a little math: Your desired body weight equals your current lean body weight divided by one minus your desired body fat percentage in decimal form, according to the American Council on Exercise.

Here’s what that looks like in practice: First, determine your current lean body mass. For example, if you’re a woman who weighs 185 pounds with a body fat percentage of 31, and you want to decrease this to 30, multiply 185 by 0.69 to get your lean body weight: 185 x 0.69 = 127.65 pounds.

Next, you’ll determine your desired body weight. To do this, divide it by 0.7, which you got by subtracting your desired body fat percentage of 0.30 from 1. In the example above, your desired body weight equation is: 127.65 / 0.70 = 182.36 pounds.

That means if you currently weight 185 pounds, you need to lose about 3 pounds of fat to decrease your body fat by 1 percent.

Once you’ve determined how much body fat you aim to lose, you can follow the tried-and-true steps for losing weight.

Generally speaking, you’ll need to burn more calories than you take in to create a calorie deficit and lose weight. It’s generally safe to cut about 500 calories a day, as long as you don’t go below about 1,200 to 1,500 per day.

Fad diets aren’t the answer. Instead, prioritize whole foods, including a mix of lean meats and plant-based proteins, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Moving more can help support your calorie deficit because you’ll burn more calories. Plus, exercise builds muscle, the lean mass that offsets body fat percentage.

Aim for at least 30 minutes of cardio exercise a day and two strength-training sessions per week to lose weight, according to the Mayo Clinic. Keep in mind every bit of physical activity counts and the more you stick with it, the longer you’ll be able to exercise.

Not sure where to start? Check out our guides to losing weight with various forms of exercise.

Sleep is surprisingly important for weight loss. When you’re short on shut-eye, you’re more likely to reach for high-sugar, high-fat foods, according to an April 2022 review in ‌‌Nutrients‌‌.

Your body also stores more fat in your belly when you don’t get enough rest, even after just a few days of sleep deprivation, according to a September 2019 study in the ‌‌Journal of Lipid Research‌‌.

Stress also affects the way your body stores fat and the types of foods you reach for. Plus, when you’re stressed, you might not sleep as well or feel as motivated to stick to your diet and exercise plans.

Some stress is unavoidable, but adopting relaxing habits like journaling, meditation and breathing exercises might help you stay centered and focused while trying to lose 1 percentage of body fat. Staying connected with friends and loved ones helps, too. Consider reaching out to a mental health care provider if you could use more support.