How can you lower your body fat percentage? Here are 7 handy tips

When people think about losing weight, they almost immediately think about losing kilos. That's a good option, of course. But you can also choose to keep your weight and lower your body fat percentage instead. In the sports world, this is also called getting lean. The goal is to lower your body fat percentage while staying at the same weight. Your body fat percentage is the amount of fat in your body compared to your total weight. For many people that sounds like music to their ears. But how exactly do you lower your body fat percentage? In this article, we answer that with 7 tips.

WHAT IS A HEALTHY BODY FAT PERCENTAGE?

Before we go deeper into how you can lower your body fat percentage, it helps to know what a healthy body fat percentage is. A healthy body fat percentage differs per person and per sports goal. For example, a man's body fat percentage can be higher or lower than a woman's. If you want more information, you can read it in our interesting blogs about body fat percentages. You can also read how to calculate your body fat percentage. In this blog, we focus on how you can lower it.

TIP 1: FOCUS ON YOUR CALORIE NEEDS

As we already explained a little in our blog about turning fat into muscle, it's important to watch your calorie needs when you want to burn fat. Losing weight and burning fat can be very simple. You need to make sure you burn more calories than you take in. That way, your body gets energy from your reserves, meaning the fat that's already in your body, and so you burn fat. If your calorie needs are, for example, 2300 per day, try to eat a bit less to burn excess fat.

TIP 2: DRINK ENOUGH WATER

Drinking enough water. We know it's healthy, but many people still don't do it enough. Water is extremely important for almost all your body functions, and it can also help you lower your body fat percentage. Your body can sometimes confuse hunger with thirst. It has been scientifically proven that you eat less when you drink enough water. When you don't feel hungry, you also eat fewer calories. So how much water should you drink a day? Try to drink at least two litres of water a day. When you exercise, try to drink more, because you lose fluid when you sweat.

TIP 3: WORK ON YOUR FITNESS

Good fitness helps you feel good in your own skin, feel fit and have plenty of energy throughout the day. But good fitness doesn't just happen. You have to train for it. You can do this with good fitness meals, but also with interval training. Interval training is an effective way to build your fitness, and also to burn fat. By combining short periods of high intensity with periods of low intensity, you can boost your metabolism, so you burn fat again.

TIP 4: AVOID EATING SUGAR

Just as we know that drinking enough water is good for us, we know that too much sugar is bad for us. But why is sugar bad for us? It's not only the calories that are the problem. Sugar also affects our hormone balance. When you eat sugar, your blood sugar rises (that is, the sugar that ends up in your bloodstream). To absorb the sugar, your body produces insulin, which in turn is taken up by cells in your body. You guessed it: your body turns this into fat. How can you prevent this? Eat as little sugar as possible (and preferably none at all).

TIP 5: HIT THE GYM

Cardio and interval training help you burn calories and fat, and so does strength training. Strength training actually works the same way as interval training. You train intensively, so you burn more calories. Because you burn more calories than you take in, your body starts burning fat. This makes your body tap into its fat reserves, so your body fat percentage goes down.

TIP 6: GET ENOUGH SLEEP

Sleep is highly underrated when it comes to lowering your body fat percentage. When you sleep too little, you're more likely to feel hungry. You try to make up for the lack of energy with food. Too little sleep also disrupts your hormone balance. This throws off the hormone cortisol. This hormone is important for feelings of hunger and for your body fat percentage. So when do you sleep enough? It's best to sleep around eight hours a night. Your body then has enough time to rest and build up energy for the coming day.

TIP 7: ONLY EAT WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY

The last tip we want to give you for lowering your body fat percentage is to only eat when you're hungry. For many people, eating becomes a habit. The effect is that we eat even though our body doesn't need food at all. We also often choose unhealthy snacks. If you teach your body to eat only at 'set times', you'll eat less and feel hungry less quickly. Really hungry between meals? Then choose a piece of fruit or a healthy snack.

We hope these tips have helped you understand how best to lower your body fat percentage. As a bonus tip, take a look at our SportMeals made especially for losing weight. These are carefully composed meals that help you reach your health goals.