How your body fat percentage matters in deciding your nutrition goals

Every few years, a new theory is released that claims to be the holy grail of fat burning, bodybuilding or sports nutrition, the missing link between you and your unimaginable desires, so on and so forth. Well, initially it does turn heads by creating a hype of unimaginable proportions, but it's the same old storyline that is being repeated again and again whenever someone launches a new health book or a new supplement in the market. But here comes the amazing part; It works like a charm every time to sell millions of nutrition journals, food nutrition books and supplements containing the same old, ineffective nutrition contents.

First of all, let me tell you this very clearly that the 'science of nutrition' is not as complicated as it sounds. At least, not in here. Yes, there is some maths and formulas involved but that's it. In that department too, I have tried my best to simplify everything by including some tools that automates the whole process. Let me tell you this upfront, that in your pursuit of building the perfect body, these formulas, tools and other nutrition information you will find here, holds the key to your most unimaginable dreams, the body you always aspire for, but for some strange reasons, somewhere deep down you always feel that it's never gonna happen. Well, three words from us: Ditch those misconceptions. These tools and formulas are going to become the backbone of every nutrition, supplementation or training program you will ever make ( yes you heard it right, you are going to make your own nutrition and training programs, that will be specific to your body type and hence super effective). I am going to give you a set of tools (formulas),all you have to do is, just employ them while planning any nutrition and training program or even before using a supplement and you can rest assured - you're not gonna be wrong again in choosing the best training plans and supplements. Simply put; By using these tools, you can design your own nutrition plans, your own training and supplementation programs or even change them at will.

Okay, let's get it started. What you need to know first: Your Body Fat percentage. Any nutrition or training plan you will ever make would be dependent on essentially two things:

• Your present body fat percentage

• Your target body fat percentage.

As you may have guessed by now that these two parameters, which forms the basis of your nutrition and training plans would be different for every individual,which simply means that no two persons can have the same body fat. Okay, I admit that this indeed is possible, though the chances are very rare but it is highly unlikely that these two persons would aspire for the same type of physique.It's a well known fact that some people prefer athletic look while others want professional bodybuilder type bulky look.That's precisely the reason, why most of the cookie cutter ready made nutritional plans always bound to fail. Additionally, these diet plans are not according to your body type.

Lets say; you are a spoilt brat who doesn't want to go through the burden of making a diet or nutrition plan from the scratch. By using these tools and formulas, you can always modify the existing plans according to your body type and needs, provided you follow the tips given below, that's the beauty of using these tools. Although, there is a lot of stuff available online, to find the body fat percentage. The simplest and the best way, I have come across is the tool, just use this simple tool.It's pretty accurate too and most importantly, it serves our purpose

Men: % body fat = [86.010 x Log (waist - neck)] - [70.041 x Log (height)] + 36.76

Women: % body fat = [163.205 x Log (waist + hip - neck)] - [97.684 x Log (height)] - 78.387

Now, you know the percentage of fat in your body, so you are now in a better position to set your goals, at least you won't be shooting in the dark, like before. This value is going to decide the future course of all your diet, supplementation and training plans. Considering, how important this thing is, we advise you to write it down somewhere, for future reference. Now, lets come to the second part i.e. Your Target Body Fat Percentage. Here is a table, showing different classes of individuals along with their respective fat percentage values. It will give you a basic idea of where you are standing right now and where you aspire to reach.

Description Men Women

Essential fat 2-5% 10-13%

Athletes 6-13% 14-20%

Fitness 14-17% 21-24%

Average 18-24% 25-31%

Obese 25% 32%

The difference between your present and targeted percentage will give you an idea about the extent of effort required.

Lets try to understand this with an example, If you are a male, 6 feet(72 inches) tall, having a waist size 38 inches and a neck girth of 15.7 inches.By using the above tool, your fat percentage comes out to be around 22.5%. This would become your present body fat percentage. Now if you want an athletic physique, then just compare your present body fat percentage with the one given in the above table. Suppose, you want the athletic look, then you need to have a percentage values between 6 to13%. This would become your target percentage. Subtract this from your present fat percentage. Going with our example, it comes out to be 9.5% (22.5-13=9.5). This difference would give you an idea about the amount of effort required. In simpler terms, this is amount of fat you've got to rid of, at any cost.

One more thing to remember, decreasing fat from your body, doesn't necessarily mean reducing your body weight. Two persons can have the same body weight and height etc but can have different fat percentages. Let me explain you this a bit; suppose, your current weight is 180 pounds and have a body fat percentage of 25%. You can maintain, the same weight while simultaneously decreasing your fat percentage. This approach is especially helpful to those, who want that shredded and ripped look without compromising on the size. Now we have something substantial to focus our energies upon. We know exactly, what we want to accomplish and how much effort is required. However we have won only half the battle yet.Next step is the 'How' part. Exactly how are we going to achieve these targets, we have set for ourselves?