How can i lower my body fat?

I had a health check thing at uni today (voluntary!) and they measured body fat, bmi etc. I'm 18, my BMI is 21.5 but my body fat is 35.1% (the healthy range is 20-35%). They used the hand held electronic device. I work out a lot (5 times per week on average, about 1 hour each time) and I'm generally active; I'm probably walking 2-3 hours each day aside from 'working out' as such. I'm not 'fat' looking; I have a 26" waist so why is my body fat so high and how can I get it lower? I eat healthily; the majority of my diet is fruit and veg and I don't eat particularly badly, perhaps the odd chocolate bar here and there, but who doesn't?! I'm panicking a bit now; I thought I'd be well within the healthy range!...why did I have such a bad result?

Public Comments

1. It's called genetics. You are what your parents and their parents looked like.
2. diet and exercise. Cardio and strength.
3. drink lots of water!
4. Drink 64 oz of water to keep your BMI under 35%
5. go to your Dr. if everything its OK you can change your body, you will ,be patient check this site for more information http://www.setyoureyeson.blogspot.com http://about.com/fitness http://prevention.com http://www.bodybuilding.com
6. You might think about trying this book called "The Movie Star Diet" by Steve Simmons. It helped me lose thirty pounds in 2 1/2 months when I didn't think anything would work. My goal to begin with was only 20 lbs! It has a really easy plan to follow. Although, I agree, it seems odd that your body fat % would be that high.
7. There was one study in the far east where normal BMI and high body fat was related to type 2 diabetes so if you haven't done already you should aks your doctor for a diabetes check. You probably have nothing to worry about and it is just your genetic make-up but it is worth ruling it out just in case.
8. eat less fat, more fruit and veg and get up and exercise.very simple, really. most teenagers these days have a high body fat sheerly due to inactivity. join a gym and get a professional to make a program for you....so you can educate yourself about how to take care of yourself.
9. Keep in mind that there is no accurate way to measure body fat. The methods I know of are a) calipers b)small dose of electricity and see how long it takes to return back to the device & c) ultrasound. So don't freak out just yet because its just an estimate. You should do weight training, in order to convert fat into muscle you need to do cardio and weight training...for women, trainers that I have typically worked with give me lower weights with higher repetions. That lowered my body fat but my intially my weight increased because muscle is heavier than fat but in a month or so it will all even out on the scale.
10. exercise lots. but eat. don't become bulimic or annorexic
11. tie heavy weights on it, it will sink to your knees
12. Try taking the test again in acouple of weeks, then average out the results. Women experience more changes in hydration levels than men because of their menstrual cycle, and this can affect body fat measuring. Retaining fluid may also cause weight to fluctuate day-to-day during this period causing additional variation in the body fat percentage
13. You should have your body fat % checked again in a week. If you're near 'that time' of the month, the excess fluid you're carrying can skew the body fat %. Mine changes by 4% (higher) before and during, then drops back after. But if it doesn't change, you may want to have your sugar checked, as well as your thyroid.
14. i would expect this is because of one of two posibilitys, it could be that the test you had done was to an inacurate result or its your malabalism The first thing we can do is to jump start our metabolism every morning by getting at least five minutes of some type of physical activity. I prefer running in the morning, but if I'm short on time, I'll do a few yoga poses or sit ups and push ups. Follow your activity with a low-fat breakfast. The old cliché is true. Eating breakfast really is the best way to start your day...and your metabolism. Avoid a high-fat meal, however. A bowl of low-fat cereal with skim milk, a piece of fruit, and a cup of coffee is perfect to start the fat burning. Another way to increase your metabolism and, thus, your body's ability to burn fat and calories is to eat several small meals throughout the day rather than three big meals. Make sure to incorporate low-fat, high fiber foods into these meals such as fruits, vegetables with nonfat dressing, half a bagel with nonfat cream cheese, or nonfat cottage cheese with peaches. When reading package labels, aim for a food that contains less than three fat grams per serving. Remember, a serving doesn't mean eat the entire package. The label will indicate what a serving consists of.
15. Weight Loss/ Hoodia sample works for me! It's a good alternative. I suddenly stopped binging for more sweets and carbs. It's effective. Check out this site http://www.upkb.com/weightloss.php and know more about the product details.
16. Come on people, you can't give an intelligent answer if you don't read the question first! She said that she exercises and eats a lot of fruits and veggies already. First of all, I would have the test redone because the machine might just be out of calibration. If the results are consistent, I would look at two things. First, are the fruits and vegetables you eat processed or fresh/frozen? Many companies slip sugar and other garbage into products that appear healthy to make them taste better (to sell more product). If this is the case, you may not be eating as healthy as you thought you were. Second, take a look at your portion sizes. Even if you are eating healthy, eating too much is not good, and portion sizes today are way bigger than they should be. Don't worry about treating yourself once in a while, it's actually psychologically beneficial to do so. Other things you can do to help are to talk to a physical trainer and make sure you are getting as much out of your exercises as you think you are, and change your routine. try some new exercises or workout machines, because your body can get used to routine and not benefit as much anymore from it. One thing I do know, people who are active are not as harshly effected by a few extra pounds as those who don't do much, so don't stress out about it. Lastly, as another answer stated, get tested for type 2 diabetes. It is unlikely that you are at risk, but better safe than sorry. I hope this helps!
17. Hi, It looked like you have taken care of yourself very well: eating healthy and exercising regularly. Very Good!! If you are really serious about lowing your body fat, I recommended you using some nutrition based healthy supplement from Herbelife: Thermobond, Herbal Concentrate, and/or activated fiber. These products, extracted from plant sources, proved to be no side effect at all, can help breaking down big body fat into small fat, burn fat into Cal and remove fat from your body. You can check website www.herbalife.com
18. Muscle weighs more than fat are you sure they have got it right I read many sports people have a high BMI but it is because they are muscular not because they are fat. I suspect a glance in the mirror will tell you the answer, fit or fat. Geee you certainly seem to go enough walking and working out. You deserve to be stick thin.
19. I'm wondering if it wasn't very accurate. Using a hand held device is not the most accurate of ways to measure body fat. If you have a 26 inch waist, unless you have overly large breasts and hips, I doubt you have 35% body fat....that seems pretty high. And if you truly have 35% body fat which is doubtful, then if it is all in your breasts and hips, then you probably don't have to be concerned. They actually say hip fat is very beneficial to your health, it is abdominal fat that is unhealthy. I would have your body fat checked professionally. I have noticed that people with higher muscle mass usually find that with the body fat scales/hand held devices, the body fat comes out too high for some reason. I just don't think it was very accurate. Definitely get a second opinion, there is no point you losing weight only to find your body fat was well under 30%. I think the odds are that your body fat is more like 25% than 35%. HTH.
20. First, for all of the "quick and easy" weight loss diet pill suggestions, remember, if something sounds too good to be true... it probably is, particularly if you have to pay for it. On Yahoo!Answers I find certain questions being asked repeatedly which is simply a reflection of new people participating. A couple of common questions amount to "How do I lose weight," or more specifically, "How do I lose abdominal fat?" I have gotten very positive responses from my answers when I paused to reply (and now beginning to get "It works!" emails that are very gratifying. I like helping people)... so have recently decided to put a good solid answer on my Yahoo!360 Blog (September 10) that I can point people to. These are my thoughts as a physician and athlete. Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful. There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below. The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode. Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy. To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine. For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet. Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further. There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive. If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets. Aloha