How do you lower your body fat percentage?

Reviewed 4 November 2026 · How these numbers are calculated

To lower your body fat percentage, lose fat while keeping (or building) muscle: eat in a moderate calorie deficit of about 0.5% of your weight a week, lift weights 2–3 times a week, and eat 1.6–2.2 g of protein per kg of a healthy weight. At that pace body fat typically falls by about 1.7 percentage points a month for a man of 80 kg (176 lb) at 25%. Losing weight without strength training also lowers body fat, but more slowly, because some of what you lose is muscle.

How much fat to lose for your goal

Fat to lose and weeks at 0.5% a week, keeping all muscle
Person	Goal weight	Fat to lose	Weeks
Man, 80 kg25% → 15% body fat	70.6 kg156 lb	9.4 kg	25
Man, 90 kg25% → 18% body fat	82.3 kg181 lb	7.7 kg	18
Man, 100 kg30% → 20% body fat	87.5 kg193 lb	12.5 kg	27
Woman, 65 kg35% → 28% body fat	58.7 kg129 lb	6.3 kg	21
Woman, 75 kg35% → 28% body fat	67.7 kg149 lb	7.3 kg	21
Woman, 85 kg40% → 30% body fat	72.9 kg161 lb	12.1 kg	31

Lean mass held constant. With strength training beginners may also gain some muscle, which gets them there sooner.

Put your own numbers and a goal into the box above or the body fat calculator; it shows the goal weight and weeks. What's a good target? See healthy body fat percentage.

Five things that lower body fat

A moderate deficit: 0.5–1% of your weight a week (calorie deficit calculator). Faster costs more muscle, which slows the drop in body fat percentage.
Strength training: the signal that keeps muscle while you diet (cardio vs weights).
Protein: 1.6–2.2 g per kg of a healthy weight (protein calculator).
Steps: 8,000–10,000 a day add a few hundred calories without hurting recovery.
Sleep: in diet studies, short sleep shifted the loss from fat to muscle.

How fast can body fat percentage drop?

Body fat after one month at 0.5% a week, all of it fat
Start	Weight lost	Body fat after
80 kg 176 lb, 25%	1.7 kg	23.3%
90 kg 198 lb, 30%	1.9 kg	28.5%
70 kg 154 lb, 35%	1.5 kg	33.6%
100 kg 220 lb, 35%	2.2 kg	33.6%

About 1–2 percentage points a month; faster at higher body fat.

Scales and tape methods have an error of 3–4 points, more than a month's change, so measure the same way every 2–4 weeks and follow the trend (how to measure body fat).

Can you lower body fat without losing weight?

Yes, by gaining muscle while losing fat at about the same rate: body recomposition. It works best for beginners and people coming back to training, and it's slow. If your weight is normal but your body fat is high, see skinny fat.

Belly fat first?

You can't pick where the fat comes off. For many people the belly is among the last places to slim down, even as body fat falls overall (how to lose belly fat).

Sources

Gallagher D, Heymsfield SB, Heo M, et al. Healthy percentage body fat ranges: an approach for developing guidelines based on body mass index. Am J Clin Nutr 2000;72(3):694–701.
Cava E, Yeat NC, Mittendorfer B. Preserving healthy muscle during weight loss. Adv Nutr 2017;8(3):511–519.
Nedeltcheva AV, Kilkus JM, Imperial J, Schoeller DA, Penev PD. Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity. Ann Intern Med 2010;153(7):435–441.