What Should Be The Average Body Fat Loss?

What will be the average body fat percentage (%) loss in a week?

I recommend setting a fat reduction goal of about half a percent per week. Based on my personal experience with either skinfold caliper/bioelectric impedance body composition machine, I've concluded that this is about average. This is an honest number that reflects an average of everyone. That's what makes this figure a good realistic weekly goal.

If your body fat measured 23.8% on day one of week one, then 23.3% would be your goal for the end of that seven-day period. That will be an impressive 6% drop in your body fat if you keep that up over 12 weeks.

 

If you're more ambitious and you want to shed body fat even faster, it's certainly possible, although it does depend on body size. Larger people can often lose larger amounts of weight and body fat. When someone is already lean and wants to get even leaner, there is less fat remaining so it becomes more difficult to lose large amounts every week. One must understands that our bodies refuse to let us crush those fats but would love to maintain at it or store more.

Personally I have seen many people drop 0.6% or 0.7% body fat per week if they worked hard, usually doing multiple cardio sessions per week on top of their weight training, combined with excellent dietary compliance. 

If you lose less than 0.5% per week, as long as you made some forward progress, you should celebrate that as success. It's more normal for results to vary from one week to the next than to drop the same amount every week, so an occasional slow week is nothing to get upset about. It's just feedback.

After a below average week, to bring the rate of fat loss up to average or better for the next week, you'll need to: 

(1) re-establish compliance if you had a bad week (get back on the wagon! ... and start tracking food intake more meticulously if necessary) or

(2) make adjustments to your nutrition and training to increase your caloric deficit and optimize body composition changes.

Note! Please remember this: Above average results require above average effort. Extraordinary results require extraordinary effort. There are quick fixes for weight loss, but there are no quick fixes for fat loss