Any more suggestions on decreasing body fat?

[GreenEyedAngel]

I'm new here and I've read all of these posts in search of a good way to decrease my body fat. It would seem that my main problem is that I don't eat enough (less than 1000 cal/day), so I'm going to try a new diet, but can anyone suggest anything else in addition to that? Right now I work out anywhere from 3-6 days/week. I do 45 minutes of cardio every time and also lift weights. If you've seen tripleV's pics, I look kind of like that (definition-wise), but not quite as big I'm guessing. I'm 5'5", 128 pounds, 34-25-36. My upper body development is pretty good - good lats and pecs, biceps are 13" (that's pretty big for my frame). How many calories should I be eating every day, and what should the prot/fat/carb split be if I want to shed body fat and maintain my muscle? And how much cardio/weight lifting should I be doing. I'm not specifically looking to build up my muscle right now, but if it will help to do that, I'll do it. I would have thought 45 min of cardio/day would get my size down, but apparently it hasn't - my last BF % test came out to be 21.5%. There's no way in hell I could have that much!! I don't look like the average woman. I've got definition, striation, vascularization even!!! So for cardio it's always running/walking... I'm going to try to get some pics up, but can anyone help me out here? I'm also trying to get in very good shape for basic training - I leave in March!

 

[FitFossil]

Welcome to the board! As for suggestions on losing bodyfat, here are some things I see. #1 you're right about not eating enough calories. I've been there. When your calories are too low, it can actually work against losing body fat. Your body is sensing possible starvation, so it will hold onto the fat and try to shed the muscle, because muscle burns calories even while you're sleeping. Fat does not, and your body can better survive with some fat rather than muscle.

Try to get at least 1-1.5 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. The 40-30-30 diet works well for me, but everybody is different. That's 40% carb 30% protien, and 30% fat (mostly "good" fats like omega 3 type).

When you workout, try to do cardio first thing in the AM on an empty stomach. Then do weights later after you've had something to eat. If you can only work out one time a day, do weights first (after a short warmup) followed by cardio. That way you'll burn up most of your glycogen doing weights, so by the time you start cardio, you'll get into fat burning mode more quickly.

Are you training hard and heavy, or are you doing high reps of light weight? I found training heavy made me much leaner.

On your cardio, try doing some days of interval training, like jog a minute, sprint a minute, jog a minute and so on for about 20-30 min. On other days, do the long sessions. It's good to mix up your cardio. Once I started doing the sprint intervals, my lower body really leaned out.