Your body fat percentage might be increasing and you don’t know why? Your diet plays the most crucial role when it comes to maintaining your body fat percentage and abdominal fat.
In this article, you are going to know about 7 things that increase your body fat.
UPDATE: If you want to increase your body-fat percentage in a healthy way – then read – How to increase your body fat percentage naturally.
It feels terrible when you can’t figure out why your body fat percentage is increasing. You began to think…
- Why my body fat percentage is increasing?
- What can be the reason for my high body fat percentage?
- Which things increase my body fat percentage?
You can stay fit and in good shape by controlled eating of these seven items…
But before I explain more about those things that increase your body fat, you need to know about body fat percentage.
What is Body Fat percentage? and how much you should have
Body Fat Percentage: BFP or body fat percentage of any living being is the percentage of fat their body contains.
It can be calculated easily, just follow this method – Find out total mass of fat then divide it by total body mass, times 100.
Your body fat percentage can be high due to several things like overeating and consumption of too much junk food, changes in the water mass of your body, less physical activities, etc.
Normal Fat Percentage:
- For men: 10-20%
- For women: 18-28%
If your body fat percentage is more than normal or you want to decrease the amount of your body fat percentage then limit your consumption of these 7 food types.
These 7 Food Items Increase Your Body Fat Percentage
1. Fried foods and refined carbohydrates.
Eating fried foods often can lead to diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
An article posted on WBEMD briefly explained: “How Bad for You Are Fried Foods?”
Fried foods are fried in hydrogenated oils in most of the fast-food restaurants. Especially hydrogenated oils become unhealthy when it reused. It increases the chances of having high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
To give a crunchy satisfying taste; fast-food restaurants use these types of oil and it adds more saturated fats and calories. Which is not good for your health.
Consuming fried foods like fried pork chops, french fries, fried meats, fried chicken and eating more refined carbohydrates can increase your body fat percentage.
2. Sugary drinks and candies.
On average sugary drinks contains 150 calories, where most of it is sugar. An equivalent of 10 teaspoons of table sugar.
If you want to have less body fat percentage then you have to control your coke and soda consumption. Sugar increases your insulin levels in the blood and the percentage of fat in your body.
3. Alcohol.
When you drink alcohol, it becomes hard for your body to burn fat that already present in your body.
Because alcohol consumption slows down the fat burning process of your body.
Also, heavy drinking causes liver and heart diseases, brain damage, gastrointestinal problems and many more.
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4. Baked Sweets.
Most of the baked sweets fall in the food category of ‘calorie-dense foods.
Even if you search for low-calorie desserts you will see most of them are in between 100 to 150 calories.
If you want to stay on a diet of 1600 or 2100 calories, eating two or three of baked sweets can make your goal incomplete.
Avoid baked sweets if you want to lower your body fat percentage. ( Occasionally you can have one, only one )
5. Eating processed fast food increases body fat.
Most of the processed fast food contains saturated fats, sodium, added sugar and a large amount of carbohydrate.
Fast food is the #1 enemy in increasing body fat percentage. Consuming processed fast food can increase the risk of obesity, as well as your body fat percentage.
Try to maintain a healthy diet and exercise to burn extra calories. This will help you to maintain a healthy body fat percentage.
You can also take some additional steps to maintain – a healthy body weight. Check out our post on healthy lifestyle changes.
6. Red meat.
Some read meat contains a high amount of saturated fat which increases blood and cholesterol level and causes heart disease. Saturated fat in it, also responsible for rising body fat percentage.
Lamb chops, ground beef, hamburgers, and spareribs are rich in saturated fat and calories.
If you want to decrease your body fat percentage then try to avoid them or eat less amount of them. Also in your diet add more green vegetables and every day eat some whole fruit. It will help you to stay fit and healthy.
7. Whole milk dairy products.
Whole milk dairy products contain more fats and calories. Consuming whole milk dairy products can increase your body fat percentage.
Consuming a lot of dairy products like butter, cottage cheese, ice cream and ghee increases the chances of having a high percentage of fat in the body.
Dairy products also provide essential nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, phosphorus, and magnesium. To maintain normal fat percentage, you have to balance it with a healthy diet.
Conclusion
To maintain a healthy body fat percentage you need to be selective about your food choices and the quantity.
You will see positive changes when you control your consumption of these items.
Limit or avoid eating food items like processed fast foods, sugary drinks, refined carbs…
Within 1-2 months, you will see your body fat level gradually decreasing. You can farther speed up this process and have a healthy body fat percentage if you do 15-20 minutes of home workout or live a more physically active lifestyle.
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