I heard from my brother (who is a frequent visitor to this site) that at about 14% body fat your muscles will show more. I’m pretty small (5’4", 112 lbs, 20% body fat) and I was just interested in getting some definition. So, should I try and lower my body fat so that my muscles will show more? If so, how would I do that?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated; thanks. 
No you should try lifiting weights. Whats the point of cutting BF% to show muscle definition if you have no muscle to show?!?!?!?!?!?
Seriously…you need to lift weights. I am the same height as you but about 50 pounds heavier. If you are 20% body fat at 5’4" and you weigh 112 you probably don’t have any muscle. Don’t take it the wrong way, you just need to start lifting. T-Nation is the perfect place to find the info you need to attain the muscle you want. Be patient, lift hard, and eat.
Start here…
[quote]vbm537 wrote:
Seriously…you need to lift weights. I am the same height as you but about 50 pounds heavier. If you are 20% body fat at 5’4" and you weigh 112 you probably don’t have any muscle. Don’t take it the wrong way, you just need to start lifting. T-Nation is the perfect place to find the info you need to attain the muscle you want. Be patient, lift hard, and eat.
Start here…
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=640350
[/quote]
Thanks for the link, I’ve never seen this thread and it has a ton of useful info for anyone.
[quote]iwasapostcard wrote:
I heard from my brother (who is a frequent visitor to this site) that at about 14% body fat your muscles will show more. I’m pretty small (5’4", 112 lbs, 20% body fat) and I was just interested in getting some definition. So, should I try and lower my body fat so that my muscles will show more? If so, how would I do that?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated; thanks. :)[/quote]
no offense, BUT, this is a joke right?
‘Pretty small’
5’4" 112lbs @ 20%bf
Are you a girl? In all seriousness.
In the event you are not joking. Any positive adjustments you make to your diet or training regimine will help. Just read anything, anything on this site and try it for a month.
It tears me up in side that this is not an exaggeration, but those are my little sister’s stats. Seriously, eat a cow a day for the next year.
Damn, sorry, you probably are a girl. I made the assumption that you were a pathetic husk of a man like my current roommate.
Just clean up your diet and do compound lifts. If you recklessly try to lose weight you’ll end up looking like Nicole Richie. =(
[quote]sasquatch wrote:
Are you a girl? In all seriousness.
[/quote]
I just assumed poster is either a female or a troll.
Any, she won’t find any thinspiration here.
Eat and lift weights.
What are you using to measure body fat percentage? (I’m not being a jerk here, it just seems strange that someone who doesn’t seem to know anything about fitness knows his/her bodyfat)
[quote]cap’nsalty wrote:
What are you using to measure body fat percentage? (I’m not being a jerk here, it just seems strange that someone who doesn’t seem to know anything about fitness knows his/her bodyfat)[/quote]
It’s sad that we can’t tell if it’s a “his/her”.
[quote]mt360 wrote:
Thanks for the link, I’ve never seen this thread and it has a ton of useful info for anyone.
[/quote]
All thanks go to vroom. He did the work…I am just passing it on. Glad you like the link though, I think it’s a great resource.
I can only tell you that there is a female teacher who I work with who used to play college volleyball. She is about 5-10 and 145 pounds, but also measured a couple of ways at 14% BF and her muscles are very noticeable. Particularly her arms and shoulders show a lot of muscular definition.
[quote]iwasapostcard wrote:
I heard from my brother (who is a frequent visitor to this site) that at about 14% body fat your muscles will show more. I’m pretty small (5’4", 112 lbs, 20% body fat) and I was just interested in getting some definition. So, should I try and lower my body fat so that my muscles will show more? If so, how would I do that?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated; thanks. :)[/quote]
[quote]Professor X wrote:
cap’nsalty wrote:
What are you using to measure body fat percentage? (I’m not being a jerk here, it just seems strange that someone who doesn’t seem to know anything about fitness knows his/her bodyfat)
It’s sad that we can’t tell if it’s a “his/her”.[/quote]
It’s my sister, a very lean, not so muscular female. I’ll go tell her to use the search button once home from work.
7 Site - Calipers, and the measurements are definitly wrong, she’s actually lower.
Very lean not so muscular? Oxymoron?