Q: Hi I am 22. My weight is around 174 lbs and height is 178 cms. My weight seems to be good for my height but I hope I have more fat as I had less stamina. How can I know my fat percentage? I started in my near by YMCA last week and started 30 mins of thread mill and 30 mins of workouts. Please help me how to decrease my butt fat?

A: Your weight is healthy for your height, right at the the upper end of the recommended range of 146-174 pounds for your height. If there is a trainer at your YMCA you could ask him or her to get your body fat measured, but it's really not something I would worry about -- these measurements are very imprecise and don't really help you make progress anyway.

If you want to lose butt fat you have to lower your overall body fat. There is absolutely no way to target just the butt fat but by losing the fat overall you'll lose it on the butt as well as I explain in my Fat loss article. You already started cardio and weights which is great. The next thing is to get your diet fixed as explained in my Nutrition article. You also will want to make a decision whether you are willing to lose some weight. Losing 10-15 pounds of body weight will still keep you at healthy weight of 160-165 pounds and will go a long way toward helping you reach your goal of losing extra butt fat. If you decide to do so you will want to start undereating slightly to slowly lose about a pound per week. It will take you a little bit of time to dial into how much you need to be eating to lose weight at that pace.

If you are completely unsure what your diet should look like, even after reading that Nutrition article, consider either the 1500 calorie or the 1900 calorie fat loss diet linked in that article (choose 1500 if you eat little now, choose 1900 if you eat relatively a lot). Then keep track of your weight and increase or decrease portion sizes slightly till you dial into that one-pound-per-week weight loss rate. That combined with your cardio and weights will help you reach your goals in a few months. Good luck!