Losing Weight but Not Fat

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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    If you're losing weight, you're losing fat...those BF% scales are pretty much worthless. They can't tell the difference between fat and water.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    bryandlandry wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    If you have lost 31 pounds then you would know. I wouldnt worry about the nody fat thing on the scales they cna be all over the place. Im a bit worried you cant remember whether you have been losing weight for 2 or 3 months? 10lbs a month is really good, but 15 a month is pretty heavy duty. Im surprised you have lost that amount on the basis of 30-40mins walk a day because that would mean your food deficit is severe?

    Do you think your scales are accurate?
    Btw you havent replaced all that with muscle.

    If you have lost 31lb then it will be part muscle and part fat.

    1. Check your scales are accurate.
    2. Id just ignore the body fat function.
    3. Use a tape measure instead.
    4. If you arent doing any resistance training, then you are unlikely to be limiting muscle loss, so you should start.

    Food deficit? How much should I be eating? I average from 1000 to 1200 calories a day. Is that not enough?

    For a 25 year old male that caloric intake is way too low.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
    edited November 2014
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    Most of these scales measure with a current and that will take the shortest route which is why it is not accurate. But as others have mentioned, try a measuring tape to track progress. If you are interested in body fat there are inexpensive calipers that you can use yourself on Amazon. Not the most accurate method but a lot more accurate than the scale.

    Make sure that the lowest you go for calories is 1200. That is just to ensure you get enough micronutrients. Weigh your food, measuring cups are only accurate for liquids. Go with the calories MFP reccomends and eat back 50%-75% of the exercise calories if you are using MFP to calculate those calorie burns, the site overestimates that.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    If you're losing weight, you're losing fat...those BF% scales are pretty much worthless. They can't tell the difference between fat and water.

    No, you are also losing some lean muscle mass.

  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
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    gle8442 wrote: »
    Ok, these scales are not super-accurate. However even if the starting %BF and the ending %BF are off from reality, the general trend that they reflect should be sort of meaningful... right?

    I have the same problem as briandlandry. Recently I have been losing weight but according to my evil scale my %BF is not decreasing much and my % lean mass is decreasing a lot: the exact opposite of what I want! Maybe the scale is just wrong but it's still making me kind of nervous.

    my scale says I'm 2.9% body fat. I should probably be dead. no, it's not accurate.
  • ThePhoenixIsRising
    ThePhoenixIsRising Posts: 781 Member
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    According to the scAle you started with 65 lbs of fat and now only have 56 lbs of fat.
    So that's 9 lbs of fat and you also dropped a large amount of water weight at the begining. Let's go consertave and say it was only 15lbs and not the 20 that most fad diets take advantage of to sell their product. Thats 24 lbs accounted for. The last bit is muscle loss.

    You look to be losing about 50/50 fat/muscle which is not surprising given your diet and absence of strength traning.
  • hummynbyrd2252
    hummynbyrd2252 Posts: 8
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    Listen to Concordia....you don't want to have your body eating muscle instead of fat. Check out defineyoury.com, maybe watching the videos would give you some help. That's where I found out about using myfitnesspal.

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