We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!
Body fat mass/%

Par7yPoison
Posts: 11 Member
I have started eating less than I was and I visit the gym 3 times a week. Two of those visits are purely weights/resistance aside from the warmup/cooldown on the treadmill and the third session is mostly cardio - running or cycling.
I use the weighing scales at the gym to get a measure once a week (I know some people say that's too often but I like knowing how its going, slight fluctuations or not) and I recently started using them to read my body fat. Now I'm losing weight (I'm down 9lbs/4.2Kg over the last 3 weeks) but when I compare my body fat percentage and mass, it is reducing at a much slower rate (I'm on -0.7Kg in that same timeframe). I understand that the percentage will increase given the maths involved with these figures, but I'd have thought in losing what weight I have, my body fat mass would have decreased more than it has - or am I missing something blatantly obvious?
The figures are as follows:
Date: 31/03/15
Weight: 17st 10lbs/112.8Kg
Body fat %: 32.4%
Body fat mass: 36.5Kg
Date: 19/04/15
Weight: 17st 1lb/108.6Kg
Body fat %: 33.0
Body fat mass: 35.8Kg
I use the weighing scales at the gym to get a measure once a week (I know some people say that's too often but I like knowing how its going, slight fluctuations or not) and I recently started using them to read my body fat. Now I'm losing weight (I'm down 9lbs/4.2Kg over the last 3 weeks) but when I compare my body fat percentage and mass, it is reducing at a much slower rate (I'm on -0.7Kg in that same timeframe). I understand that the percentage will increase given the maths involved with these figures, but I'd have thought in losing what weight I have, my body fat mass would have decreased more than it has - or am I missing something blatantly obvious?
The figures are as follows:
Date: 31/03/15
Weight: 17st 10lbs/112.8Kg
Body fat %: 32.4%
Body fat mass: 36.5Kg
Date: 19/04/15
Weight: 17st 1lb/108.6Kg
Body fat %: 33.0
Body fat mass: 35.8Kg
0
Replies
-
Scales are notoriously inaccurate at measuring body fat %.0
-
Don't use scales to measure body fat
they don't really work
although over time (eg months) you can track a progression
but not weeks and it is affected by callouses, hydration, balance, sweat etc0 -
So I shouldn't be worried by the slight drop in that overall compared to the much larger weight drop? Thats good then
thought something wasn't right! Whats the best way to measure your BF %/mass then?
0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 394.4K Introduce Yourself
- 44K Getting Started
- 260.5K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 443 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 16 News and Announcements
- 930 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions