Body fat mass/%

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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

Replies

  • Mycophilia
    Mycophilia Posts: 1,225 Member
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    Scales are notoriously inaccurate at measuring body fat %.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    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 etc
  • Par7yPoison
    Par7yPoison Posts: 11 Member
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    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?