Help me understand Body Fat %

healthy_life2015

I am new to tracking body fat % and I'm trying to understand what it all means. It seems like a better judge of progress than the scale, which is so fickle, so I would like to focus more on BF% and measurements than the scale. But I have no idea what is good, bad, or indifferent (except of course that less is better!).

1. What body fat % loss is a good target? What is comparable to a weekly weight loss target of 2lb?

2. Am I crunching these numbers correctly? A few weeks ago I weighed 158 with BF% of 29.7% - so that's 46.9lb of body fat. Yesterday, I weighed 152 with BF% of 27.6% - 42 lb of body fat. Does that mean that I lost 5 lb of fat and 1 lb of muscle? Or is it more complicated than that?

3. Is the loss that I saw above good or bad? It sounds good to me - lost mostly fat! - but I have no idea. Ideally, like anyone, I'd like to be losing mostly/all fat and keeping my muscle.

4. How often do you track BF%?


Thanks for all your help!!

Francl27

Don't get hung up on body fat numbers. The only accurate ways of calculating it are some expensive tests. Scales and tests done at the gym etc are very inaccurate and will give you different numbers depending on water weight and whatnot...

Just eat a lot of protein, do some strength training/lifting and you should be able to preserve most of your muscles.

mkakids

Body fat % is really hard to track accurately, unless you get a dexa scan.

Scales that measure body fat can vary greatly based on hydration levels. But they are good for getting a baseline.

Calipers can be used incorrectly and thus give inaccurate results, or used correctly but in slightly different places each time - giving inaccurate results.

Bottom line. You will never have a 100% accurate body fat %, but you can use those tools to track a down ward trend.

As to this week's results, it looks good and is definitely going in the right direction.

To maintain the most muscle (you will always lose some muscle - the best you can hope for is to minimize the loss) eat plenty of protein and lift heavy.

mkakids

I measure body fat %, with a scale 2-3xs a month. As long as it is going down, I'm happy. I try to remember that it can fluctuate daily, just like a scale, so if it's not where I "think" it should be, I try to ignore it.

wkwebby

Body fat loss can't be measured like that and is highly inaccurate with calipers. The only way to know what you lost is if you got tested in a lab and did a float test which costs hundreds. Then you'd have to have a comparison done (same test) some time later to see what was lost in fat vs. muscle. There is nothing to say you shouldn't use the body fat calipers, but don't get hung up over which you lost (muscle or fat), just concentrate on weight training and getting enough protein.

Just pick a goal BF% and stick to it.

I measure BF % like once a year. The changes in your BF% is hard to get an accurate read, so unless there is a big change, there isn't much point to it (it took me a year to get 10% off my bf%).

healthy_life2015

Thanks for all the tips!