BMI, Visceral fat, Body fat mesurments.

santd

Hi everyone,

I was starting to feel nearly better/normal after losing 196 pounds, with still 20 pounds to go. But I've just taken my measurements, and I'm really up-set with my body fat measurement.
Why is it still so high, higher than my husbands. Its depressing.

I'm 56 years of age.
hight 5 foot 2 inches
weight 159 pounds
BMI 29
Visceral fat 9
Body fat 40.2

bust 36
waist 27
hips 38

That 40.2 was a real shock, and to still be called obese is up-setting not to say the least. Can anyone explain. Pleaseeeeeeeee.....................

swinefish

How did you measure your body fat percentage? This measurement suggests that your lean body mass is only 95lbs, which seems pretty low.

Nony_Mouse

How are you measuring your body fat? Other than dexa-scan or body pod, most methods are prone to considerable error.

kickassbarbie

Congrats on an amazing job in losing!!!!!


I second the inaccuracy of home/gym body fat!!! -had a gym assessment with callipers when I joined a new gym gave me 17%,
tape measures give freakishly low, my mum's scales peg me at anything between 18 and 39 on any one given day. In reality I'd eyeball guess I'm about 23-28%.

If it bothers you get a dexa scan. Don't beat yourself up over likely inaccurate readings.

Also you will (probably) never be as low as your husband! Please don't compare male and female bf%!!!! Men are much much lower at similar levels of fitness and "buffness".

swinefish

kickassbarbie wrote: »

Also you will (probably) never be as low as your husband! Please don't compare male and female bf%!!!! Men are much much lower at similar levels of fitness and "buffness".

Very important point this. According to Wikipedia, essential body fat is 3-5% for men and 8-12% for women. Physiological differences mean that at the same level of fitness and leanness, and woman will ALWAYS have more fat than a man.

Orphia

kickassbarbie wrote: »

Congrats on an amazing job in losing!!!!!

[...]Also you will (probably) never be as low as your husband! Please don't compare male and female bf%!!!! Men are much much lower at similar levels of fitness and "buffness".

Excellent comments, kickassbarbie. Agree totally.

Fantastic job, santd!

Vailara

Leaving aside the accuracy (or not) of body fat measurements, one of the reasons for yours being higher than your husbands is probably just because women's body fat % is naturally higher than men's. Age is a factor too - unfortunately there tends to be some body recomposition that happens with age, and older women tend to have a higher body fat % in relation to their BMI than younger women. On the good side, your waist is quite small! I think it's more difficult to avoid midbody fat after menopause. If you are compact for your weight (which your tape measurements and photo suggest) then you'd expect that your body fat % would be lower rather than higher, so maybe the measurement isn't correct?

Just to add - I have two body fat% scales at home which give me different readings, and I also use one at the gym which gives another different reading! I think you can get a vague idea, and follow progress to some extent, but they're obviously not 100% accurate if the readings are so different. I usually "count" my home scales which take both stand-on and hand-held estimates (I measure higher with a stand-on one than a hand-held one, presumably because I have more fat in my lower half, so I like to combine the two), but I believe they can be off by a few %.

Sued0nim

My scale gives me a BF reading that is 7-8 percentage points above my actual BF%

You have done brilliantly

Keep going

And totally ignore scale readings on BF because they are nutty as a fruit loaf

Sued0nim

swinefish wrote: »

kickassbarbie wrote: »

Also you will (probably) never be as low as your husband! Please don't compare male and female bf%!!!! Men are much much lower at similar levels of fitness and "buffness".

Very important point this. According to Wikipedia, essential body fat is 3-5% for men and 8-12% for women. Physiological differences mean that at the same level of fitness and leanness, and woman will ALWAYS have more fat than a man.

Essential body fat is NOT a level that people should aspire to be anywhere near and I've never heard of the level for women being that low ...10-13% was what I was aware of

This is an OKish guideline, but body types differ and I still think the best test is nekkid jumping in front of a mirror

PAV8888

Holy crap you've done an impressive job losing weight so far! Way to go you! How are you estimating your body fat %?

Definitionally speaking, since we are below a bmi of 29.9, you and i are now officially "overweight". The "obese I" category starts at a bmi of 30--by definition.

By rule of thumb a bmi of 30 implies approximately 30 extra lbs of fat available for loss, and you did say your goal is to lose 20 more lbs, which I assume would put you somewhere in the middle of your normal weight zone!

On the incredibly great news front your waist is less than 35" which means that your health risks are now much reduced.

In the neither here nor there front, our pursuit of a normal bmi may or may not be increasing our chances of survival compared to pursuing a more overweight (but stable, not increasing) bmi! http://halls.md/body-mass-index-mortality/

Lastly you mentioned a bit of an irrelevent comparison comparing your body fat % to that of your husband. You do realise that while over 25% fat is overweight for men, under 33% fat is not overweight for women, because, like,... boobs and hips!
http://halls.md/bmi-difference-men-women/

In closing, all I can think right now, for some strange reason, is good fat, and bad fat, and that boobs is good fat, in my biased opinion

santd

Thanks guy's that's cheered me up some what, its been a long hard struggle, and just when I thought I was getting there, another slap around the chops! I measured myself on a OMRON Karada Scan...you stand on it and hold the the hand set outwards straight. I only get on that once every 3 months, but the results are slow.

charlieandcarol

It looks like some sort of electrical impedence scan which are reknown for being inaccurate or out and out wrong. Things like you level of hydration heavily affect the results. If you really want to know your body fat, get a bodypod or dexa scan. Otherwise I wouldn't bother with the other scan it is not telling you real information that can be relied on, even on a trend basis. I think normal healthy body fat for women is something like 18-25%. If you get lower than 15% you can have problems with normal body functions, in particular in relation to hormones.

Unless you fatten your husband up he will probably always have lower body fat % than you for the reasons others have said above.

determined_14

If you feel comfortable posting a photo here, there are a lot of knowledgeable people who could probably give you a bf ballpark estimate.

santd

There are already 18 photos posted on my profile, but you need to be on a pc to see them. Don't know how to post pictures else where.

Sued0nim

Your profile is locked so photos aren't publicly visible

If it is of any help at all...try measuring and using an online bf calculator like http://www.calculator.net/army-body-fat-calculator.html

santd

Thanks, I'm finally 24.86% nearly normal...... Oh joy!!!!

Sued0nim

santd wrote: »

Thanks, I'm finally 24.86% nearly normal...... Oh joy!!!!

That's healthy for a woman

Sued0nim

Sued0nim

santd

Then for my age which is 56 I'm LEAN!!! amazing rabbitjb....I still see myself as fat.

Sued0nim

Body dysmoprhia *nods*

Takes a while to adjust our self-perception

santd

Thanks for your help, I've sent you a friends request.