Body Fat %

kitty20031985

I haven't posted on this forum before. I mainly just read the other threads. But I have a question.....

We have been on keto for just over a month now and a few weeks back we got one of those scales that measure your body fat %, muscle mass % and water weight %. I know these scales are not 100% accurate but we thought it'd be a good source to at least measure progress.

My weight is dropping of course with the keto diet. My Body Fat % is going down and my Muscle Mass % is going up. All is good right?? I thought so.....

But out of curiosity of how that converts into lbs I took my weight and times it by the percentage. And I find my muscle mass lb is actually decreasing? I've only used the scale for 15 days and it's decreased by .3 lbs. I know this is not a lot so I'm not overly concerned about it at this point.

But I was wondering is this normal for muscle mass lb to decrease as you lose weight?? Shouldn't it be increasing since I'm lifting weights. I'm not going crazy with lifting as I'm just trying to tone up and not lose muscle mass.

Am I looking way to far into this? Do I need to up my protein, up my fat? I try to stay on the mid ground to lower end of my protein just because I don't lift heavy crazy at all and I only lift 3 times a week. My fat I probably eat under what I'm suppose to a majority of the days and my carbs are never over 25 and usually under 5-10 g a day.

I'll provide my stats for several days below.

I'm 5'4 - 31 years old - Female and have desk job

When I try and figure out my macros it suggest:
Protein - 69 - 114 (mid ground of 92 which is what I choose for the calculator)
Carbs - 20 (I choose this based off on average I never go over 20)
Fat - 93 g
Calories - 1282 (using a 25% deficit)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday Aug 21
Net Carbs - 5 g
Fat - 101 g
Protein - 95 g
Calories - 1314

Thursday Aug 11
Net Carbs - 4 g
Fat - 81 g
Protein - 113 g
Calories - 1215

Monday, August 15
Net Carbs - 4 g
Fat - 119 g
Protein - 55 g
Calories - 1330

Monday, Aug 29
Net Carbs - 12
Fat - 94 g
Protein - 95 g
Calories - 1282

Jo2926

Hey! Yes its normal to lose some muscle as well as fat when losing weight (especially if its coming off quickly). The weights will help. A LOT! Also its a very short period of time, so you can't really judge at this stage and all sorts of things can change the scale measurements by a tiny bit.

When you say you are 'not going mad' with weights - what do you mean? What sort of programme and weights are you doing and how often? I'm a big advocate of women lifting heavy (which is realative of course. Heavy just means takes a lot of effort!) and there are some amazing programmes out there.

I really want to get back into lifting but with a toddler I'm worried about leaving the weights around the house. And currently NOWHERE is safe from her!!

Lois_1989

I'm not an expert by any means, particularly on low-carb, but when I did heavy lifting pre-low carb I found that in order to keep or gain muscle mass you had to lift heavy. If it's not heavy, you are basically doing cardio. So it could be that you are losing muscle mass because you're not lifting heaving enough cause the muscle to replace what is lost.

Please don't be scared of lifting heavy, most of the toned people you see do lift heavy and the women you see who are built up train extremely hard, everyday, to look the way they do. It's not something that happens easily for women.

Sunny_Bunny_

I'm another that's not knowledgeable about lifting, but I agree it's too soon to look too much into the scale numbers.
I have one of those too and I average the numbers over the course of a week for a week by week number instead of a daily.
I've never done the math to see how many pounds it all comes out to.

Anyway, I do wonder if you should be eating closer to or at maintenance if building muscle is the goal.

RowdysLady

Where is @Gallowmere1984? He's like a resident guru on lifting...

Gallowmere1984

RowdysLady wrote: »

Where is @Gallowmere1984? He's like a resident guru on lifting...

Haha, sorry I've been a bit busy as of late between moving, spending even more time in the gym than usual, and my work schedule exploding until this weekend.

The reality is, when eating at a caloric deficit, the absolute best one can hope for is the preservation of lean mass. Though rank beginners (those who have never lifted anything heavier than stuff around their house) can see an increase in lean tissue assuming two things:
A: they have rather high bodyfat stores to begin with. We're usually talking at least obese territory here.
B: they run a quite high (and complete) protein intake to prevent the body from attempting to catabolize muscle tissue. Now, B actually comes with a caveat as well. It requires that the person have a strong tendency toward protein uptake and synthesis. Unfortunately, this usually rules most women out, unless they have an abnormally high testosterone level. As such, they usually end up having to jack up their protein intake higher.

The best advice I can possibly give for this kind of deficit would be to keep protein intake at LEAST to 1-1.2g/lbs. of gross bodyweight (not LBM), personally I stay closer to 2.25x; and lift heavy. Heavy is of course relative. If you can move a weight more than five times for a set, it's not heavy. Keep the frequency and volume up, and avoid cardio like the plague. The closest I EVER get to cardio is strapping on a weighted vest while walking. Seriously, with a 25% deficit and very low carbs, your substrates cannot support both heavy weight training and cardio. Pick one, or you'll end up sucking at both. I am far more inclined toward picking stuff up and putting it down, so of course I'd advocate toward the heavy lifting.

RowdysLady

Awww...you are forgiven...look at that great advice...

Gallowmere1984

Oh, and while I am thinking about it: Creatine Monohydrate. Use it. I don't normally recommend supps for new(er) trainees, but A: it's cheap as hell, B: it's one of the few supps with lab proven results over and over, and C: it appears to be even more beneficial to people running low-carb intakes, since we don't have constant glycogen stores in the muscle. Find a pure unflavored one, and just use 5-10g per day, pre-or post-workout doesn't really matter. I think I found mine at Wal-Mart for like 6 bucks. Just stay away from the flavored and "enhanced" ones.

NonnaTurtle

@Gallowmere1984 - I always learn something when you post.
Can you elaborate a bit regarding "... and avoid cardio like the plague"? Does this mean do heavy lifting or cardio, but not both on the same day? Or best to stick to heavy lifting only and no cardio? thanks!

Gallowmere1984

I mean pick one or the other, period. If you want to be able to do both, you're going to have to up calories and balance your macros enough to be able to support both. A caloric deficit is not the placefor that, unless one is well over 25% bodyfat (for a male, not sure what the equivalent is for female) to begin with.

All running, elliptical, whatever is doing (even on off days) is starving your body of nutrients that it needs to repair the damage done by heavy, frequent lifting.

NonnaTurtle

Cool! thanks so much for the additional info - once again, taught me something. thanks!