Body Fat Question

richelle414

I started operation "lower body fat and get tone" nearly two months ago. The first month I lost 4.6 pounds, I didn't measure or have a way to measure my body fat. The second month that I'm just now completing I went to Burn Boot Camp (love!). There I did measurements and a body fat measurement. Yesterday my 30 days there ended and I was completely devastated with my numbers. While my body changed and I can see differences I wanted so desperately to see numbers change. I only lost 1/4 inch on my waist and lost .90% body fat. My current weight is 127.6, I stayed the same ALL MONTH! I don't have a great amount to lose but I certainly have a ways to go to get what I want. My question is, what's average? How much should I expect to see numbers change, particularly with body fat %?

usmcmp

How is your body fat measured? If it is a device that you hold or stand on the results are very inaccurate. Continue to use a tape measure and pictures.

richelle414

It was a handheld device.

skellymama1

Depends on what you were eating. You can exercise all you want but if your eating isnt on point you won't see results. Also fat loss and weight loss are two different things. Its hard to say because you had a decent loss in the first month but have no way of knowing whether that was fat loss or muscle/water/fat combined.
Also what height are you? 127 is a pretty low number, you could drop fat and put on muscle and stay at 127. This is where the tape measure is your friend.

richelle414

My eating has been over calories only two days since starting MFP almost two months ago. I never eat my exercise calories either. I'm 5'2"

skinnymam

You don't say how many calories you are eating though. Also what about your macros? Are you getting your ratios right?
Is your profile pic recent? If so your really don't look like you have a lot to lose so 1/4 inch is good going for 4 weeks.

richelle414

I'm eating 1500 calories a day. 1700 on weekends. And yes, profile pic is one month ago.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

skellymama1 wrote: »

Depends on what you were eating. You can exercise all you want but if your eating isnt on point you won't see results. Also fat loss and weight loss are two different things. Its hard to say because you had a decent loss in the first month but have no way of knowing whether that was fat loss or muscle/water/fat combined.
Also what height are you? 127 is a pretty low number, you could drop fat and put on muscle and stay at 127. This is where the tape measure is your friend.

how is fat loss and weight loss 2 different things? if you lose fat your weight will go down,if you gain fat your weigh will go up. anything else will be water weight/glycogen stores.so the scale can show a water weight loss/gain and that wont be fat but you wont know if any fat is loss in that time or not.anytime you lose or gain you are not going to know if its fat/muscle or water either. for her to drop fat and put on muscle she would need to be doing a recomp,which means eating at maintenance and weight training.

AJ_G

richelle414 wrote: »

It was a handheld device.

Extremely inaccurate

skellymama1

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

skellymama1 wrote: »

Depends on what you were eating. You can exercise all you want but if your eating isnt on point you won't see results. Also fat loss and weight loss are two different things. Its hard to say because you had a decent loss in the first month but have no way of knowing whether that was fat loss or muscle/water/fat combined.
Also what height are you? 127 is a pretty low number, you could drop fat and put on muscle and stay at 127. This is where the tape measure is your friend.

how is fat loss and weight loss 2 different things? if you lose fat your weight will go down,if you gain fat your weigh will go up. anything else will be water weight/glycogen stores.so the scale can show a water weight loss/gain and that wont be fat but you wont know if any fat is loss in that time or not.anytime you lose or gain you are not going to know if its fat/muscle or water either. for her to drop fat and put on muscle she would need to be doing a recomp,which means eating at maintenance and weight training.

That's what I bloody said!
You can lose weight but it could be muscle or water so bf stays the same. She is weight training and if she's not logging correctly she could be at maintenance without realizing it.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

skellymama1 wrote: »

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

skellymama1 wrote: »

Depends on what you were eating. You can exercise all you want but if your eating isnt on point you won't see results. Also fat loss and weight loss are two different things. Its hard to say because you had a decent loss in the first month but have no way of knowing whether that was fat loss or muscle/water/fat combined.
Also what height are you? 127 is a pretty low number, you could drop fat and put on muscle and stay at 127. This is where the tape measure is your friend.

how is fat loss and weight loss 2 different things? if you lose fat your weight will go down,if you gain fat your weigh will go up. anything else will be water weight/glycogen stores.so the scale can show a water weight loss/gain and that wont be fat but you wont know if any fat is loss in that time or not.anytime you lose or gain you are not going to know if its fat/muscle or water either. for her to drop fat and put on muscle she would need to be doing a recomp,which means eating at maintenance and weight training.

That's what I bloody said!
You can lose weight but it could be muscle or water so bf stays the same. She is weight training and if she's not logging correctly she could be at maintenance without realizing it.

ok but you said losing weight and fat are 2 different things, not really if you lose fat your weight is going to go down you arent going to just lose water/muscle and not lose fat too.sure she could be in maintenance and be building muscle but she would still be losing fat, and she stated losing inches so she is losing fat. when you lose weight you will lose all 3,when you gain you will gain all 3. so basically you are saying that a person can lose water/muscle but not fat eating in maintenance? what about in a deficit is it the same?

CharlieBeansmomTracey

richelle414 wrote: »

I started operation "lower body fat and get tone" nearly two months ago. The first month I lost 4.6 pounds, I didn't measure or have a way to measure my body fat. The second month that I'm just now completing I went to Burn Boot Camp (love!). There I did measurements and a body fat measurement. Yesterday my 30 days there ended and I was completely devastated with my numbers. While my body changed and I can see differences I wanted so desperately to see numbers change. I only lost 1/4 inch on my waist and lost .90% body fat. My current weight is 127.6, I stayed the same ALL MONTH! I don't have a great amount to lose but I certainly have a ways to go to get what I want. My question is, what's average? How much should I expect to see numbers change, particularly with body fat %?

the point is you lost inches so you are losing fat.if you are new to exercise you could be retaining water to help repair your muscles. if your weight has stayed the same all month it could be due to water retention or you are eating maintenance calories,which means you will lose fat and build some muscle but its a slower process and will take longer to see a change in your body.

the less fat you have to lose the slower it will be to see that change, and for it to come off. if you are wanting to change how your body looks it takes time and dedication. there is no average I dont think its going to vary person to person and what they are doing and their goals.you only lose so much body fat at a time as it is. it could take up to a year maybe more. as for body fat testing, like another poster stated handheld devices are inaccurate. you may want to get a bod pod/dexascan type of thing done to see what your body fat is. but if you are losing inches you are losing fat. The leaner you are the harder it is

trigden1991

Handheld devices are terribly for measuring body fat. If you feel better and look better then you have succeeded. You're losing weight for you, not to boast about what the scale or tape measure says to others.

msfitmj15

richelle414 wrote: »

It was a handheld device.

Hand helds are not very accurate. Best are pinch test & tape measure.

ndj1979

richelle414 wrote: »

It was a handheld device.

those are notoriously inaccurate and you are not going to see a dramatic drop in body fat % from one to two months of training, no matter how intense...

gym4life64

I think calipers, tape measure and scale. Easy to use and convenient.....that way you can compare the changes easy.

Rusty740

You know, I think based on what you described and not knowing exactly how many times you measured weight, body fat etc. I'd say that yeah, what you achieved was about right.

If you actually changed by 0.9% body fat and stayed the same weight then the numbers look like this. I'm going to pretend you have 20% body fat to start off with just because I need a number, but it's close enough.
Weight 127.6 lb = BF(20%) is 25.5 lbs and Lean Mass 102.1 lbs

Now if you stayed the same weight and changed body fat by 0.9% then
Weight 127.6 lb = BF(19.1%) is 24.4 lbs and Lean Mass is 103.2 lbs

This is fantastic. You lost 1 lb of fat and gained 1 lb of muscle. Now for example, a young male with high testosterone who has just started lifting weights can gain approximately 2 lbs of muscle per month. I've lost 41 lbs over the past year and I know that at your build losing 1 lb a month and replacing it with muscle is good. Well done.

You've kicked @ss The end.