Do I really have 43.5% body fat or is it a mistake?

LSJC18 · July 2013

I've heard that BIA (Bioelectric Impedance Analysis) scales can be inaccurate depending on my body's hydration levels (and I drank like 2-3 glasses of water a day back then? I drink on average about 2.5L now though)

Anyway, when I did take a reading about 3 weeks ago, I weighed in at 163 pounds, I'm 5'5, female and my measurements were 38-32-40. My measurements are pretty big, I know and I know that I'm pretty fat, but did I honestly have 43.5% body fat?

(I've been eating healthier and exercising since, and I've lost a considerable amount of pounds since then, so I'll wait until my next weigh in with the BIA to see if my BF% has gone down)

I also don't consider myself THAT big because my skin doesn't fold over anywhere (still relatively smooth) and I still have one chin...

But anyway, from your experiences and/or knowledge, do you think I actually had 43.5% body fat?

Thanks much in advance, I appreciate your replies (:

EDIT: The picture in my profile was taken about 4 weeks ago, FYI.

EDIT2: Also the machine somehow calculated my waist to hip ratio as 0.95... and if I'm correct, according to my measurements (which I took carefully and multiple times without holding my tummy in or anything) it's actually 0.80...

Doone33 · July 2013

would you say you have good muscle tone? Do you exercise and workout? Active or are you sedentary... individuals can be fairly small.. you say your not that big... and still have a large body fat percentage. Body fat is not based on the size of your body.. it is based on the amount of fat on your body!

grimendale · July 2013

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bf/
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/cbbf/
Do all 3 BF Calcs and use the average number

Try the above. Bioelectric impedence is notoriously inaccurate. My scale is routinely off by 5% (it never seems to underestimate), and my tape measure numbers are backed up by skin fold caliper test at my last physical. Assuming you measure correctly, teh above should give you a better number.

Doone33 · July 2013

I know a few years back me and another girl from my work got our body fat checked and we were both at 23 percent. She is incredibly small, around a size 4 or 6. I was a size 14. So body fat and size can be misleading! She was shocked and so was I! Let us know when you get checked again! 43 percent does seem high if your not a hefty girl, but I am no expert. Your doctor can send you to have these test taken along with blood work, that is where I did mine, at a lab. Also, I have extrememly large hips... measurements can mean nothing when considering body fat. My hips measure out to 40 inches... I hate that part of me, but I am glad to say that its not because I have fat hips... I just have large hips!

LSJC18 · July 2013

Well, I did move around a fair bit, but I wouldn't have called my lifestyle too active as I gained most of my weight during senior year of high school, living alone and doing nothing but sitting in classes and sitting at my desk. Though I did play sports at an average of 2 times a week for about an hour.

Also, no, I'm not really hefty, I have a medium sized frame and I fit into US size 10 clothing (not sure about now). I wouldn't say that I have great muscle tone but I do have enough, more on my legs though, my arms are very weak.

I didn't have this taken at the doctor's or anything it was just at the local gym.

DouMc · July 2013

Do these calculators normally give hugely different results? The military one give me a BF% of 36.8% while the Bailey one give me 22%, the other one is in between at 26.5%. I hate the scales that measure it because they put me up at about 38%. Because they are all so different I really have no idea of what my bf% is.

grimendale · July 2013

Not that big a spread. When I last ran them for me, I got 17%, 19% and 24% (don't remember which went with which).

LSJC18 · July 2013

I just did this... and my average says 27.7% BF o.O

Doone33 · July 2013

If I was you, I would go to my doctor and have yourself measured. I was just sharing what I have been taught and told. I do know, you cant goo off a jean size, or looking at someone to measure body fat. I cant imagine that anyone will be able to answer you question on this web site... a person would have to see you and measure you to tell you what your body fat percentage is. I know that there are web sites that guesstimate by height and weight... but heck... a body builder can bee 200 lbs and have less than 10 percent body fat, and those online sites may tell them they are obese according to weight and height... Honestly.. there is no way to know, unless you go somewhere and have a professional actually measure you!

grimendale · July 2013

Agree to an extent. Calibrate your numbers against a skin fold test. The body fat calculators can be off significantly if you measure wrong. If your numbers from the tape measure track to the numbers from the caliper test (with room for a little error), then you probably have the right number.

DavPul · July 2013

Don't worry about the numbers because they don't matter at all right now. You joined mfp because you knew you were overweight and decided to make a healthy change for yourself. You realized that losing body fat would improve your risk factors, energy levels, and physical appearance. So what difference does it make if your body fat is 43%, or 39%, or 35 or even 50%?

You know that you both want and need to lose weight, specifically weight from fat. All that matters right now is that you have the correct calorie deficit, resistance training program, and cardio program in place so that you can do what you already know you need to do, lose weight.

shadow2soul · July 2013

yep.

This is how it looks for me:

scale : 35-38%
3-point caliper test: 36%

F2F calculator: 27.6%
Military calculator: 38.1%
Covert Bailey calculator: 27%
Average of the 3 online: 30.9%

I like the average from the online calculators, but I think in my case my scale might be right about my BF% being between 35-38%.

angiewf · July 2013

Remember that you store fat round your internal organs too, so outside measurements don't tell the whole story. To get it exactly you'd need an MRI scan! Also women naturally have a higher bodyfat percentage than men because of needing it for childbearing . Your percentage does seem high if you're not overly overweight, tho'.

ReadynWillin · July 2013

Same here.

F2F calculator: 28%
Military calculator: 56%
Covert Bailey calculator: 34%

Average: 39%
Which is weirdly close to the BMI calulator result of 38.6. And I always thought BMI was a sham lol. Not for me I guess.

MyJourney1960 · July 2013

ok, call this a light bulb moment for me, but if the various calculators claim that I have 60 lb of fat, that means that the amount of weight i need to lose is 60 lb? (or if i do an average of the three calculators, then what i need to lose is 88 lb?)

Azdak · July 2013

Most doctors are not trained in either body composition assessment or interpreting the results.

ndj1979 · July 2013

get a set of calipers....body fat % scales are notoriously not accurate...mine reds anywhere from 13 to 15% and my calipers say I am 13%...

although, calipers are not the most accurate either...

Azdak · July 2013

43.5% BF works out to a fat free mass of ~92lbs. That's a little smaller than avg for your height, but not unusual. So the number itself is not out of the question. You may not be exactly that number, but it is likely accurate to within 4%-in practical terms, there is not that much difference between 39% and 43%.

It's with the retests that BIA can become more problematic because the errors might not be consistent. I highly recommend recording circumference measurements as a backup. They won't give you a bf% number, but if you lose 5" off your waist, for example, that can help show progress if you get an inaccurate BIA reading.

shadow2soul · July 2013

If your loss was only fat, but you wouldn't want to lose all 60lbs. Women do need some fat on their bodies. So instead of trying to get rid of all the fat on your body, look at reducing the fat to lbm ratio.

Example:
based on a BF% of 36%
estimated LBM: 115.7lbs
estimated Fat Mass: 65.1lbs

If (and this is a huge if) I could manage to get to 145lbs without losing any of my LBM, then I'd be at 20.1% BF. This would mean I'd still have 29.3lbs of fat on my body (providing that I didn't lose any of my LBM).

Is it possible, I dunno, but I'm going to try my hardest to keep as much of my LBM as possible.

BeachIron · July 2013

^ Please read this.

DouMc · July 2013

Thanks, its good to know that I am not the only one. I have managed to get my BMI down to about 23 so now I want to focus on getting my BF down but it is annoying that I cannot settle on a baseline number off which to judge progress. I think I will just go with the average from all three calculators. At the end of the day even if it is not accurate at least it will still show if I am going down.

WendyTerry420 · July 2013

When I've done them, they are all three widely different. Mine show up as 28 (impossible), 38 (closer) and 57 (unreal). I'm getting body fat calipers this week.

OP: From just your face, you look like you can't possible by that high in body fat, but maybe you have a big belly that I'm not seeing in the picture?

http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

spidey11186 · July 2013

Hey, this is correct... don't worry about the numbers some scale gives you (even if it's a BF% scale). What you can do, is take that number RELATIVELY! Meaning, fine, it says you're 43% BF... Well if it says 40% (or some number smaller than 43) in a week, then you've made good progress! If in a month you're down even a little more, you're doing great!

If you're seeing measurement differences (W/H ratios, etc), then you're doing great! An arbitrary number from a scale can really mean nothing in the long run. The most accurate BF estimator is really the caliper method... Keep up the good work.

omma_to_3 · July 2013

No, it's highly likely you are far less than that. I am 5'4" and similar in weight and measurements to you. I had my BF tested via Bod Pod in March and it was 34%. Using my BIA scale, it tells me around 39% right now, while I suspect, if I went to the Bod Pod again, I'd be 30% or 31%.

And you're hardly "pretty fat". You have a relatively small amount to lose. If you want to focus on reducing BF vs. just weight loss, do a combination of cardio and strength training. My weight loss has slowed since I added strength training, but my BF continues going down.

jwcomputergirl · July 2013

bump for later

sub10orbust · July 2013

Based on the PICS you posted.....

MyJourney1960 · July 2013

thanks. slowly beginning to understand this stuff

gracielynn1011 · July 2013

Obviously I can't speak for your body fat, but I bought one of those scales and found it to be a waste of money. In the same day it can show anywhere from 20%- 45%. It is not accurate at all. I use my measurements and enter them into all three calculators on fat2fitradio.com then average those results. Using that method, I know my body fat % has dropped 7% since February.

zophiel67 · July 2013

Totally. I use a scale that does BF% and recognize that it's probably not accurate. I get widely variable numbers on the measurement sites as well. So I pay attention and get happy when the number is going down, but I don't get too excited about what the measurement actually *is.*

StacyReneO · July 2013

My measurements had huge variances...

25%
14.9%
18.8%

for an average of 19.6%. I've never measured any other way so I have nothing to compare to, but I am 116 lbs. 5' 3.5" and 42 yrs old.

LSJC18 · August 2013

Hello! So thanks for all your replies!

I will keep check of my progress rather than the numbers, and also if I'm really concerned about the number itself... I should probably go get a more accurate reading.

Other than that, I managed to dig up photos from before I started exercising and losing weight. BEAR IN MIND that they're pretty horrible quality and quite hard to see but, I couldn't really find too many. I gained the weight very recently so there was hardly any time to take too many pictures..

Do I really have 43.5% body fat or is it a mistake?

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