Muscle Mass/Body Fat

getskinny1973

I am a 44 year old woman.

My muscle mass is 61.3%
Bone Mass is 3.3%
But my body fat is at 35%!!!

How is this even possible?

I've looked at charts and the Bone Mass is at the percent of an "athlete"
The muscle mass is way above average.
How do I have such a high percentage of body fat?

What am I doing wrong?

How do I get them to balance and have "normal" %'s across the board?

I would appreciate any advise.

I go to the gym regularly, and I'm sure all 35% of my fat is in my belly area. and I'm a far cry from an Athlete.

not_a_runner

What method was used to determine these %'s ?

getskinny1973

I have an expensive scale that measures it for me

usmcmp

How was that measured? It's likely that the method used is inaccurate and the charts are not really helpful.

If you are at a healthy weight for your height do some form of lifting or resistance training and eat at maintenance.
If you are overweight do some form of lifting or resistance training and eat at a deficit.

jjpptt2

I'm betting your numbers are wrong. Based on your picture and the fact that a scale was the source of the numbers, I'm pretty sure they are wrong.

usmcmp

getskinny1973 wrote: »

I have an expensive scale that measures it for me

That method is called Bioelectrical Impedance and is really inaccurate.

goatg

Uhm...Where's water percentage factored in?

goatg

Sorry babe. No way you have 61% muscle. Most people are 60% *water,* +/- a bit.

getskinny1973

Well that makes me sad, I was counting on the scale to help me keep track of these things.

What is a better way to get accurate numbers?

getskinny1973

I really want to make sure my body fat % is in a healthy range.
And if not for the scale to tell me where I'm at, what can?

getskinny1973

It said my water is at 45%
I'm pretty new to all of this, so I only have the internet to go off of to find the "norms" and I don't even know what half of it means

sijomial

getskinny1973 wrote: »

I have an expensive scale that measures it for me

No, it really doesn't measure bone, fat and muscle!

You have an expensive scale that sends a tiny electrical current through your body (sometimes just part of your body...), measures your electrical resistance and then tries with incredibly varied accuracy to interpret that resistance in terms of body composition.

In your case I wouldn't give it much credence.

usmcmp

getskinny1973 wrote: »

I really want to make sure my body fat % is in a healthy range.
And if not for the scale to tell me where I'm at, what can?

Visual, skin fold measurements, tape measure. All of those combined with body weight trends.

jjpptt2

getskinny1973 wrote: »

Well that makes me sad, I was counting on the scale to help me keep track of these things.

What is a better way to get accurate numbers?

calipers, dexa scans, bodpod, etc.

FWIW, while the numbers may not be accurate, then change in those numbers over time is probably a reasonable gauge of progress. While you may not be at 35% BF now, if you check it in 6 months and are at 30%, the 5% drop is probably reasonable. Like scale weight, I'd watch trends in changes rather than actual numbers.

mommy3esq

If you want a truly accurate measurement you can get a dexascan. It is often referred to as a gold standard for body fat testing, body composition, DEXA scans, muscle, heart rate fitness, and metabolic tests.

Aaron_K123

getskinny1973 wrote: »

I am a 44 year old woman.

My muscle mass is 61.3%
Bone Mass is 3.3%
But my body fat is at 35%!!!

How is this even possible?

I've looked at charts and the Bone Mass is at the percent of an "athlete"
The muscle mass is way above average.
How do I have such a high percentage of body fat?

What am I doing wrong?

How do I get them to balance and have "normal" %'s across the board?

I would appreciate any advise.

I go to the gym regularly, and I'm sure all 35% of my fat is in my belly area. and I'm a far cry from an Athlete.

Just to clarify lean mass actually just refers to the amount of mass you have that isn't fat. So if someone weighs 100 pounds and has 20% bodyfat then they have 20 pounds of fat and 80 pounds of everything else not 80 pounds of muscle. People often refer to muscle as being lean mass but muscle is only a component of lean mass and not even the dominant one. For the average person most of lean mass is going to be water weight, some of it is organ weight and only a fraction of it is muscle.

If 60+ percent of your body weight is not fat that does not mean that 60+ percent of your body is muscle...it just means that 60+ percent isn't fat.

Scales (yes even expensive ones) "measure" your percent bodyfat by sending an electrical impulse into one of your feet and then measure the amount of time it takes for that impulse to travel from that foot to your other foot. Fat content compared to water content changes your bodies impedence, its resistance to the travel of electricity, so the scale uses that time traveled to give you a very rough estimate of your percent bodyfat. This method of measure can be influenced by a lot of things like how dehydrated you are that day that have absolutely nothing to do with the fat content of your body and yet can definately have an effect on what the scale claims your fat content is. Your scale does not know how much your bones weigh, that is silly.

You want to know if you are losing fat? Measure your total weight overtime and if you want use a tape measurer around your waist and see if those numbers go down over time. The rest is bells, whistles, glitz and distraction.

AliceDark

"Lean mass" is going to include everything that isn't fat or bone, so that includes organs, muscle, tendons, etc.

What everyone has told you is correct -- body fat scales aren't precise. I wouldn't stress too much about accurate measurements, because the body fat scale probably gave you a good ballpark estimate of where you are. Whether you're actually at 35% body fat vs. 33% or 37% is pretty irrelevant.

If what you want to do over time is to reduce your percentage of body fat, the best thing to do is to eat at a deficit (to lose fat) and do some resistance training (to keep the muscle you have and perhaps start to add a little bit if you're new to resistance training. This will also help keep/increase your bone density). If you do these things and you see your total weight go down, that's as good an indicator as you're going to get that you're losing body fat.

Note that there are more accurate methods of measuring body fat, but they're expensive and, again, not really all that necessary.

BootyfulBikerZX10r

Get a Dexa scan. I did yesterday and have 150.6 lean mass 6.6 pounds of bone and I am 3.0 for bone density. I also found out my home scanner was WAY off. I found Dexa on Groupon a usual $150 scan for $76 (San Fran pricing).

wanzik

I have an Omron Body Comp Scale where you stand on it and also hold the built in handle. I think I paid around $139 for it a few years ago - they are way cheaper now. When I read about them I got the idea that they were fairly accurate - more so than cheap Walmart crap. I don't know for sure about it's accuracy (and I'm not really concerned) but I like tracking the trends over time. I think I get a good idea when Fat%/Muscle% is going up and down.

sijomial

wanzik wrote: »

I have an Omron Body Comp Scale where you stand on it and also hold the built in handle. I think I paid around $139 for it a few years ago - they are way cheaper now. When I read about them I got the idea that they were fairly accurate - more so than cheap Walmart crap. I don't know for sure about it's accuracy (and I'm not really concerned) but I like tracking the trends over time. I think I get a good idea when Fat%/Muscle% is going up and down.

@wanzik

I used one a few years ago and it gave pretty reasonable estimates if you followed the trend, gave some odd spikes (hydration related probably). It matched BodPod scans very closely.
On the other hand I've also used some which gave ludicrous numbers.

My gym gives free use of a Bodytrax unit (it has hand and foot sensors like the Omron) and that seems pretty reasonable/believable too.
The biggest problem with BIA scales is the difficulty in knowing which ones are reasonable and which ones are a complete waste of time.

Meelisv

getskinny1973 wrote: »

I really want to make sure my body fat % is in a healthy range.
And if not for the scale to tell me where I'm at, what can?

A mirror is an absolutely fantastic tool for that.
Your expensive scale, while inaccurate, can still give you decent enough picture about how things are progressing, as long as you keep track of averages and don't worry about usual fluctuations.