Body Fat has not budged for first 7 weeks of diet. Help!

jrbhorse

I use a home scale that shows a lot of information including my BMI and my body fat %. I have been reduce calorie dieting since May 1 and I have lost 17 pounds and over a dozen inches. My BMI is consistently lowering each week but my body fat (50.0%) has stayed EXACTLY THE SAME at each week's weigh in (7 times now). Can anyone explain? I am male, age 22 with about 130 pounds to lose since the start. Thanks for any help/info or articles you can send my way.

malibu927

Scales are an unreliable way to track BF%

peaceout_aly

So, I have one of those in-home scales as well and let me tell you, they are not very valid measurements of BF%. I wouldn't depend on that.

Danp

As far as I know those scales use bioimpedance (how well the body impedes the flow of an electric current) which is so poor a measure that it renders the BMI/BF% feature little more than a gimmick.

Weight and tape will give you a better indication of your progress

AnvilHead

Maybe this will help explain why your scale is not a reliable indicator of your BF%: https://weightology.net/the-pitfalls-of-bodyfat-measurement-part-4-bioelectrical-impedance-bia/

livingleanlivingclean

Well, if you take away the inaccuracies of the scale, technically you're losing bodyfat.

50% fat of 200lbs (just a random number) is 100lbs. 50% fat of 180lbs is 90lbs. That's a loss of fat.... It also suggests you're losing fat free mass though (potentially muscle).

Do you lift? Resistance training will help you maintain muscle in a deficit and help to improve your body composition

VUA21

I have tried those scales. I've had it say my BF was as high as 40% and as low as 12%, in the same week. As a woman who is not an athlete, I don't have a 6-pack....12% is insanely inaccurate, as well as the 40%.