Why is my weight going down but my body fat % going up?

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lilylily
lilylily Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I recently bought some body composition weighing scales and am learning about the results. I've only been dieting a couple of weeks and have lost about 6 lbs but my body fat has increased by 2 lbs. Can anyone pls explain why? Is this normal? Seems strange to me, unless my diet is burning up the wrong fat...? Thanks.

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  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,282 Member
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    Body composition scales are notoriously unreliable: they don't measure your body composition, they 'estimate' based on a light electrical current traveling through your body.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,081 Member
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    I agree with Lietchi.

    Those scales are measuring liquid, generally. Really if you have a lot of weight to lose, that "fat" estimate is going to be all over the place and can vary day to day by a lot.

    I'd put more credence in the total weight. The fat percentage scales are not reliable for measuring fat.



  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,018 Member
    edited July 2023
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    Could be the reduction is water weight from your initial weight loss, water weight is generally seen as lean body mass. It's possible that the majority of your weight loss was water indicating your findings.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,227 Member
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    If you want to reduce your fat percentage on those scales, just drink some water or weigh after a shower. Hydration makes the fat percentage go down nearly every time.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,669 Member
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    Bio impedance scales are very unreliable because depending on how much water in your body there is, it can give a false reading.

    To be a bit more accurate, weigh the same time everyday in the morning or whenever you get up, and after you use the restroom before you've had anything to eat or drink.

    It's still a 3%-5% accuracy issue but as long as the numbers continue to go down, you'll be fine.

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  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,547 Member
    edited July 2023
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    As others said, the scales are generally very poor. You'd be better off keeping measurements of your waist and hips, and maybe take pictures every so often too. You can track those in MFP easily. You can use those measurements with the Navy method (look up an online calculator, and a guide on where exactly to measure) to estimate your body fat % if you want.

    The first week or two weight loss will include a lot of water. Each gram of carbs encourages the body to hold 3 grams of water. Plus you are probably having less sodium.

    Note it is entirely possible though that you can lose weight and your body fat % doesn't go down much. If you lose at a rapid pace and aren't doing resistance training and increasing protein to protect your muscle mass, as much as 40% of the weight lost can be lean mass.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,813 Member
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    There was a post a few days ago inquiring about what bodyfat scale to get. My answers is just get a regular scale due to inaccuracy and this post substantiates this.
  • lilylily
    lilylily Posts: 24 Member
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    Dear all, thank you so much for your comments. I'm afraid I didn't see them until today because I had assumed I'd get an email notification and never did, so thought there were no comments. Doh!
    It's interesting to see what you all think of the body scales, not least because I've spent the last hour making a spreadsheet so I can follow all the stats (mine don't provide a full history, infuriatingly).
    Now you have all made me re-think this. I really appreciate your thoughts.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,081 Member
    edited August 2023
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    lilylily, if you "bookmark" this thread you'll be notified on myfitnesspal. Then there will be a notification up on the top right of the page where the little bell thingy is. To bookmark on the website (computer) click the little flag to the right of your title above and then you'll get notifications.

    As far as the spreadsheet, well done. You can still track the changes, you will still get trends that you will start to understand, but body fat is not an easy thing to track and the scales are going to have you pretty confused. Just figure if you're losing weight, you're getting it done. Some of that weight loss will be fat and some of it will be water fluctuations - which can be significant, depending on your body weight. I get pretty significant fluctuations, and when I was heavier they were even more significant...like several pounds.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,031 Member
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    there have been people here who weighed and measured their "body fat", then drank a bunch of water and tried again in a couple hours and got completely different readings.

    body fat is not easy to measure - i had 2 different trainers measure my body fat with calipers and get 2 pretty different results. i knew my body fat was dropping (and muscle increasing) when at one point my weight hadn't changed but my pant size went down and my waist measurement was 2 inches smaller. my legs were stronger, as well.

    i wish there was a reliable way to measure and track body fat.
  • lilylily
    lilylily Posts: 24 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    lilylily, if you "bookmark" this thread you'll be notified on myfitnesspal. Then there will be a notification up on the top right of the page where the little bell thingy is. To bookmark on the website (computer) click the little flag to the right of your title above and then you'll get notifications.

    As far as the spreadsheet, well done. You can still track the changes, you will still get trends that you will start to understand, but body fat is not an easy thing to track and the scales are going to have you pretty confused. Just figure if you're losing weight, you're getting it done. Some of that weight loss will be fat and some of it will be water fluctuations - which can be significant, depending on your body weight. I get pretty significant fluctuations, and when I was heavier they were even more significant...like several pounds.

    Thanks very much. I see that the notifications show when I click on Community, but not when I generally use the site. I'm learning!
  • lilylily
    lilylily Posts: 24 Member
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    zebasschick wrote: »
    there have been people here who weighed and measured their "body fat", then drank a bunch of water and tried again in a couple hours and got completely different readings.

    body fat is not easy to measure - i had 2 different trainers measure my body fat with calipers and get 2 pretty different results. i knew my body fat was dropping (and muscle increasing) when at one point my weight hadn't changed but my pant size went down and my waist measurement was 2 inches smaller. my legs were stronger, as well.

    i wish there was a reliable way to measure and track body fat.

    I must admit I never thought about it until I got these scales!

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