Body Fat percentage/strength training help.

Amandabelanger614

Hi,

I am wondering if someone can help me with my body fat/composition.

I weigh way more than most other women do who are my size. I do have a wider set frame.... but i am wondering if am actually just doing great with my strength training and have gained muscle while losing weight. Recently, my weight lss has really slowed down i eat between 1200-1400 calories a day and 100g of protein. I do strength training 2 days per week and cardio 4 times per week. When i do strength training i always make sure i am struggling to finish my third rep.

Down 18 pounds from 180 since Dec 3rd!!
Female, 21, 162 lbs.

27.7% body fat @ 162lbs - March 13, 2014
28.8% body fat @ 168lbs - Jan 31st, 2014

Can someone tell me if this is average body fat loss or not?

Here is a recent picture of me a few pounds ago....

richardheath

How are you measuring body fat %? Because if those numbers are correct, it seems to me that in that 6 lb total loss, there is about 3 lb of fat and 3 lb of lean body mass gone.

168 lb @ 28.8% bf = 48 lb fat; 120 lb LBM

162 lb @ 27.7% bf = 45 lb fat; 117 lb LBM

Note LBM includes water, bone, connective tissue as well as muscle, so some of that LBM loss could be water. And most measures of body fat are only going to be estimates with a certain level of error. It may well be, with even a small error, that your 6 lb is all fat. But it really doesn't look like you are building muscle (gaining LBM) right now, but then that is very hard to do on a deficit.

6 lb lost in about as many weeks is a good rate, but make sure you are hitting the weights to ensure it is fat lost, not muscle.

WBB55

One way to make sure you lose mostly fat is to lose very slowly while lifting weights. I know you want to see the number on the scale go down, and you're doing awesome. But you might want to add a couple hundred calories per day, to try to slow things down, if your goal is to minimize muscle loss.

SezxyStef

I have personally lost about 0.8% a month since June 17th...

I have hovered right around 121lbs of LBM the entire time regardless of my weight. Range has been 119-123 average is 121

We weight about the same...not sure about height...so 1% BF loss in just over a month seems reasonable

NoLimitFemme

Looks like you are doing awesome to me. Maybe try not to focus so much on the scale itself but rather a body fat percentage. I started my weight loss at 177 (body fat % unknown) and I am currently 161.8. I am at a 26.6% LBM (118 LBM). My ultimate weight goal is 150 (I like you have a more muscular body type) but my goal body fat percentage is 23%. After some very confusing math that took a little longer than it should have I technically only have about 6 lbs to loose if I loose nothing but fat to reach my body fat percentage goal.

Regardless of my weight I see great results in my body structure and I am determined not to let the numbers on the scale bother me.

Keep up the awesome job you are doing now because it is working!!!