Why is my body fat % INCREASING with weight loss?

greenlight22

So this thread is useless without stats:

I'm a 20 year old woman 134 lbs 5'6 with a 37% body fat

A few months ago I was 140 with 32% body fat.

The weird thing is, I've been hitting the strength training exercises like crazy. Body Pump three times a week and kickboxing with bags twice a week, plus some yoga tossed in every once in a while.

I know I have low muscle tone, I even had to go to physical therapy as a toddler because of this. However, desire this genetic disposition, I just can't see why my body fat % keeps climbing. I'm technically and medically obese.

AliceDark

What method did you use to calculate your body fat? It sounds like scale error. Here's how it shakes out:

140 lbs @ 32% body fat = 44.8lbs fat and 95.2lbs LBM
134 lbs @ 37% body fat = 49.58lbs fat and 84.42 lbs LBM

It's possible you're losing weight in the form of LBM, but the more likely explanation is that your body fat scale is wrong. The bathroom body fat scales are wildly inaccurate.

__freckles__

What method did you use to calculate your body fat? It sounds like scale error. Here's how it shakes out:

140 lbs @ 32% body fat = 44.8lbs fat and 95.2lbs LBM
134 lbs @ 37% body fat = 49.58lbs fat and 84.42 lbs LBM

It's possible you're losing weight in the form of LBM, but the more likely explanation is that your body fat scale is wrong. The bathroom body fat scales are wildly inaccurate.

Agree. How are you measuring it?

holmed90

What method was used to calculate your body fat?

vorgas

1: Margin of error
5% is well within the margin of error by any method of testing body fat, except the hydrostatic. IMO, this is hardly worth considering.

2: Not strength training
You haven't been strength training. Everything you listed is muscular endurance training.

From the Les Mills Body Pump website:

Perform 70-100 repetitions per body part totaling up to 800 repetitions in a single workout.

70 to 100 repetitions is NOT strength training. At all.
30 reps, maybe, is strength training.

3: Protein intake
Your diary isn't open, but preserving muscle mass while eating at a deficit requires an enormous amount of protein. Like 1 gram per pound of body mass. Are you eating enough protein?

greenlight22

Umm… confession time, I'm actually using a scale at a doctor's office. I've read that these can be inaccurate, but I'm just more concerned that my body fat % has risen in the last half year.

greenlight22

Thanks Vorgas!

Your info about the difference between Body Pump and strength training is a good start. I feel like I' doing more cardio than actual strength training. About the protein, I try to get in 20% percent a day, but perhaps I need more.

DOes anyone know if eating at your BMR can decrease muscle?

EvgeniZyntx

Umm… confession time, I'm actually using a scale at a doctor's office. I've read that these can be inaccurate, but I'm just more concerned that my body fat % has risen in the last half year.

Even humidity can effect these scales by a lot. It's likely that you aren't gaining fat if you are losing weight. Kind of difficult. Seriously so.

michellekicks

The only way you could really be increasing body fat % as a ratio of total body weight is to just fast. Your body will ditch LBM like mad. You'll get lighter but you could potentially lose LBM faster than fat mass thereby increasing BF% on the whole.

Doesn't sound like that, though. Sounds like inaccurate measurement. Those machines change up from morning to night too... and change based on hydration and a host of other things.

amusedmonkey

It does read more like a scale error.
I have such a scale and it gives different readings if I weight myself, go to the bathroom, and do it again. And mean WILDLY different readings in the range of 5-10%.

It's highly unlikely that you have been working a deficit and lost absolutely no fat, and even gained 5 lb of it. Even a fasting bed-bound individual would lose at least SOME fat on a deficit.

cwolfman13

Umm… confession time, I'm actually using a scale at a doctor's office. I've read that these can be inaccurate, but I'm just more concerned that my body fat % has risen in the last half year.

It is hard in general to get a good estimation of BF%...it is best to use a combination of measurements and calipers...but even then, it's not 100%. Those scales are basically useless for determining BF% with any accuracy...they can't even tell the difference between water and fat.

skyeny

That's not strength training at all...

ironanimal

Thanks Vorgas!

Your info about the difference between Body Pump and strength training is a good start. I feel like I' doing more cardio than actual strength training. About the protein, I try to get in 20% percent a day, but perhaps I need more.

DOes anyone know if eating at your BMR can decrease muscle?

Of course it can, and especially in absence of heavy resistance exercise. Your BMR is the amount of energy you use doing nothing besides breathing, digesting etc. If your deficit is high enough, your body will account for the energy shortfall from muscle, bone and everything else as well as fat, if it has no reason to preserve it.

feathernaut

So this thread is useless without stats:

I'm a 20 year old woman 134 lbs 5'6 with a 37% body fat

A few months ago I was 140 with 32% body fat.

.... I'm technically and medically obese.

I fit your description almost exactly with height/weight. Are you judging obesity by the body fat reading? 140 at 5'6" isn't usually considered obese, based on BMI.

greenlight22

I fit your description almost exactly with height/weight. Are you judging obesity by the body fat reading? 140 at 5'6" isn't usually considered obese, based on BMI.

BMI-wise I'm fine, but I was going off the average chart for body fat %


Females
8-15 Athletic 16-23 Good 24-30 Acceptable 31-36 Overweight >37 Obese

Boogage

Yes, eating at or under your bmr (and not strength training) will cause you to lose more muscle than necessary. I ate very low for a long time when I was losing weight and around a third of my loss (20lbs!) was muscle. If I could go back, I'd eat at a smaller deficit and strength train from the start. It's a slow process to rebuild that much lost muscle.

Francl27

Wow that seems extreme for someone with a BMI like yours.

amusedmonkey

Yes, eating at or under your bmr (and not strength training) will cause you to lose more muscle than necessary. I ate very low for a long time when I was losing weight and around a third of my loss (20lbs!) was muscle. If I could go back, I'd eat at a smaller deficit and strength train from the start. It's a slow process to rebuild that much lost muscle.

The issue here is not muscle loss, all weight loss causes muscle loss in various amounts depending on the variables you mentioned. The issue is that she GAINED as much fat as she lost weight on a deficit, which is technically impossible. It HAS to be a scale error.

AliceDark

.

Aaron_K123

If you honestly increased your % bodyfat by 5% it would be noticeable. In otherwords your clothes would no longer fit and/or you would have to be loosening your belt.

Still not clear on how you determined your percent bodyfat but sounds to me like an error due to low accuracy of the measurement.