Finally losing weight but body fat INCREASING...HELP!!!

mumx5

Hi everyone,
A few weeks back I was on a plateau. My body fat at 38% was quite high.

However, just over a month ago I decided to take some measurements. Even though I was at a plateau I was very pleased to see I was losing inches. My body fat had also decreased to 34% - a step in the right direction

Two weeks ago I decided to start JM's Shred it With Weights. This finally helped break my plateau...I have lost more inches and 2lbs to date.On Wednesday though, I was shocked to see that my body fat has increased to 40%!!!!!


Can anyone give me any advise please? What is happening here? Do I need to up my calorie intake to take into account I am incorporating some kind of 'weights' in my exercise regime? Do I need to change my diet in any way? (Please feel free to look at my diary). What else could I be doing wrong?

Any suggestions appreciated.

I am 5 foot 2.5 inches with a goal weight of around 125lbs if this helps

dad106

How are you measuring body fat? If it's through one of those handheld devices, they are notoriously inaccurate.

I highly doubt you gained 6 percent body fat in 2 weeks.

C00lCountry

I have doubts on your body fat going up. You lost weight while working out. I am curious as to how you are measuring body fat?

NanoBear

The ONLY reliable ways to measure body fat% are water/air displacement, and dual energy x-ray adsorptiometry (this is the best one). Scales and hand held devices use electrical resistance. Their readings can vary by huge amounts depending on how much water you've had, what you've recently eaten, time since your last bowel movement, TOM, and a multitude of other things. Even skin fold testing is inaccurate. Skin fold is reasonable for working out if it's going up or down, but not for getting an actual number. All the associated equations are just estimates.

I wouldn't worry too much it if your measurements are going down.

icemaiden17_uk

I found a similar thing! I have lost 30kg of fat and my BF% has only gone down by 15%!! I am only 10kg away from goal weight now with a further 15% of BF to lose to hit that goal! I use a set of scales that they have at the gym and recently I lost 2kg but 2%BF! I think it really depends on water, time of day and a million other things! I don't really think that there is an acurate way to measure it but I am off to get my body composition done at a local uni to try and shed some light on what is happening! Maybe you could do the same?

AlsDonkBoxSquat

I'm curious as to how you're measuring it too. Water consumption and retention can give you a false increase. When you start a new exercise your body holds on to fluid as a healing mechanism and will also give you a false increase. It's a nice bit o information to have if you're using on of those scales or a hand held, but your measurements are more telling than your scale.