HELP!!! My Body Fat went up even though I work out!

GIAngel222

I need some help!

I have been working out now for 10 months. I have dropped body fat, weight and inches since January but the past three months I have barely lost anything. As of last night I put on a small amount of inches, weight remained the same and my body fat went up.

I have been doing a lot of reading on scoobysworkshop.com and I think I may be not be eating enough. If your body fat goes up, this would lead me to believe that my body is storing fat. According to scoobysworkshop.com I should consume 2,150 calories per day (not eating back the calories I burn at the gym) in order to lose fat but gain muscle.

My workouts are pretty intense. I recently incorporate jumping rope into my workouts. I jump rope for 45 min with 3 one minute rests, I take a cardio kickboxing class and I lift weights. My routine is a 10 min Cardio warm up, lift weights\abs for about 45-60 minutes, followed by a 30-50 minute cardio workout. I wear a HRM and I burn between 650-900 calories per gym session and I workout about 5 days a week (sometimes 4 when "life" gets in the way). My calorie goal is set at 1.500 calories with 50% protein, 25% carbs and 25% fat. I consume about 150g of protein per day. When I workout I eat most of my calories back. I have two sedentary jobs and I own my own business, I work about 55 hours a week. I also travel 1 to 1 1/2 hours (each way) to work by bus. I am sitting on my rear for 65-70 hours a week.

What am I doing wrong? Am I suppose to eat more? I am trying to gain muscle and lose fat. I am trying to be fit, I am going for a more feminine looking body builder body type.

Thank you in advance!

head_in_rainbows

bump
it seems like she does everything right. I'd love to read the answare too!

ArroganceInStep

Your BF% calculation is just an estimation. Lets say you use a scale that spits it out. Check it, use the restroom, then check it again. Chances are high that the reading will be different (for BF, not just weight).

Now that being said, if you've been stalling for 3 months something you're doing isn't working for you.

First and foremost, I'd say you should pick a goal: losing weight or gaining muscle. Focus on that. I'm not going to go into the debate on whether you can or can't gain muscle while losing fat, but the simple fact is if you really want to gain muscle, the best and fastest way to do that is to eat at a surplus (which would cause you to gain weight, and some fat along with it).

I'm going to assume here that you want to lose weight, just based on the tone of your post. Also it's easier to build muscle once you've cut down to a lower BF% (http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/initial-body-fat-and-body-composition-changes.html)

FIrst, the diet portion. I'm going off of Lyle McDonald here, but if you're weight has stagnated for that long you should decrease your intake (also read his stuff, it's solid: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss). Start with a small reduction, 10%, and see how it affects you. That would mean you'd be shooting for 1350 calories per day and would be eating back your exercise calories). I'm not suggesting working out more because it already appears that you have trouble meeting your current goal of 5 days a week. 150 calories per day isn't an extreme change, it's close enough to what you're doing now to not have a huge impact on your life, and you should be able to see how you're doing from that.

Mayor_West

How are you measuring your bodyfat %? Until we know that, it's impossible to determine a reason for a variation, good or bad.

GIAngel222

How are you measuring your bodyfat %? Until we know that, it's impossible to determine a reason for a variation, good or bad.

With a hand held digital scale, that they use at the gym.

auroranflash

Any scale that promises to read body fat % will be wacky. I wasted $30 on one that constantly gives me strange readings. I jump 2% body fat within a day, weighing in the morning under identical conditions. Go get some calipers and remember to measure in the same spots.

GIAngel222

Your BF% calculation is just an estimation. Lets say you use a scale that spits it out. Check it, use the restroom, then check it again. Chances are high that the reading will be different (for BF, not just weight).

Now that being said, if you've been stalling for 3 months something you're doing isn't working for you.

First and foremost, I'd say you should pick a goal: losing weight or gaining muscle. Focus on that. I'm not going to go into the debate on whether you can or can't gain muscle while losing fat, but the simple fact is if you really want to gain muscle, the best and fastest way to do that is to eat at a surplus (which would cause you to gain weight, and some fat along with it).

I'm going to assume here that you want to lose weight, just based on the tone of your post. Also it's easier to build muscle once you've cut down to a lower BF% (http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/initial-body-fat-and-body-composition-changes.html)

FIrst, the diet portion. I'm going off of Lyle McDonald here, but if you're weight has stagnated for that long you should decrease your intake (also read his stuff, it's solid: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss). Start with a small reduction, 10%, and see how it affects you. That would mean you'd be shooting for 1350 calories per day and would be eating back your exercise calories). I'm not suggesting working out more because it already appears that you have trouble meeting your current goal of 5 days a week. 150 calories per day isn't an extreme change, it's close enough to what you're doing now to not have a huge impact on your life, and you should be able to see how you're doing from that.

Thank you very much for all the information.
I am using a digital handheld scale at the gym. The trainer at the gym said not to read to much into what the scale reads because it is not 100% accurate. Having said that, it is still discouraging to see ZERO results.

I have ten more pounds to go and 6% more body fat. Are you suggesting that I try to lose the ten pounds before trying to gain muscle? I am not concerned too much about what the scale says, I am more concerned about my body fat. If I were 20% BF now (at 148 lbs, 5'7") I would be fine with it. The scale number is not as much as a concern for me.

I will definitely check out all the sites you have suggested.

The 5 day a week quota of working out isn't troubling me. I was trying to be honest about recent events without going too much into detail. Something happened to my father recently where he was hospitalized for 4 weeks and I wasn't able to get to the gym 5 days a week, instead I went for 4 days and I worked out for 2 hours each day, during that time. Am I not working out enough? I see that I am lifting (same workout) as some men in the gym.. Idk if I mentioned this but I workout with a trainer 8 times a month (since February). I am really trying and I feel like I am really working my *kitten* off.

Sarauk2sf

Those BIAs are very inaccurate and can be affected by a lot of different variables, including hydration levels. If you have a trainer, get them to use calipers. While not accurate itself, its more accurate than the hand held devices. If you are losing weight, and especially if you are losing inches, you will be losing BF.

Here is a good article on how inaccurate they can be:

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=218

TeachTheGirl

I was going to post a similar thread myself!

It is very discouraging to see that number bounce around. A few weekends ago, I was geeking out because I came in at 22.8%. This, from someone who was once 44.8% BF was really damn awesome! And then on Tuesday I used the digital reading and it was back up to 28.2%? Even though I had lost pounds and inches from my previous weigh in. My trainer can't make sense of it and I've questioned it before on the forums, but my main goal here is to drop body fat and worry less about pounds as I'm really close to my goal.

I hope you figure it out. It'd be nice to see why my reading changes too. :<

Malozing0809

The digital readings may be affected by water that you take in. Just some fun reading with cute videos check this article out:
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/07/02/body-fat-percentage/