The brutal knowledge of my body fat percentage

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SCC88
SCC88 Posts: 215 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've been on MFP for years now and have managed to get my weight down from 210lbs to 166lbs (I've even got down to 154 whilst using MFP, but you know how things go!). Either way I'm pretty proud of my achievements using MFP and have never had such long lasting results that don't yo-yo me back up to 210lbs every few months like the ol' days.
So for Christmas I got some lovely, shiny, new, fitbit Aria scales from the OH and they sync online to my fitbit profile, also, I've never had a set of scales that measure BF% before and I was looking forward to knowing my stats as I've never trusted the measuring inches method I was using before.

So I hopped on the scales and my weight was the same, still 166lbs, a BMI of 27.6 for my height, this I do not mind - slap bang in the middle of the "overweight" category. I stand still waiting for my BF% ..... 36.8% ... well over the obese category!?
Can anyone tell me why this is ... and what the solution is?

Obviously it has bothered me, I'm just wondering why such a large percentage of my weight is fat.

Currently I have my MFP set to maintain so that I only ever see red numbers when I go over my maintenance kcals, this way I know if I eat anything less than that number, I will lose weight.
I never intentionally under eat but I do long shifts sometimes and forget to eat, then fall asleep. But this is always followed by a day of extreme hunger where I eat two days worth of kcals in one. This is pretty unavoidable unless i spend my days eating bags of nuts at work :noway: ... also high in fat lol.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Soph x

Replies

  • JustPeachy044
    JustPeachy044 Posts: 770 Member
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    I too struggle with body fat percentage. At last check my weight was down to about 150 but BF was still above 30%. This is not acceptable to me. I believe you need to exercise, especially involving weight lifting, to get that BF% down. I'm sure other posters will be able to explain it better than me. Diet is a big part of losing weight, but ideally you have to exercise to change your BF ratio. Also make sure you are eating enough protein!! If your protein intake is too low and your calorie intake is low, your body will in essence attack itself, going to your muscles to get the protein you need.
  • SCC88
    SCC88 Posts: 215 Member
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    I too struggle with body fat percentage. At last check my weight was down to about 150 but BF was still above 30%. This is not acceptable to me. I believe you need to exercise, especially involving weight lifting, to get that BF% down. I'm sure other posters will be able to explain it better than me. Diet is a big part of losing weight, but ideally you have to exercise to change your BF ratio. Also make sure you are eating enough protein!! If your protein intake is too low and your calorie intake is low, your body will in essence attack itself, going to your muscles to get the protein you need.

    Hey, thanks for the advice! I always had the intention of doing plenty of cardio in the beginning (which I have been) and then when I'm closer to my goals, say 10lbs away, to then start monitoring my macros and focus on the strength training. Is this something I should have already been doing? I did the 30DS before my holiday back in May and had great results visually, but hardly any achievements in weight loss, perhaps if I had been recording my BF% that would have been insightful! Hmmmmm
  • unnur16
    unnur16 Posts: 140 Member
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    I would go to the gym and make some professional trainer calculate your bodyfat %, i step on scale and it gave me almost 11% more bf% then i got from professional trainer at my local gym.
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    I really struggle to understand the relationship between weight loss and body fat percentage. I think you have to lift and do cardio, and go freaking hard at both. I also think you have to eat perfect, or close to it and nail your macros and calorie goals everyday.

    That is my theory, which I am testing as we speak. I will get to 15% body fat in 2013. So, I'll let you know if I'm right, or if I had to do something different. I'm at 19.8% now. My ultimate goal is 12%, but 15 is a good milestone for me.
  • Mutant13
    Mutant13 Posts: 2,485 Member
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    Body fat percentage scales can be horribly inaccurate. Have a pro measure your body fat with calipers, while not perfect it is much more accurate.

    I have had bf scales put me at 26% body fat. I'm 18%
  • Mutant13
    Mutant13 Posts: 2,485 Member
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    Also if you want to bring your body fat down eat at a small deficit while lifting heavy weights and meeting your macros. Best possibly way IMO
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    If I were you, I would try to find a way to get a DEXA or BodPod scan done to get some confirmation. BIA is not at all accurate. There may be no reason to get yourself stressed out, especially since you were already happy with what you had going on.

    That said, the best plan of attack to change body composition is lifting heavy weights, proper nutrition, and a moderate calorie deficit. Get that plan in action yesterday. In the meantime, get a pair of calipers- for less than $5 you will get a way more accurate picture of your body fat than any BIA scale can give you.
  • aliciab307
    aliciab307 Posts: 370 Member
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    I too struggle with body fat percentage. At last check my weight was down to about 150 but BF was still above 30%. This is not acceptable to me. I believe you need to exercise, especially involving weight lifting, to get that BF% down. I'm sure other posters will be able to explain it better than me. Diet is a big part of losing weight, but ideally you have to exercise to change your BF ratio. Also make sure you are eating enough protein!! If your protein intake is too low and your calorie intake is low, your body will in essence attack itself, going to your muscles to get the protein you need.

    Hey, thanks for the advice! I always had the intention of doing plenty of cardio in the beginning (which I have been) and then when I'm closer to my goals, say 10lbs away, to then start monitoring my macros and focus on the strength training. Is this something I should have already been doing? I did the 30DS before my holiday back in May and had great results visually, but hardly any achievements in weight loss, perhaps if I had been recording my BF% that would have been insightful! Hmmmmm

    I've been doing cardio for majority of my journey and only do weight lifting for maybe 15 minutes 6 days a week and cardio 30-40 mins 6 days a week. I've only started doing weight lifting for about 1-1.5 months. I plan on focusing on cardip until I get to about 5-10lbs of my goal. It is true that the scales bf% is an estimate, mine is off by 2% based on measurement calculation. But I read that some scales that read BF% only reads bf% from your lower body, not sure how true it is.
    If you have measurements, theres this spreadsheet that calculates your bf% based on your measurements.
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    BTW, my calipers and BIA scale match. So, I dunno. I'm good with my BIA.
  • SCC88
    SCC88 Posts: 215 Member
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    Thanks for the advice everyone! I will try not to sweat it and i would LOVE to find out that my scales were out by 10% lol! I shall invest in calipers indeed :-)
    To the person who said that scales only measure your bf in the lower half of your body, that would make sense to me then as I'm a size UK10 in tshirts and have a 19" waist, however I'm a UK16 in trousers :-( so yeah ... very bottom heavy (literally lol!)
  • Zylahe
    Zylahe Posts: 772 Member
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    Many bf scales work by passing a small current and measure the impedance. Fat, muscle, water , bones etc all have different impendances.
    The scales use a formula based on your height, age, weight, age and the measured impedance to estimate your body fat.

    Its not an accurate number, but you can still use it to measure the trend. Just make sure it. Goes down a bit each month and you will know you are on track.
    By bf has dropped from 30 to 24.6 over the last year. I dont believe the number itself, but i do belive that i have dropped alot of fat.

    Also as many ppl are saying start doing weights as soon as you can. If you are eating at deficit, it will stop you losing muscle mass. And as everyone knows muscle has a higher resting metabolism rate than fat, so the more muscle you have the more you can eat.
    ( its only about 100 cals/ day for 1 lb of muscle, but it helps)

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