Muscle, Fat, Bone, & ???? Weight

megrose87
megrose87 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
A question of curiosity - I put more stock in the mirror & tape measure, but none-the-less weight & fat vs muscle percentages interest me. Dumb scales are obviously not that accurate, but this is just a little too off to not wonder.

I am just under 5'4" and my measurements are 40" - 30.5" - 39.5" in case that helps shed light on my question.
and my scale this morning read:
147lbs
31 % body fat (a recent caliper test at my gym indicated about 1 or 2% higher than my scale)
32 % muscle mass

Looking up that bone weighs an average for 15% of your weight, these numbers should indicate the following:

45.5lbs of fat
47lbs of muscle
22lbs of bone

But that only totals 114.5lbs!!
What could account for the other 32.5lbs?

For the record I am content with my current body composition, I look and feel good (until I get bloated of course haha). But out of curiosity - does anyone else out there have similar discrepancies in figuring out their body composition?

Replies

  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
    Water! In the form of blood, spinal fluid, digestive fluids, etc., it probably accounts for most of your "missing" weight. For what it's worth, my scale gives muscle, fat, and water percentages.
  • megrose87
    megrose87 Posts: 5 Member
    Water on my scale reads around 51% - so that is included within the fat & muscle #s isn't it?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Really, all you need to know is that you have 101 lbs of lean body mass (muscle, tissue, bone, ligaments, water, etc) and 46 lbs of fat. If you really want to know the breakout, I believe a dexa scan can tell you more.
  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
    Water on my scale reads around 51% - so that is included within the fat & muscle #s isn't it?
    Yeah, it still won't add up to 100% (it'll be more), because fat and muscle both contain water. I should have mentioned that. But it did make me think of what the missing ingredient was!
  • megrose87
    megrose87 Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks

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