Do I really have 43.5% body fat or is it a mistake?

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  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bf/
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/cbbf/
    Do all 3 BF Calcs and use the average number

    Try the above. Bioelectric impedence is notoriously inaccurate. My scale is routinely off by 5% (it never seems to underestimate), and my tape measure numbers are backed up by skin fold caliper test at my last physical. Assuming you measure correctly, teh above should give you a better number.

    Do these calculators normally give hugely different results? The military one give me a BF% of 36.8% while the Bailey one give me 22%, the other one is in between at 26.5%. I hate the scales that measure it because they put me up at about 38%. Because they are all so different I really have no idea of what my bf% is.

    When I've done them, they are all three widely different. Mine show up as 28 (impossible), 38 (closer) and 57 (unreal). I'm getting body fat calipers this week.


    OP: From just your face, you look like you can't possible by that high in body fat, but maybe you have a big belly that I'm not seeing in the picture?

    http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

    body-fat-percentage-picture-men-women.jpg
  • spidey11186
    spidey11186 Posts: 141 Member
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    Don't worry about the numbers because they don't matter at all right now. You joined mfp because you knew you were overweight and decided to make a healthy change for yourself. You realized that losing body fat would improve your risk factors, energy levels, and physical appearance. So what difference does it make if your body fat is 43%, or 39%, or 35 or even 50%?

    You know that you both want and need to lose weight, specifically weight from fat. All that matters right now is that you have the correct calorie deficit, resistance training program, and cardio program in place so that you can do what you already know you need to do, lose weight.

    Hey, this is correct... don't worry about the numbers some scale gives you (even if it's a BF% scale). What you can do, is take that number RELATIVELY! Meaning, fine, it says you're 43% BF... Well if it says 40% (or some number smaller than 43) in a week, then you've made good progress! If in a month you're down even a little more, you're doing great!

    If you're seeing measurement differences (W/H ratios, etc), then you're doing great! An arbitrary number from a scale can really mean nothing in the long run. The most accurate BF estimator is really the caliper method... Keep up the good work.
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    No, it's highly likely you are far less than that. I am 5'4" and similar in weight and measurements to you. I had my BF tested via Bod Pod in March and it was 34%. Using my BIA scale, it tells me around 39% right now, while I suspect, if I went to the Bod Pod again, I'd be 30% or 31%.

    And you're hardly "pretty fat". You have a relatively small amount to lose. If you want to focus on reducing BF vs. just weight loss, do a combination of cardio and strength training. My weight loss has slowed since I added strength training, but my BF continues going down.
  • jwcomputergirl
    jwcomputergirl Posts: 126 Member
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    bump for later
  • sub10orbust
    sub10orbust Posts: 706 Member
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    Based on the PICS you posted.....
  • MyJourney1960
    MyJourney1960 Posts: 1,133 Member
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    ok, call this a light bulb moment for me, but if the various calculators claim that I have 60 lb of fat, that means that the amount of weight i need to lose is 60 lb? (or if i do an average of the three calculators, then what i need to lose is 88 lb?)

    If your loss was only fat, but you wouldn't want to lose all 60lbs. Women do need some fat on their bodies. So instead of trying to get rid of all the fat on your body, look at reducing the fat to lbm ratio.

    Example:
    based on a BF% of 36%
    estimated LBM: 115.7lbs
    estimated Fat Mass: 65.1lbs

    If (and this is a huge if) I could manage to get to 145lbs without losing any of my LBM, then I'd be at 20.1% BF. This would mean I'd still have 29.3lbs of fat on my body (providing that I didn't lose any of my LBM).

    Is it possible, I dunno, but I'm going to try my hardest to keep as much of my LBM as possible.
    thanks. slowly beginning to understand this stuff
  • gracielynn1011
    gracielynn1011 Posts: 726 Member
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    Obviously I can't speak for your body fat, but I bought one of those scales and found it to be a waste of money. In the same day it can show anywhere from 20%- 45%. It is not accurate at all. I use my measurements and enter them into all three calculators on fat2fitradio.com then average those results. Using that method, I know my body fat % has dropped 7% since February.
  • zophiel67
    zophiel67 Posts: 181
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    Don't worry about the numbers because they don't matter at all right now. You joined mfp because you knew you were overweight and decided to make a healthy change for yourself. You realized that losing body fat would improve your risk factors, energy levels, and physical appearance. So what difference does it make if your body fat is 43%, or 39%, or 35 or even 50%?

    You know that you both want and need to lose weight, specifically weight from fat. All that matters right now is that you have the correct calorie deficit, resistance training program, and cardio program in place so that you can do what you already know you need to do, lose weight.

    Totally. I use a scale that does BF% and recognize that it's probably not accurate. I get widely variable numbers on the measurement sites as well. So I pay attention and get happy when the number is going down, but I don't get too excited about what the measurement actually *is.*
  • StacyReneO
    StacyReneO Posts: 317 Member
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    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bf/
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/cbbf/
    Do all 3 BF Calcs and use the average number

    Try the above. Bioelectric impedence is notoriously inaccurate. My scale is routinely off by 5% (it never seems to underestimate), and my tape measure numbers are backed up by skin fold caliper test at my last physical. Assuming you measure correctly, teh above should give you a better number.

    My measurements had huge variances...

    25%
    14.9%
    18.8%

    for an average of 19.6%. I've never measured any other way so I have nothing to compare to, but I am 116 lbs. 5' 3.5" and 42 yrs old.
  • LSJC18
    LSJC18 Posts: 48 Member
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    Hello! So thanks for all your replies!

    I will keep check of my progress rather than the numbers, and also if I'm really concerned about the number itself... I should probably go get a more accurate reading.

    Other than that, I managed to dig up photos from before I started exercising and losing weight. BEAR IN MIND that they're pretty horrible quality and quite hard to see but, I couldn't really find too many. I gained the weight very recently so there was hardly any time to take too many pictures..

    1.jpg
    2.jpg
  • ST99000722
    ST99000722 Posts: 204 Member
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    Bump for later

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