35% body fat with 22 BMI

saanjana
saanjana Posts: 20 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi All, I am having a really difficult time bringing down my body fat percentage and need some suggestions. I gained about 35 lbs this past year (stress of new job, commitments, etc). Last year I was my fittest after running a marathon - I'm 5'8 and weighted 133 lbs; over the past year I went to 168 lbs. Inspite of my best efforts in 6 months I was still 155 lbs. I then got a personal trainer, and really rev'd up my regimen.

I count calories and eat 1200-1500 calories; I do an hour on the elliptical 6 times a week, bikram yoga three times, and strength training 3-4 times (twice with my trainer, twin on my own). Now I'm 141 lbs, however my body fat has only gone from 37% to 35% per my trainer (caliper method - he measured my waist, back, arms for calculation). Using a handheld machine my body fat was 25%. I was told this is highly inaccurate.

I have made fitness my life - I was on vacation this past month and basically only worked on my fitness. I plan to continue a healthy lifestyle however, my body fat percentage really is bothersome and discouraging.

Any tips?

Replies

  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Hi All, I am having a really difficult time bringing down my body fat percentage and need some suggestions. I gained about 35 lbs this past year (stress of new job, commitments, etc). Last year I was my fittest after running a marathon - I'm 5'8 and weighted 133 lbs; over the past year I went to 168 lbs. Inspite of my best efforts in 6 months I was still 155 lbs. I then got a personal trainer, and really rev'd up my regimen.

    I count calories and eat 1200-1500 calories; I do an hour on the elliptical 6 times a week, bikram yoga three times, and strength training 3-4 times (twice with my trainer, twin on my own). Now I'm 141 lbs, however my body fat has only gone from 37% to 35% per my trainer (caliper method - he measured my waist, back, arms for calculation). Using a handheld machine my body fat was 25%. I was told this is highly inaccurate.

    I have made fitness my life - I was on vacation this past month and basically only worked on my fitness. I plan to continue a healthy lifestyle however, my body fat percentage really is bothersome and discouraging.

    Any tips?

    Is it just the number that bothers you? Or are you not happy with what you look like?
    Do you have pictures?
    Handheld machines can be inaccurate, but so can callipers.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Hi All, I am having a really difficult time bringing down my body fat percentage and need some suggestions. I gained about 35 lbs this past year (stress of new job, commitments, etc). Last year I was my fittest after running a marathon - I'm 5'8 and weighted 133 lbs; over the past year I went to 168 lbs. Inspite of my best efforts in 6 months I was still 155 lbs. I then got a personal trainer, and really rev'd up my regimen.

    I count calories and eat 1200-1500 calories; I do an hour on the elliptical 6 times a week, bikram yoga three times, and strength training 3-4 times (twice with my trainer, twin on my own). Now I'm 141 lbs, however my body fat has only gone from 37% to 35% per my trainer (caliper method - he measured my waist, back, arms for calculation). Using a handheld machine my body fat was 25%. I was told this is highly inaccurate.

    I have made fitness my life - I was on vacation this past month and basically only worked on my fitness. I plan to continue a healthy lifestyle however, my body fat percentage really is bothersome and discouraging.

    Any tips?

    My first tip is to have your BF% measured by someone who knows what they are doing. The measuring protocol you describe doesn't make any sense.

    Any trainer who you have been working with for a period of time should know your body well enough to recognize a bogus reading and recheck or try to come up with another explanation. The current reading puts you at a FFM of 91lb. While that would not be unheard of, it is quite low for someone your height--low enough to suspect it is a false measurement. I have only seen one or two women your height at that low of a FFM and that was at the BEGINNING, before they started exercising.

    Before worrying that you are "doing something wrong" I would first double check the measurement.
  • saanjana
    saanjana Posts: 20 Member
    Thanks for the response. I was surprised myself. Somebody suggested that perhaps this is the gym's way of "scaring" you into buying personal training. If it was, it definitely worked as I purchased multiple sessions.

    From what I can gather online, the caliper method for females measures fat folds in trice, iliac crest, and thigh.

    My numbers were measured by two separate trainers. The first measured 37 and the second 35% (after 2 months of highly intense diet and exercise)….I felt this could just be margin of error.

    The number bothers me for sure as does my body. However, I do not know how accurate this is. I had another friend measure my body fat and he measured it to be around 42%?

    I feel I have definitely reduced my fat percentage quite a bit. As an example, my bra size has dropped by 2 which is possibly all fat tissue.

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