Weight loss vs. body fat

swimn10s
swimn10s Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So, I use the fitbit wrist monitor as well as the fitbit scale which measures both weight and % body fat. I've been following my set caloric goals on myfitnesspal and have been tracking my food diligently. Doing this my weight has dropped about 5 pounds in this first week, which is awesome and I'm excited about. However, according to my measurements from my fitbit scale, my body fat has gone up from like 26 to 28% which on the graph under reports looks like a lot. Should I be concerned that I'm gaining body fat percentage? Or should I focus more on the weight loss? Since I'm losing weight but gaining body fat % does that mean I am losing muscle mass? Should I do more weight training at the gym to counteract this trend?
Thanks for any suggestions of insight.

Replies

  • Kate_UK
    Kate_UK Posts: 1,299 Member
    You tend to loose mostly water weight the first week, so my guess is that you've lost water so your overall weight has come down, but you've not lost much fat so as a percentage that's higher? You arn't actually gaining fat, it's just a greater percentage of the whole. Does that make sense?
    Although 2 % does sound a lot.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    Weight training is good but I would ignore the scale readings of body fat %, except over long time frames. Those scales are really inaccurate, especially day to day.
  • swimn10s
    swimn10s Posts: 4 Member
    Wow, thanks for the quick replies. This is my first time posting on the message boards. Nice to see that they are very active. Thanks for the reassurance. I will keep watch over a longer period of time and hopefully you're right that it's just water weight that will level off and hopefully come back down again.
  • Soapytime
    Soapytime Posts: 36 Member
    Make sure you are taking measurements of various places on your body too. The scale and the body fat % measurements on them can be misleading and only give you a small part of the weight loss picture.
  • jeffpettis
    jeffpettis Posts: 865 Member
    I wouldn't put much faith in any of the scales that measure BF%. They are highly inaccurate and cannot give a true representation of actual BF% just by weight alone.

    To answer your question though... Yes. You should be doing some form of weight training to keep from losing lean muscle while losing body fat. Your body doesn't care where it gets its energy from and will readily use muscle right along with fat to make up for any calorie deficit if you are not giving it a reason to hold on to the muscle, ie. lifting weights.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Absolutely strength train!
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
    Make sure you are taking measurements of various places on your body too. The scale and the body fat % measurements on them can be misleading and only give you a small part of the weight loss picture.

    Yes. Get a tape measure, you know like the tailors use. And use the formula on this website.
    See how it compares to your fitbit scale for BF%.

    http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/mbf/
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Those scales aren't particularly accurate for measuring BF%...they can't tell the difference between fat and water. I do a combination of measurements and calipers to estimate my BF%.

    I would also add that big, early losses like that are more water than not...so the scale would indicate that you've lost mass other than fat mass (water)...it would then take your weight and say, "hmm...guess the BF% was higher than initially estimated."

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