Body Fat Percentage questions...

schillewis
schillewis Posts: 144 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been working out with a trainer for several months and have lost 26 pounds (yahooo!). However, my body fat percentage, which is calculated when I weigh in at the gym, has not gone down as much as she'd like/expect. I'm 5'4 and started at 198, I'm now 172 but - according to the scale- my BF% is still at about 42%. It was 49% when I started.

She's looked over my food diary - it's very basic since I have the palate of a toddler, LOL - and she said I'm doing well.

So I'm curious the best way to measure body fat (is a high tech scale effective?) and the best way to work on losing FAT as well as weight.

I do weights 2x/week and walk 4X week.

Any advice/input is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Replies

  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
    Don't be discouraged, those machines have quite a bit of inaccuracy to them. Unless you get measured in a water tank, and it costs lots of $$$, it will be inaccurate. This is still a great amount in only several months. It took me a year to get 10% of my BF down and I only lost 15lbs. So you are still on the right track. Keep your protein levels up and keep up with what you're doing. If you want to preserve muscle, you'll need to up your protein goals to a higher % than what MFP starts you off with.
  • timtakel
    timtakel Posts: 50 Member
    edited July 2015
    Are you the person on the profile picture? 42% seems to be way to high, that's morbidly obese kind of body fat. Maybe you should have a measurement elsewhere.

    Independent of this, do you eat enough proteins?
  • ManiacalLaugh
    ManiacalLaugh Posts: 1,048 Member
    Measuring body fat is a tricky thing. The most effective way, which involves being submersed in water, is usually done by a medical professional and can be expensive.

    Although I've never owned one, I've heard body fat scales can be "meh" in terms of accuracy. From what I understand, there are lots of variables that can mess with your results, including whether or not your feet were damp, where on the scale you stand, etc...

    Some people will use the online calculators, which utilize hip and waist measurements. Once again, I'm not sure of the accuracy there. I was born with exceptionally wide hips (wide enough to have a thigh gap while being 50lbs overweight), so I've always stayed away from those.

    Regardless, I would use your BF % as just another tool in a big tool box. It can give you an understanding of your basic progress, but unless you're shelling out the dough for that first test I mentioned, I wouldn't put too much weight into it.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,425 MFP Moderator
    edited July 2015
    Heavy weight training (full body progressive lifting program would be good to start with) and adequate protein (.8-1g /lb of lean body mass) will help with muscle retention, so most of your loss is fat instead of lean body mass. But don't put too much stock in those hand held devices.
  • discretekim
    discretekim Posts: 314 Member
    So if these amounts are accurate. Then 25 of the 26 pounds you lost was fat. I'd say that is pretty good! And better than most. I think your trainer just didn't run the math.
  • elvensnow
    elvensnow Posts: 154 Member
    The second best method of measuring body fat (behind the water tank) is getting a professional to do it with calipers. There they measure the size of your (for lack of a better term) fat folds on certain parts of your body, and from there can get a rough estimate of total body fat %. Supposed to be pretty accurate if done right. I got a pair myself and tried, but it's pretty hard to measure yourself, and obviously any inaccuracies in measurement are going to skew the end result.

    I have a body fat scale that I *think* is pretty accurate--you can set up profiles and tell it what kind of build you have (normal, athletic, etc) and then of course it takes your weight, water%, fat%, and muscle%. I used one of those online calculators to estimate my fat and it came pretty close to the scale, so I'm going with, it's pretty close. And more important, it can show my trend so if the % goes down then that's good enough for me.

    I agree with the person above who said 42% seems way high. Unless you have ginormous boobs and toosh, I'd be really surprised if you were that high.

    For comparison, I'm 5'5 and weight 188, and my body fat is around 36%. (Normal range for women is 20-30%)
  • MamaFunky
    MamaFunky Posts: 735 Member
    That does seem a bit high based on your pic and stats. Does your trainer have any calipers? I know those can be inaccurate, as well. But if you use it as a guide it can be helpful. I called around a few gyms in our area and had mine tested by a personal trainer about a year ago. It seemed to be fairly accurate based on those pics of body fat % people have posted here before. I know there is room for error, but it was still interesting to get it done. He tested 6 different areas, 3 times each and then took the average.

    Your doing great! Keep up the good work! :smile:
  • elvensnow
    elvensnow Posts: 154 Member
    Oh and here's a link to a BF calculator that uses the US Navy formula. Results taken with a grain of salt.

    http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    One thing to keep in mind about the BF scales is that the best accuracy is first thing in the morning before you eat, drink, exercise and after going to the bathroom. Most manufacturers say that under these conditions that they can still be off by 5% and that the the further you get into the day, the inaccuracy will increase.

    You're doing great though. I also use a scale to see the trend in BF%. Mine currently estimates I lost 7% in 3 months.
  • xKoalaBearx
    xKoalaBearx Posts: 181 Member
    Also, you went from 49 to 42 percent. A drop of 7 percent (or 14% of your fat portion). That is a huge victory in itself. Keep it up!

    Caliper measurements would be better than a scale at measuring body fat percentage, I think.
  • springmiyake
    springmiyake Posts: 30 Member
    I started with 5'7", 233lbs and 43% BF. A year later, now 189.4lb with 34.7% BF. BF drops slow but it's still dropping. Keep up the good work!
  • schillewis
    schillewis Posts: 144 Member
    Thanks everyone. It's me in the picture, LOL...and I'd say I have a normal build (definitely not ginormous boobs/bum). My trainer does not use calipers. I carry(ied) a LOT of the weight in my mid section so I still have a lot to lose there. The high BF% concerns me but knowing that it might not be totally accurate is a bit of a relief. Thank you for your responses :)
  • nikkishai
    nikkishai Posts: 407 Member
    Howdy and congrats on your weight loss so far! Well done!

    As for using a scale to measure my body fat... I don't. It lies. I had a trainer use the caliper on me almost 3 months ago and my body fat totaled 39% (the scale had me at 46%). I'm going next week to get it measured again, but I can totally see it the progress I've made in the mirror and with my clothes.

    Good luck and keep up the good work!
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    nikkishai wrote: »
    Howdy and congrats on your weight loss so far! Well done!

    As for using a scale to measure my body fat... I don't. It lies. I had a trainer use the caliper on me almost 3 months ago and my body fat totaled 39% (the scale had me at 46%). I'm going next week to get it measured again, but I can totally see it the progress I've made in the mirror and with my clothes.

    Good luck and keep up the good work!

    Can caliper find visceral fat?
  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
    Calipers only measure visceral fat. That's why it is so inaccurate.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    edited July 2015
    wkwebby wrote: »
    Calipers only measure visceral fat. That's why it is so inaccurate.

    The fat around the organs? I think you have the fats mixed up.

  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
    Sorry, yup. You're correct. I gotta keep my dictionary handy next time. :smiley:
  • cbrook29
    cbrook29 Posts: 57 Member
    Depending on if feet are wet, callous on your feet the results may not be accurate. Also, if you store more fat in your legs then it will give a higher estimate. Fat% in one metric and all metrics need to be looked at holistically. Don't just fixate on weight either. Other metrics (I Use that term loosely) are Energy levels, how do you feel?, strength levels, are you looking better/thinner ?
    Also I would concentrate on the fat% but rather the Difference or drop in body fat using that scale. You dropped 7% - that should be commended and saluted. I use my gyms scale that has grips for feet and hands and it tells you if there is more fat in your upper body as well as lower body. Standard scale at Lifetime Fitness.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
    49 to 42% is a HUGE drop! Well done, keep on doing what you're doing.
  • shetripsalot
    shetripsalot Posts: 34 Member
    Google "Bod Pods" in your area. Our local university has them in their kinesiology lab & they do testing for around $50.00 for non-students. I fork out the dough to get one a year to see progress! good luck!
  • scamp07
    scamp07 Posts: 17 Member
    Congrats on the progress. I wouldn't get to caught up in the numbers. If you're measuring on the same machine all that I would be concerned about is that the number is going down. Sure your actual body fat percentage may be a little different however the way this machine is measuring shows a 7% BF loss which is awesome.

    As someone else mentioned, the math looks like this:
    Beginning 198 pounds at 49% body fat= 198 x .49 = 97.02 pounds of fat.
    Now 172 pounds at 42% body fat = 172 x .42 = 72.24 pounds of fat.

    97.02- 72.24 = 24.78 pounds of fat lost. Considering you said you've lost 26 pounds I would say you're on the right track. You might want to stick with using that scale for your measurements.

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