BF(Body Fat) percentile

Okay, so my question being. What is a few of the best ways to notice a drop in Body Fat percentage. I started working out 2 months ago, went from 126 to 116. But I always noticed that the FAT percent has only gone from 25 to 24.2 roughly. What can I do to notice this number to go down? Suggestions greatly appreciated!

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    How are you measuring your body fat?
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    How many calories are you eating? Any strength training?
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Calipers are probably the cheapest most accurate way of doing it. Googling bodyfat calipers and shopping should give you an idea, grabbed one at random (not saying its a good one just to show what I mean)

    https://www.heartratemonitorsusa.com/products/trimcal-4000-all?variant=5055866243&dfw_tracker=9876-5055866243&gclid=CNTs6rm6jc8CFZSGfgodbGEBag

    Next easiest cheapest would be just taking measurements with measuring tape. Won't be that accurate but can still show progress towards lowering fat even if your weight isn't changing.

    Past that you can pay a good amount of money to actually get it measured at the clinic if it is worth that much to you.
  • carmaxgurl35
    carmaxgurl35 Posts: 16 Member
    I'm not sure what happened to my response, so I will post again. I have an app WeightGuru that connects to my scale that supplies me all of my info. I have a calorie intake at moment of 1300 daily. And I'm back to drinking roughly 9 glasses of water or half my body weight. And just started weights 2 weeks ago and a little of HIIT as well.
  • divcara
    divcara Posts: 79 Member
    edited September 2016
    That's awesome @carmaxgurl35! Keep lifting heavy, you will get body fat % down. You aren't that high so you may just have to be patient. Especially for your body weight. The lower body fat % gets, the longer it seems to take. How tall are you? Keep building up lean muscle mass and you will see your body transform. Make sure you are eating enough calories for lifting and HIIT so your body is utilizing for fuel instead of storing as fat. Lift heavy - if your last rep feels as easy as your first one, you aren't lifting heavy enough. HIIT is good too! Strength training and HIIT helped me so much with lowering body fat %. Keep at it!!

    Also, see if there is any place you can get an InBody or body composition analysis done. My fitbit scale consistently has my body fat % about 5-6% higher than what the InBody machine says.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Bodyfat scales work off electrical impedence and are notoriously innacurate, so I wouldn't necessarily believe that measurement. That said I suppose if you lose bodyfat it should in theory at least trend downward, but even that I'm not sure. They are just really prone to mistakes since things like how much water you are retaining on a given day heavily influence the result.
  • carmaxgurl35
    carmaxgurl35 Posts: 16 Member
    Awesome on all responses! I'm only standing at 5 feet tall and as mentioned down to 116 from 126. Good information to flow with. If miy scale is reading higher that would be great for me lol! Then I know I'm lower in the percent range. I will definitely keep focusing on the weights. Would 1300 calories a day be to low if I switched to weights from all cardio?
  • nikkons017
    nikkons017 Posts: 6 Member
    First don't use scales, calipers , anything bio-impedence or whatever. They are not accurate. Those can be off by more than 10% even when used correctly. Even the best ways would be using a dexa scan and bodpod but even those have error rates around 5%. Best way is to take pictures in good lighting in a relaxed/non-flexed pose the same way every x number of days. Then you compare the photos. If you want a quick comparison you can use these pictures for rough estimates

    For women
    body-fat-percentage-women.jpg


    For men
    body-fat-percentage-men_zps3f03851c.jpg