Body fat went up?

If you're using a home body fat monitor, hydration levels matter a lot. Your best bet to get consistent results is to only use it in the AM after waking up and before drinking anything. It still won't give you perfectly accurate results, but using it in a consistent manner will yield the best possible results with a home monitor.

Also, if you cut your calories too low and are focused heavily on cardio/leaving out adequate strength training... yes, you could be losing muscle.

Lets say a 225lb person has 30% body fat that would equal 67.5lbs of body fat.... then loses 20 lbs and now has 32% body fat which now equals 65.6lbs of body fat...30% of 225 is more than 32% of 205...so you havent gained any fat...your total mass has gone down so a bigger percentage does not always equal more

Your example #s here actually perfectly illustrate loss off LBM, albeit extreme.

30% BF of a 225 lb person = 67.5 lbs of fat... and a LBM of 157.5 lbs
32% BF of a 205 lb person = 65.2 lbs of fat... and a LBM of 139.4 lbs

The person in your example has lost 18.1 lbs of LBM and only 2.3 lbs of BF in their 20 lb loss.

Just like weight, body fat can flucuate. Also, depending on your method of measure, the tool might be inaccurate. Would you be able to make yoru food diary public. It is possible you might not be getting enough protein. The ammino acids are crucial to building muscle. During a muscle building phase, you need to have more protein so your body can develop muscle. Also, if possible, I would suggest 3 days of strength training and lift heavy; heavy means that you fail after 12-15 reps. Also, keep in mind, to keep muscles growing and not plateauing, you need to change your routine every 30 days. To do this, I would increase weights and decrease reps; do 8-10 reps and still fail at that point. On your cardio days, i would look to do high intensity interval training (HIIT). Short spurts of powerful moves which help keep muscle but make yoru heart race. Just some suggestions.

Just like weight, body fat can flucuate. Also, depending on your method of measure, the tool might be inaccurate. Would you be able to make yoru food diary public. It is possible you might not be getting enough protein. The ammino acids are crucial to building muscle. During a muscle building phase, you need to have more protein so your body can develop muscle. Also, if possible, I would suggest 3 days of strength training and lift heavy; heavy means that you fail after 12-15 reps. Also, keep in mind, to keep muscles growing and not plateauing, you need to change your routine every 30 days. To do this, I would increase weights and decrease reps; do 8-10 reps and still fail at that point. On your cardio days, i would look to do high intensity interval training (HIIT). Short spurts of powerful moves which help keep muscle but make yoru heart race. Just some suggestions.

My diary is available for view to my friends, but I usually average between 70 and 100 grams of protein a day, and when I lift, it's so that the tenth rep is a real push for me to get through. I only lift twice a week because I do yoga (vigorous, vinyasa yoga) twice a week for my back. I run for cardio because I'm planning on running a half marathon on Thanksgiving. I was a collegiate athlete, so I've had all the nutrition and lifting talks before :-). Thanks for the tips, though!

<--- speechless, lol.


Sounds like you have a pretty good routine. I would try to switch it up a little though. Your body can adjust to a routine within 30 days, so if you don't switch it, then you can plateau, no matter how rigorous it can be.