Losing too much LBM?

inherentst0rm · March 2019

So I weighed myself today and according to the scale I lost more weight but my BF% is the same...Does this mean I am mostly losing lean body mass and muscle?

If so how do I fix it, or is it a matter of needing to put in a lot more effort at the gym?

PAV8888 · March 2019

Bio impedence scales are inaccurate.

Your eyeball is more accurate.

You will lose both fat and non fat mass in a deficit.

A larger deficit, lack of strength training, insufficient protein or sleep, and having less fat available to lose will all contribute to making the ratio less favorable.

SCoil123 · March 2019

My scale says that with a BMI of 24 currently at 32% body fat. The Naval calculator online puts me at 20.7% with a 3% margin of error based on my measurements, height, and weight. I trust the naval formula more than the scale so I use that to track my bf% trend until I can get another dexa done.

pierinifitness · March 2019

What kind of scale do you have?

Want a lower BF percentage? Load up on water. Take your pick, lower BW or lower BF percentage. Does yours measure hydration percentage? Less than 50 percent equals higher BF percentage.

AnnPT77 · March 2019

BF readings from home scales aren't worth obsessing over. They're notoriously inaccurate. The general trend over (long) time may have some useful insignts in there somewhere, but not much.

Even then, keep the math in mind: The same percent of a smaller number is itself a smaller number. You can't look at the percentage alone.

Don't cut calories crazy far (i.e., don't lose weight crazy fast), eat sufficient protein, do some progressive strength exercise . . . then you've done what you can do to preserve lean mass. Focus on the factors you can influence or control. Otherwise, don't worry about it. Stress neither burns calories, nor builds muscle.

Best wishes!

sijomial · March 2019

If you are losing weight but staying the same body composition then unless your bodyfat percentage is over 50 % then yes you are losing more LBM than fat.
e.g. if you are 20%BF then only 20% of your weight loss was fat.

But (or maybe BUT!) home scales aren't great data, as regards hydration levels it can be utterly useless data.
The second but is that LBM is mostly water related, muscle mass is only part of LBM.

If you are strength training, eating a good amount of protein and have an appropriate calorie deficit then loss of muscle isn't really going to be significant.

Have read of Lyle McDonald's site as he's got lots of good information on the subject.

inherentst0rm · March 2019

Thank you everyone for your input!

Losing too much LBM?

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