Body fat percentage!!

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Malani2010
Malani2010 Posts: 245
in Health and Weight Loss
I need some advice from my friends. I have been doing the same things as far as working out and eating but the scale has gone up a little bit. I have a scale that measures body fat percentage (although I'm not sure how accurate it is) and even though the pounds gone up the body fat % has gone down tremendously. My clothes still seem to be getting bigger and my body is taking on a different shape. So my question is am I gaining muscle? When I first started mfp my body fat was at 58% according to my scale and now it's at 45%. I don't want to get discouraged.

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  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
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    I've read it can take a month to gain one pound of muscle on average so I would doubt that all the change is from gaining muscle but then again I don't know how long you've been working out. In any case good job on your weight loss so far!
  • Malani2010
    Malani2010 Posts: 245
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    I've read it can take a month to gain one pound of muscle on average so I would doubt that all the change is from gaining muscle but then again I don't know how long you've been working out. In any case good job on your weight loss so far!

    I've been working out since June but I've gone hard core since July. I guess it is possible though. Although I have found it hard to eat all the time with 2 little one's in the house. I do what I can though.
  • aggiecs
    aggiecs Posts: 27 Member
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    I can't really give you a solid answer so I'll leave it to someone who's been in a similar situation. I do want to encourage you to not get discouraged - a healthy life style is never a waste. Be patient and make some adjustments to find out what works best for you! Congrats on your progress so far! :flowerforyou:
  • tacticalhippie
    tacticalhippie Posts: 596 Member
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    Maybe you're losing fat??
  • dcgonz
    dcgonz Posts: 174 Member
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    You are changing your body composition and losing fat while building muscle. This is the best article I have found on the subject. It gives a visual of what 5lbs of fat looks like compared to 5lbs of muscle. Once you see this, then you start to understand how your body is changing but maybe the scale is not moving.

    http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/muscle-to-fat.html

    Diana
  • wendybird5
    wendybird5 Posts: 577 Member
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    I'm sure that is the case. When I used to have my body fat % measured regularly, I did find that there were times when the scale said I hadn't lost a single pound, but my change in body fat % showed that I'd swapped several pounds of fat for muscle. You can definitely tell by how much looser your clothes fit.
  • NotGoddess
    NotGoddess Posts: 1,198 Member
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    edit - took my post out because I misread you and thought you said you were -not- seeing a change in your body shape. If your bf% is going down and you can see the changes, even tho you aren't seeing the scale go down, I'd say keep doing what you are doing. At worst you are enough calories so you aren't in a deficit so have the calories to build muscle. As you get more muscles, your metabolism will increase so when you get to a point you can reduce calories and be burning fat faster.
  • greatdragon
    greatdragon Posts: 64
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    body fat scales can be very accurate and muscle growth/toning is very dependent on the person.

    what most likely is happen is a cross between muscle growth and fat loss. muscle fibers are much smaller and heavier that fat cells. this can cause the scale to NOT change on the lb but fat% to change, if you give it a little time if your mostly doing cardio or reduce the strength training a little bit . you should start seeing the lbs reducing.

    anytime you change a workout routine increase duration, resistance, or intensity you grow new and more muscle to meet the needs of the workout
  • 321blueeyes
    321blueeyes Posts: 279 Member
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    I went for a professional dunk test a while back - there are different methods but the one where they weigh you underwater is one of the more accurate methods. I plan to go back for another dunk in about 2 months so that I can compare the difference at 10-15 lbs lost.

    Sometimes you can get these tests done at a local university, I used one of the mobile labs that goes around to the local gyms it cost about $40 or $50.

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