Losing weight, gaining body fat %??

lionessNV · November 2019

So I'm simultaneously doing BeachbodyOnDemand (Shaun T Focus T25, for those also doing BOD) and G Plan for 3 weeks. G Plan says I'm fat/protein efficient after a short quiz. I've been eating what's on my menu and just having my one allowable cheat meal per week. I have a weekly check in day on Thursday's (which I requested to move to Sunday, it didn't happen).
Anyway. . . I checked in today just as if the check in day did get moved and my weight was 5 lbs lower (yay, me!!) than when I started on G Plan, but my body fat % was higher than it was on the first day I did this (19% when I started, 19.8% now). I would like to know why.

mmapags · November 2019

Unless you got a Dexa scan or hydrostatic testing, the method is probably inaccurate. And even those 2 methods have a degree of error. Focus on your weight loss, fitness and measurements. If you strive to keep muscle mass with resistance training as you lose weight you will lose mostly body fat.

AnnPT77 · November 2019

What he said.

You don't look like your body fat is higher. Your weight is lower.

For those body fat percentages and weight to be exactly correct, you'd have to have lost only 0.2864 pounds of fat (about 1000 calories' worth), and 4.8 pounds of "something else" (actual lean mass, or water, or digestive contents). That, while doing a new workout routine (which tends to increase water retention, and have a slightly beneficial impact on fat vs. lean loss).

It's not very plausible. Best interpretation: Body fat measurement error. Since you're female, and look to be of premenopausal age, there's also a high probability of hormone-related water weight shifts confounding something or other . . . exactly what would depend on where you are in your cycle, and how your personal body behaves (individuals differ).

If you are in fact premenopausal, I'd suggest comparing your stats at one point in your cycle to the same point in the next cycle. If you're using a BIA scale for BF%, it may be sufficient to give you a long-term trend line if you're very careful to equalize weigh-in conditions (especially hydration, exercise, eating, sleep timing), but that small a difference over 3 weeks is of smaller magnitude than the probable range of estimating error.

Even without the hormonal factors, looking at changes over 4-6 weeks, throwing out the first couple of weeks as likely to be affected by water-weight weirdness, is a good plan.

If you're losing weight, working out, and getting good nutrition, odds are excellent that the majority of loss is from stored body fat.

PAV8888 · November 2019

What they said!

What she said about hormonal and exercise water weight.

I add that you're probably losing quite fast.

I add that protein and fat efficient is BS (aka bovine non fat weight fluctuations)

You may want to read the accuracy section of the linked article to get slightly more meaningful measurements going forward: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectrical_impedance_analysis

Concerned that you may be over-hitting the gung ho lever and that long term weight control involves building up to sustainable habits that will last for a long period of time!

Stick weight into weight trend app to smooth out fluctuations and see your long term trend more clearly or compare to same points in cycle to account for hormonal water retention.

Take care!

lionessNV · November 2019

Thanks for your help guys!! @PAV8888 not "over-hitting the gun ho lever", only working out about 25 minutes a day 3X a week. 🤷‍♀️

JBanx256 · November 2019

Inaccurate bodyfat measurements. Don't sweat it and keep up the good work.

Lietchi · November 2019

lionessNV wrote: »

Thanks for your help guys!! @PAV8888 not "over-hitting the gun ho lever", only working out about 25 minutes a day 3X a week. 🤷‍♀️

You can also 'overhit the gung ho lever' by restricting your calories too much.

I don't know if that's the case for you or not,
(no indication of how many calories you're eating, or how fast you've lost these five lbs), but restricting your diet too much is rarely sustainable.

Aside from that, I did the G-plan questionnaire myself a while ago. IMHO it's quite unscientific. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Some people find it easier to stick to their diet/exercise plan with for example high protein or low carb, but that's something you have to experiment with yourself, a short questionnaire is unlikely to give you the answer.

Losing weight, gaining body fat %??

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