Well, pretty sure I'm "skinny fat", where to start

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    designerdiscounts wrote: »
    Ha, I never would have thought 30% body fat was in the healthy range. Was so sure it was incredibly high that I didn't even consider googling it. I'm a little annoyed that the tech at the nutrition center didn't offer up that information.

    Thank you all for your insight. I'm adding about 35 grams of protein daily, probably still not enough but for now, it's an easy change for me. I'm also changing up my weight lifting routine to the Ultimate Fitness Plan for Women by Michael Matthews. It is an 8 week program, curious to see how my body changes in that short time.

    https://legionathletics.com/the-ultimate-fitness-plan-for-women/

    I'm taking a small 2-4 week break from pickleball due to tennis elbow so I'll add about 20 minutes of HIIT after lifting each day, depending on how much energy I have left.

    My upper body workouts are limited due to golfer's elbow - have you discussed your tennis elbow and this plan with a professional?

    I'm curious as to what others think of the program, which starts about 1/3 of the way down with "Here’s the weightlifting workout" if you want to skip the marketing stuff. @ninerbuff ?

    https://legionathletics.com/the-ultimate-fitness-plan-for-women/
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    I'm late to the discussion, but: I would only change my behavior if I needed to for health reasons. (High blood pressure, bad lipid ratio, etc.) I try to focus on performance goals rather than appearance. It makes me much happier overall. B)
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,136 Member
    designerdiscounts wrote: »
    Ha, I never would have thought 30% body fat was in the healthy range. Was so sure it was incredibly high that I didn't even consider googling it. I'm a little annoyed that the tech at the nutrition center didn't offer up that information.

    Thank you all for your insight. I'm adding about 35 grams of protein daily, probably still not enough but for now, it's an easy change for me. I'm also changing up my weight lifting routine to the Ultimate Fitness Plan for Women by Michael Matthews. It is an 8 week program, curious to see how my body changes in that short time.

    https://legionathletics.com/the-ultimate-fitness-plan-for-women/

    I'm taking a small 2-4 week break from pickleball due to tennis elbow so I'll add about 20 minutes of HIIT after lifting each day, depending on how much energy I have left.

    I did his programme thinner leaner stronger for a year when I first started lifting. It was fine as a programme but after a year I just couldn’t keep adding weight or even extra reps week in week out so I moved on to different programming. If you are new to lifting from what I’ve read, more or less any well structured programme
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,136 Member
    Also to add, 8 weeks is not very long. Think in terms of months to years to see progress.
  • designerdiscounts
    designerdiscounts Posts: 517 Member
    @kshama2001 My physical therapist knows I'm lifting weights and I've been lifting for 5 weeks without injuring it further. I just need to stop the repetitive back hand motion while whacking a ball and be aware if it starts to hurt when lifting. And I wear a brace always, to help protect it.

    I chose that program specifically because it incorporates a lot of upper body lifts and because it's 5 days instead of 3 (I really like to work out). I hear that most women want to focus on their lower body but my lower body is pretty strong from a year of playing competitive pickleball. And my upper body is out of balance for the same reason.

    I'm also not totally new to lifting. In my 20's I was at the gym 5-6 days a week and had a personal trainer. And my body fat was around 20% which is why I thought I could get sort of close to that again. But that was 25 years ago...
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Azdak wrote: »
    The question was not to comment on whether or not the body fat level was “ideal”, but on whether the number she received was accurate.

    “Skinny fat” is a bad term, but the body type it describes — i.e. someone with disproportionately higher body fat compared to BMI—is real. In that sense it is not “marketing”, but just a description of a body type. Once you determine the body type, then the discussion about its significance is a different discussion.

    Context @Azdak is something you have often brought to discussions and something that people confronted with a novel situation often need.

    I am fairly sure that if instead of being told:

    "You are 30% body fat and have less muscle and more fat than you should. Buy this and sign up for this and we will fix this crime of nature in the making"

    The OP was told, you have a perfectly normal body fat % for a female your age. Some sources even claim your body fat is in the ideal range. You certainly don't look overweight. The machine says that relative to a mythical average person of your weight and height you have a little bit more fat and a little bit less muscle mass (assuming her results fall say within one standard deviation for this) but this could even be an artefact of testing. What are your goals? Why are you here? Let's see what we can work on"

    Anyway, I am long-winded as usual; but I bet there would have been no desperate post wondering why she is in such bad shape (she isn't) and, tbh, the club would probably still have a sale If their prices and terms are reasonable.

    So even a technical analysis that is correct (as I found out by commenting on a picture in the past) still ought to respond to the underlying question and give context: you are normal and healthy, if you want to push more to feel better go for it, why not, but it is not an earth shattering defect that you're responding to and trying to correct.

    Anyway. One person's thoughts and I'm totally glad the OP seems to have handled all this with absolute grace and equanimity!

    You rock OP.

    And if you like 0% high protein yogurt, you may also find out that mixed with (I use premade) sugar free pudding and high fiber cereal it makes for a filling and tasty dessert like concoction that can replace other items in the food chain, so adding protein doesn't necessarily mean adding Calories!

    Why are you addressing this to me? I did not do the test, nor did I consult her about the results. Nor was I asked to evaluate her test results, other than to verify the accuracy.

    Your little lecture is perfectly fine. I recommend that you use it with all your clients.


  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,253 Member
    Azdak wrote: »
    Why are you addressing this to me? I did not do the test, nor did I consult her about the results. Nor was I asked to evaluate her test results, other than to verify the accuracy.
    Your little lecture is perfectly fine. I recommend that you use it with all your clients.

    No clients here :wink: I did address the comment to you because I was both hoping you would have and was looking forward to you doing just what I described as opposed to just addressing the technical aspects of the "verification". Especially given that I *know* that you have beyond considerably more in depth knowledge of physiology and bodies as compared to many of us here, and definitely including myself.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    whmscll wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    whmscll wrote: »
    I had a Dexa scan done last May and I looked similar to her (same height and 4 pounds heavier) and my body fat was 28.9 percent. So you can’t tell from pictures.

    If you can't tell from pictures, how can you tell that you looked similar to her?

    You can’t tell what someone’s body fat percentage is just by looking at pictures of them.

    And yet you did.

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