Body Fat %?

Uhg, I had mine done by caliper. 36%. I was all ' JEEBUS this couldn't have come as a better wake up call'

Having a doctor do it is the quickest and easiest way, and its pretty accurate. You can even get calipers and do it yourself. The absolute most accurate way is to get a DEXA scan, it scans bone density, organ weight, and accurate fat %. I think the one I'm getting done is $65, so it's not expensive.

For those interested, you should really check out James Krieger's 7-part series "The Pitfalls of Body-fat Measurement", starting here:

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=146


If you just want the Cliff's notes:

1. Always remember that any number you get from a body fat test is a VERY rough estimate, and could be significantly off. Thus, don’t put too much faith in the specific number.

2. Point #1 holds true even when measuring change over time. I’ve heard many people say things like, “I lost 4 pounds of fat and gained 1 pound of lean muscle.” The numbers are never even close to being this precise. Given the error rate for measuring change over time, there’s a good chance those numbers are way off.

3. Even the best techniques have a 4-5% error rate when measuring change over time. This means, to accurately detect a decrease in body fat in most people, the body fat percentage needs to drop by a minimum of 4-5%. This means you should take long periods of time between measurements. I would say a bare minimum of 3 months, but 6 months is probably better. I see too many people taking measurements as often as every 4 weeks or so. That’s too frequent and unreliable.

4 Remember that fat-free mass and muscle are not the same thing. So just because your fat-free mass increases, doesn’t mean you had an increase in muscle.


5 You don’t need to have your body fat tested. A combination of body weight and circumference measurements (like waist circumference) will give you a very good gauge of whether you’re losing body fat. If your circumference measurements are decreasing, you are likely losing fat.

6 If you are going to try to track change in body fat over time, then I recommend hydrostatic weighing or skinfolds. These methods have shown the best accuracy rates for measuring change over time. However, these techniques are difficult to do with extremely obese people. For extremely obese people, I recommend simple body weight and circumference measurements.

7 When using skinfolds to track change over time, you don’t even need to bother calculating a body fat percentage. If the sum of your total skinfolds is decreasing, then you are likely losing body fat.

8 Whatever technique you choose, keep the conditions as identical as possible between measurements. That means having the same technician perform the measurement on you, using the same equipment, and at the same time of day.

4 Remember that fat-free mass and muscle are not the same thing. So just because your fat-free mass increases, doesn’t mean you had an increase in muscle.

How does this work? Do you have some info on it? I kinda assumed any changes in body mass (non-fat) in non-growing adults had to be from muscle. (note the word assume, obviously, not knowing for sure).

Fat-free mass refers to any body mass that is not adipose tissue, including water, skeletal muscle, bone, organ tissue, etc.

So retaining water will actually decrease you BF%, while dropping water weight will increase it.
Novice trainees will often see an increase in bone-density, which contributes to FFM.