My body fat % is going up?!

This topic contains 6 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by K- Lo 8 years, 4 months ago.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

HannahT

8:39 am
8 Jul 16
Permalink

Hi everyone,

I’m fairly new to 5:2, having just finished my third week.

Weeks 1 and 3 I did 5:2 and the week in between I did 4:3, I like that you can tailor each week to what you are able to do/what fits into your life quite easily. I tried water-only fasts twice, but both times got terrible headaches in the evenings, so instead I have been fasting all day and then eating an approx. 400 calorie meal for dinner on fast days.

After 3 weeks, including 7 fast days, plus my normal exercise 5 morning per week, I have lost 2.2kg and either 2 or 3 centimetres each from my waist, hips and chest. The only thing is though, my body fat has actually increased over the three weeks from 33% to 36%. Does anyone have any idea why this might be? There is quite an emphasis in the book about how IF shouldn’t cause you to lose muscle, and should cause you to lose fat, but this doesn’t seem to be the case for me. Would love any insights anyone might have, if they have had a similar experience?

Cinque

8:45 am
8 Jul 16
Permalink

Blame the scales!

Minka

10:20 am
8 Jul 16
Permalink

Hi HannahT, What I do that I feel has really helped me maintain and build muscle the short time I’ve been on the program is to consume minimum 50 grams of protein on each FD. I read on one of the fastdiet web pages that this is recommended and find that I’ve slightly built muscle as a result.

K- Lo

3:27 pm
8 Jul 16
Permalink

HannahT, how are you measuring your body fat? If you’re using an ordinary bathroom scale, I’m with Cinque. They are not known to be accurate.

bigbooty

4:04 pm
8 Jul 16
Permalink

I wouldn’t be relying on bathroom scales to give an accurate measurement. They measure water content by sending an electrical pulse up one leg and down the other and then convert to a fat reading. Not really accurate. Might as well guess a number between 0 and 100%.

HannahT

11:14 pm
8 Jul 16
Permalink

Well that makes me feel a bit better, I will take those readings with a grain of salt then 🙂 I’m
not using bathroom scales, I am using the scales at my gym, but they are still the ones that use an electric current to measure it. So I guess I’ll just keep going with 5:2 and hope that the readings don’t continue to go up and up!!

K- Lo

11:35 pm
8 Jul 16
Permalink

Hannah, your measurements show how much you’re losing. Keep up the good work!