Body fat percentage

This topic contains 2 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by bigbooty 7 years, 7 months ago.

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mnrunner

5:50 pm
12 Jun 16
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Hi all,

I’ve been doing the fast diet for the last few weeks, with varying levels of success. I’m a woman, 29, 5’2″ and started at about 130lbs, now reliably down to 128. I would love to see a larger loss, but, my TDEE is quite low (less than 1500 calories/day), so, I’m trying to be realistic with my expectations. Any movement down is the right direction. My ultimate goal is to get back to my early 20s weight of 115ish.

I would like to lose this weight to appear slimmer, and because I think it will help my running. However, I’ve never had a doctor express any concern about my weight, or tell me I’m overweight. I’m very active, and until an injury in the fall, I ran at least 5 days/week and was training for my third marathon. I’ve had my body fat percentage measured a few times in the last year, using skin calipers and a special scale at a doctor’s office. I’ve also done the online quizzes where you enter your height, weight, and measurements. Across all of these methods, I’ve been about 28% body fat. On the heavier side, but in the average range. This makes sense to me based on how I look and feel.

Recently, I had my body fat percentage measured in a bod pod. I know this is one of the more accurate methods of measurement. I got 35.9%! I haven’t gained any weight since the last measurement of 28%, but it was via a less accurate method. I’m completely shocked and concerned that it’s so high. I’ve googled photos of what women with a body fat percentage of around 35% look like, and, I don’t think it matches my body. I have a 27.5 inch waist. I asked the trainer who did my measurement, and he agreed that he was surprised, based on my appearance, that it was so high, but seemed confident that the bod pod gives an accurate measurement.

Has anyone else experienced vastly different body fat percentages from different methods of measurement? I’m unsure of how concerned I should be about this. According to some resources I’ve found online, 36% body fat is in the obese range. I think I need to talk to my doctor, but is it safe to wait until my next annual check up, or should I schedule something sooner? I don’t think it would be healthy for me to get below 110lbs (I look pretty slim at 115, and I’ve never been below that as an adult), but now I’m wondering if I’m not seeing my body accurately. Any advice or anecdotes of similar experiences and how you dealt with them would be great!

Amazon

1:21 pm
1 May 17
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Muscle does not weigh more than fat (contrary to what the previous poster says) but it is denser so 1lb of muscle would take up less room than 1lb of fat which usually means that the very fit are often classed as having a high BMI or body fat percentage due to their weight to height ration. This occurs because the majority of machinery that supposedly measures body fat percentage uses a mathematical equation based on height weight etc to estimate the result which is why they are inaccurate and the results not worth bothering about.

As for big bones, normal bone density varies very little between tall, short, fit or unfit.

Good luck with your weight loss 🙂

cookiemonster187

5:51 pm
10 May 17
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I find 90% of the problems with no weight losses or stalled weight loss is people are under estimating how much they really eat.

bigbooty

2:40 am
11 May 17
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How long was it between you last meal and the measurement? Did you do the measurement after overnight fasting? What sort of clothing were you wearing? Minimal and tight fitting I hope. Did you remove glasses, shoes and jewellery. Compare the result to a hydrostatic test if you are that concerned. The Bod Pod predicts your fat percentage based on an algorithm, it does not directly measure fat content.