Fatloss v's muscle gain

Celticfire

I have lost nearly 20lbs over the last 8 weeks. I've been doing a combination of cardio and resistance exercises and eating right to have a consistent loss of approx 2lbs a week. I'm down from 15st to 13st 8lbs.

My question is this; how can I tell how much fat I lost versus muscle gained?
I saw in a different threat that G'em was able to state that she lost 20lbs of fat but gained 4lbs of muscle. How is this worked out?

Also just how accurate are the weighting scales that you can buy for telling you your fat percentage?

Thanks

g'em

Celticfire wrote:

My question is this; how can I tell how much fat I lost versus muscle gained?
I saw in a different threat that G'em was able to state that she lost 20lbs of fat but gained 4lbs of muscle. How is this worked out?

I knew what my startingand finishing body fat was so was able to figure out lean body mass vs fat mass at each point. I fyou don't know what your body fat was when you started it'll be impossible to tell.

The scales are highly unreliable - callipers are better but by no means 100% accurate, but are a good way of tracking fat loss nonetheless.

cowzerp

Most body fat scales are pretty bad-i have 1 and it gives ridiculus measurements-i nearly turned anorexic over it 1 day, and i was ripped!!!
get your body fat done in the gym i possible, even if you have the right equipment, the details have to be put into the machine correct and how you hold them also has a bearing-a good trainer should have you do it right..

rubadub

Celticfire wrote:

I have lost nearly 20lbs over the last 8 weeks. I've been doing a combination of cardio and resistance exercises and eating right to have a consistent loss of approx 2lbs a week. I'm down from 15st to 13st 8lbs.

Say you had measured your BF% at 15 stone (210lb) and it was 20%, that means you had 3stone, (42lb) of fat.

If you measured your bodyfat% at 13st 8lb (182lb) and it was 10% it means you have 18.2lb of fat. Therefore you lost 23.8lb of fat and gained 3.8lb of muscle, since the overall difference was 20lb.

Most people recommend a fat loss of 1-2lb per week. 20lb in 8 weeks 2.5lb per week. But if you were gaining .5lb of muscle per week that is really 3lb of fat loss, which could be a little high.

How tall are you?

Celticfire

rubadub wrote:

Say you had measured your BF% at 15 stone (210lb) and it was 20%, that means you had 3stone, (42lb) of fat.

If you measured your bodyfat% at 13st 8lb (182lb) and it was 10% it means you have 18.2lb of fat. Therefore you lost 23.8lb of fat and gained 3.8lb of muscle, since the overall difference was 20lb.

Most people recommend a fat loss of 1-2lb per week. 20lb in 8 weeks 2.5lb per week. But if you were gaining .5lb of muscle per week that is really 3lb of fat loss, which could be a little high.

How tall are you?

There lies the problem. I've no proper body fat measurement. I own one of those scales and I don't believe what it says my body fat is. As cowzerp already said it's inaccurate and he was ripped. It's giving me a reading of 26% at my current weight .

I'm 5'11" .

g'em wrote:

I knew what my starting and finishing body fat was so was able to figure out lean body mass vs fat mass at each point. If you don't know what your body fat was when you started it'll be impossible to tell.

That makes perfect sense .

rubadub

Celticfire wrote:

I own one of those scales and I don't believe what it says my body fat is.

The scales are crap. You can get a calipers but they vary depending on what formula you use, i.e. one set of readings says I am 9% on one formula, another says 18%.

They do give you a guide if you have lost or gained though. i.e. just add up the total of your measurements and compare to your last set of readings.