Body fat %

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2005
Body fat %
14
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 11:04pm

So, if you read my weigh-in post, you know I bought a new handy-dandy-fat-measuring scale. Now I'm just curious who's using them and what kind of percentages they've been seeing. Like where was your % when you first started dieting and where's it at now, how long does it take to move your fat % and so on. I was really shocked to see mine was around 31%. That's like 1/3 of my body is just FAT! Unfortunately I didn't have this handy-dandy-fat-measuring scale before I started my diet (or more importantly, before I started working out), but I'm sure it was pretty high because I'm such a lazy *ss. And I have never been in very good physical condition, even when I was relatively skinny, I was still lazy and didn't have much stamina or endurance.

*** to share in a little joy with you girls though...I realized today that my double-butt is fading. You know that roll of fat just under your butt cheeks where your thighs start, sometimes they're called saddlebags. That lump is really starting to fade away. I think I rubbed my butt-thigh area about 20 times today after I realized that. And then I took a look in the mirror and you know when you look at yourself straight on and there's all these mystery rolls between your waist and your hips, kind of looks like you have really tight undies on and it's bunching up your fat (even though you're wearing no undies or granny-panties). Those are going away too! It looks pretty smooth from waist to high, no more mystery bulges. WOW, I'm starting to take shape! I'm so happy! :~)

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-07-2005
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 11:16pm

No thoughts on the scale I can't own a scale I would be too obsessed lol! but isnt it so freakin' amazing when you start to see what your

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-04-2001
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 11:20pm

You are too funny Tammy, Love your posts, I just finished reading your weigh in........and then this one, lol


So happy to hear about your little joy news......you worked hard to get to where you are, dont forget that


Heres something I found on the web bout body fat %


General Body Fat Percentage Categories



Classification
Women (% fat)
Men (% fat)

Essential Fat
10-12%
2-4%

Athletes
14-20%
6-13%

Fitness
21-24%
14-17%

Acceptable
25-31%
18-25%

Obese
32% plus
25% plus
*American Council on Exercise


Im still at the beginning of my weight loss journey.....even though Ive been working on it for YEARS and YEARS.......lol so I dont even wanna know my body fat %............the scale is scary enough for me....lol


How in the world does a scale KNOW which is fat % vs bone etc??????? anyway?

Have a good one,


Gayle

Have a good one,  

  Gayle

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2006
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 4:44am
According to a BMI calculator I found on the web I am about 33.7% fat. I am obese.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 1:34pm
It is so weird you posted this. I just read an article in my newspaper talking about body fat etc. I'm going to post some of the article on another thread. Very intresting.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-04-2001
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 2:32pm

Well, dont worry bout it Lushy


Im obese too according to all the charts.............


Have a good one,  

  Gayle

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2005
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 10:24pm

When I first started my journey (this time), I was at the top of all the charts that I ran into. "overweight" or even "obese". And gradually as I've lost weight I've been moving into the "moderately overweight" group and now on some charts I'm even labeled as a "healthy weight" And that doesn't even take my old age into consideration LOL! Because I'm a fitday user, I see their little chart every week when I enter my weight and I'm just barely in the "healthy" range. YEAH!

And Wendy, funny you should mention butt hugging jeans. I've been doing a lot of shopping for new clothes, but mainly I shop for work clothes (corporate or corporate casual) or work-out clothes. I've been putting off buying jeans, I did try on about 30 pairs this weekend but I wasn't crazy about any of them. Today I stopped at the store and looked at jeans again. They were out of size 8 so I grabbed a 6. And they fit! They were stretchy and they were tight, but I could still breath and I almost bought them. But I wasn't crazy for them and I didn't want to buy them just because I'm desperate for jeans and excited to be in a size 6. However, I did buy some new undies that are a little more racy than my usually "hikini's". Don't know why I bother, it's not like my BF notices or gives a crap anyways. He has been such an ass, in the beginning he was super supportive and encouraging. Since those first couple weeks I haven't gotten anything from him. No compliments, no encouragement, in fact he's been almost mean. But that's a whole other story.... Oh, I know why I bothered to buy those cute racy undies, because I'm worth it damn it and I've been working hard for this body. Besides, I'm not doing this for him, I'm doing it for me! Can I get a "hell-yeah" from my girls? Just kidding, gotta keep things on the down-low and shizzle for the jizzle, if ya know what I mean. Where did that come from? Sorry, must have had an out-of-body or out-of-mind moment there. I just got a little excited. Catch y'all later.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-04-2001
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 11:43pm

Can I get a "hell-yeah" from my girls?


HELL-YEAH TAMMY!!


Do it for YOU!!


Just kidding, gotta keep things on the down-low and shizzle for the jizzle, if ya know what I mean..........nope, I gotta say, when you got to the shizzle jizzle stuff, I have NO idea what ya mean.........roflmbo


you gotta find yourself a Man that appreciates YOU............you are just too nice and too funny to waste your pretty on him................I dont know him, and AM a man hater but still..........LOL

Have a good one,


Gayle

Have a good one,  

  Gayle

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 02-24-2006 - 1:20am

Just to clarify, BMI and Body Fat % are TOTALLY DIFFERENT. BMI is a simply calculation based on height and weight ONLY. Nothing doing with body composition. Imagine two people who are 5'5" and both weigh 125 pounds. their BMI would be exactly the same. But say one has 22% body fat and the other has 35%. They will look TOTALLY different. There are two fairly accurate body fat % measures, one is the dunking, which used to cost 50 bucks at the gym I used to go to. you get in a suit and get dunked into the water to see how much you displace.....there's also a new test, can't remember the name, but it's a lot more scientific than most of the less costly measurers such as the scales. Keep in mind also, that dehydration can cause those scale types or hand-held ones to be quite off. Fat doesn't have water, so they tend to send bio waves into you "Reads" the amount of water in your body. Bones, organs, muscles, they all have water. So if you do it right when you get up, you're less hydrated than after you've been up and had several cups of water. Alcohol, your period, eating, so many different things can cause those to go wacko. And if you have one and don't believe me. measure when you get up. then go drink 16 oz of water and measure again. I bet it goes down!


Oh and the acceptable Body Fat % also has age to factor in. because our bodies "convert" muscle to fat as we age, naturally....the older we get, the more fat we're "allowed" to have. So a 20 year old woman would have a lower range than a 50 year old woman. Not a free pass, but realistic goals are always easier to swallow!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2005
Fri, 02-24-2006 - 12:05pm
Thanks for the info, very informative. I've come to the realization that all these things we use when we're tryint to lose weight or trying to measure where we're at are just tools, not rules. I use the scale as a way to see progress, so I try to keep everything consistent when I weigh in, same time, same place etc. I know it's not exact, but if all is the same day to day I can get an idea of how I'm doing. That's how I've come to use fitday.com too. I know that some of the nutritional value they have listed for foods are not right (usually higher calorie and fat than what the label says or what other websites say). But I know it's an estimate and if I pay attention to where my totals are and how my weight loss is progressing then I can still gauge where to go from here. I guess in a way I've become less obsessed with the numbers all the way around. I heard that our *new* YMCA will do a body fat analysis (the dunking kind) when you join. But a)I'm not at all interested in going to the Y and b)not really that concerned. I bought the handy-dandy-fat-measuring scale to give me kind of a second opinion, instead of just relying on the pounds. I did start measuring myself too, but that's very inaccurate. I'm always wondering if I have it in the right spot and if I have the tension right or whatever.
One thing I'm kind of curious, is how "fast" does a person really lose their body fat %? I would imagine that it takes some time to see actual movement in % (real %, not just fluctuations).
Another thing that I'm suspicious of...my weight on that darn scale hasn't moved all week. No fluctuations or anything. I've been at 152.2 since Sunday. I still have my old scale right beside it, so today I jumped on the old one and I was at 150.2 (down 1.4 from last week). When I checked before, the new scale was .8 higher than the old scale. So I'm just wondering why I've seen movement on the old scale and no movement on the new scale. Normally I fluctuation every day. Very, very seldom do I get the same weight 2 days in a row, so why no fluctuations on the new scale??? I think I'll wait it out a few more days and see what happens. Just as a test, after playing around on the scales I went got dressed and then jumped on the new scale and it did register higher, so now I'm not sure if it's broke or what.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2005
Fri, 02-24-2006 - 12:16pm

"you gotta find yourself a Man that appreciates YOU............you are just too nice and too funny to waste your pretty on him................I dont know him, and AM a man hater but still..........LOL"

Yeah, as you can tell from my posts, there are issues with the relationship that go WAY beyond this. But I'm working at getting my life in order and I'm starting to focus on ME. Thanks so much for your kind words, sometimes I just need to feel validated, like I'm not crazy to be pissed off or feel bad about some of the things that he does. Most of the time I just need to vent.... Funny how we've never met and only been interacting on this board for a few months, but we all cheer each other on. You sound just like somebody I'd have as a friend in "real" life. And somebody that I could go DANCING with! Sounds like so much fun, since I've become domesticated (between the BF and getting older) I don't go do things like that anymore. But I used to! I had a group of friends that we'd just hang out and go to the bars and have before and/or after parties and we'd dance and laugh and just have a good time. Now, I sit on my behind and watch reality tv shows. So anyways, thanks a lot for your support and encouragement ALL THE TIME! I can always count on you for that, and to laugh at my silly ramblings.

Shizzle from the jizzle... rap, snoop dog, street slang stuff. My daughter's not into that stuff, but we had a 15 year old summer temp at work and she was a riot. Just this peppy outgoing ball of fire. She was almost exhausting though, I'm getting too old for that constant chatter, but it was fun while it lasted.

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