My body fat % wont budge page

[ErinF]

I know this is such a typical topic and people are probably sick of this stuff, but I'm really getting frustrated. I've been doing some heavy lifting (well for me heavy lifting is deadlifting the bar) for 3 days a week from April until now and my body fat % won't budge. I've been using measurements and the static body fat thing at the gym and despite my hard work it's not going anywhere. My trainer is pushing me really hard and I've been adding weight to my lifting every week, but no improvement. I tend to build muscle really easy so I can see the muscle developing, but my fat won't budge. What is going on? Do I just need to keep going and hope results are just slow? I've been about 80% primal and have had an abnormal amount of stress lately, but I would think I'd still be able to burn fat despite all that, especially with training 3-4 days a week!

I started at 130 lbs and 25% body fat, I'm now about 133 lbs and still at 25% body fat. I've been lifting for 12-14 weeks straight.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[teach2183]

Something isn't right there, because the implication is that you gained fat as well as muscle. What is the "static body fat thing"? If it's some sort of a scale, it's not accurate. Are your measurments changing? What is your 20% made of?

[ErinF]

It's a handheld thing that you hold out in front of you and measures your body fat. I only started using the measurements to check my body fat so I can't say that they haven't changed, but according the bmi-calculator.net's fat % calc I'm at 25%

My 20% has mostly been snacking, I have been snacking a lot due to very high stress. I was eating a lot of nuts, fruits, and just eating a lot in general. I know I've had WAY more sugar than I should. Now that my stress has greatly lessened and my circumstances have improved I have a better handle on my eating habits. I've also not been sleeping well. It's weird though because I can see that I'm building muscle. I wonder if my protein/fat/carbs ratio's are off and that's contributing to this.

[Sandra in BC]

My experience has been that food eaten for reasons other than hunger will set you back from your goals.

What is going on? Do I just need to keep going and hope results are just slow?

You're stressed, not sleeping well, emotional eating, overeating, and overconsuming sugar. Ummmmm...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say if you change nothing, nothing will change.

[mike_h]

Eat to lose fat, workout for (muscle/strength/fitness). In other words the workout won't cancel out bad eating. Snacks can add up.

[teach2183]

Eat to lose fat, workout for (muscle/strength/fitness). In other words the workout won't cancel out bad eating. Snacks can add up.

Yep. Once you start eating you will start to lose weight. I doubt the body fat measurement thing is accurate as well. Go by measurements or clothing fit.

[ErinF]

I didn't say I was over-eating. My calorie intake never went above 1600 calories/day. While I was snacking a lot, I was also doing 16 hour fasts every day. I wasn't sitting on the couch eating potato chips all day, then hoping my going to the gym would cancel all that out. Don't just assume I wasn't making any changes at all from my previous lifestyle.

After having my trainer fax my info over I think the problem was a mistake she made. She said I started out at 25% but my measurements put me at 30%, which means I improved by 5%.

Thanks anyway

[mike_h]

You didn't mention IF or 1600 calories originally. Just stress and snacking. Not judging, just saying those things matter.
As measuring body fat is fraught with potential inaccuracy you may prefer just to compare calliper measurements directly, without the conversion.

[WIChuck]

Body fat calculation machines are often wrong if you aren't average weight/height. They do a quick galvanic measurement that only does some basic water measurements.

I have one and my weight and height are linear even though my waist has shrunk while my shoulders have broadened as my weight has slowly dropped.

Go by your measurements and visual cues rather than by a mechanical body fat measurement. If you're really serious about body fat, get a real measurement with calipers or underwater weighing.

[Leida]

Add 20 min of steady state cardio after every lifting session on something like a rower, and see if it helps. If it doesn't, screw steady-state cardio and add one all out sprinting session a week.

If you are doing IF, I assume you reverse your macros on training/not training days? If you don't start doing it (high fat/low carb on non training days, high carb/low fat on training days, while keeping proteins in 1 to 1.3 g per lb of BM range). Every 10 or so days, try adding a day when you go very high on clean, pure starches, like double your calories (~ 2500-3200 cals range) all from white rice or white potatoes.

Also, see if taking a week off lifting after 12-16 weeks helps you.