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Fat question
Hello,
I've just had my fat measured by Herbalife using one of those handheld electronic things - it was 30%. I've got fat measuring scales that show I'm around 28% (I had assumed they were wrong) I'm baffled by these readings. I'm a size 6/8 with a BMI of 20 and I exercise for at least 1 hour everyday. I thought I was slim but apparently I'm fat.
So my question is should I take these readings seriously? I don't really know what to do about them, I've just started marathon training so my exercise levels are going to increase anyway.
The woman who did the test said I needed to eat more protein - but she has no idea what my diet is. If the Herbalife result had been an isolated incidence of a high reading I wouldn't have taken it seriously, it's the fact that it tallys with my home scales.
Any thoughts gratefully received...
I've just had my fat measured by Herbalife using one of those handheld electronic things - it was 30%. I've got fat measuring scales that show I'm around 28% (I had assumed they were wrong) I'm baffled by these readings. I'm a size 6/8 with a BMI of 20 and I exercise for at least 1 hour everyday. I thought I was slim but apparently I'm fat.
So my question is should I take these readings seriously? I don't really know what to do about them, I've just started marathon training so my exercise levels are going to increase anyway.
The woman who did the test said I needed to eat more protein - but she has no idea what my diet is. If the Herbalife result had been an isolated incidence of a high reading I wouldn't have taken it seriously, it's the fact that it tallys with my home scales.
Any thoughts gratefully received...
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Comments
and you have to be comfortable holding your breath under water 3 times for a few seconds each time - so, yes, it's not very practical!! have had mine done that way...
the conductance method is notoriously unreliable and can produce bizarre results so should not be relied upon to be accurate.
could that not lead to even more health worries?
Before I got bored, I found that my body fat percent is 28.9. No wait - 32. Oh no, hang on - it's 26.2.
But my favourite was 22%.
In all seriousness then, vellooo, you just found out the answer, didn't you!? It sounds like you are slim and healthy (I don't see how someone who is size 6 - 8 and exercises for 7hours a week can be fat) and if you eat healthily too, then don't worry about it. You dont say how tall you are, or what you weigh, but your BMI is healthy and normal, so it doesn't sound like you need to worry. As you also point out, it was ridiculous for the Herbalife woman to "advise" changes to your diet without knowing what your diet currently is!
Remember that Herbalife's primary objective is to make money, but you buying their stuff. Their sales team are not nutritionists, or dieticians, or even healthy themselves. I would ignore everything associated with anything they say, on principle, and carry on as you are!
The equation is the important bit because it is derived from measuing hundreds of folks and averaging out what their fat%age is and compiling a table. So for mr and mrs average couch potato - these scales are not bad. If you run or do any serious exercise then your water level, muscle glycogen, etc will not match the averages that the equations are based on and the numbers will be well out. The hand held ones are even less accurate.
Now onto herbalife. They sell protein shakes and protein bars (and very expensive mediocre vitamins). So, what do they tell you that you need more of? mmm would that be protein by any change.
Okay so their shakes are kind of tasty (I think) but their main protein content comes from the milk you mix in. And don't let the consultant fool you into thinking she knows her stuff - she might, but it won't have come from herbalife - they give out minimal info on their products to their distributors. The small protein tub they give you to mix in can be bought in bulk from places like myprotein.com for a fraction of the cost.
I would however say that their protein bars are delicious and their speed tabs ( can't remember the name - fizzy lemon flavoured stuff) make you run like the wind
I wouldn't worry about it.
Now who's for a bit of cake?
The best way to reduce body fat is by weight training. It is no coincidence that body builders have seriously low body fat ie: 3-10%.
A very skinny person can still have a high body fat percentage if they don't work out and and don't carry a lot of muscle.
Agree with the above. Plenty of skinny-fat peeps around with zero muscle tone, not technically overweight but with a huge subcutaneous BF rate, usually around the organs hence not healthy.
Seriously about the fry up... eating more protein did not mean have more fry ups. She probably meant lean proteins like chicken breast, turkey, fish...
dont think Id worry too much about it really, you sound very healthy, I hope you aren't buying the herbalife (are these not something to lose weight?) as you dont sound like you need them. If you are worried talk to your GP and have your cholesterol level taken as this would be the only thing to do with fat that id want to know x
I have high body fat and I am PROPERLY gawjuss....
*cough*
FF - F1 drivers and cyclists weight train... as does Paula Radcliffe...
Gym addict - Body builders eat a lot of protein, which fuels and repairs the muscles. If someone ate as much protein and ate a similar diet as a body builder and just did CV, then they would have a higher body fat percentage than the Body builder.
The point was that weight training alone will not give you low body fat - you need the right diet to go with it.
Plenty of v fat blokes down the gym with enormous muscles to prove that point.
and BTW I have been seriously into weight lifting so you will get no argument from me about the benefits - but ditched it in favour of running because it's just so much more fun
Not necessarily true at all. The fuel mix used in activity depends on the intensity and duration.
Weight training involves high intensity, short duration activity. The energy substrate for such exercise is likely to be ATP, creatinine phosphate and glycogen. Fat percentage in body builders is probably lower because muscle is more metabolically active, therefore requiring greater energy usage just to sustain itself, hence greater energy usage. That, plus an energy and often carbohydrate restricted diet results in utilization of body-fat stores.
Distance runners often have a very low body fat percentage because the energy substrate in long duration, lower intensity activity (such as distance running) tends to be fat.
Just jumping in with a bit more knowledge on the subject here.
BIA hand helds are notorously inacurate, and if you are a well endowed lass like me, you end up wanting to cry after using them.
BIA scales do bad calcs for women with thighs too...so I can't win. And even the athletic setting doesn't help with my thighs - SIGH
BIA are best done by using electrodes and under standard fasting and hydration protocols, and are such a faff, that we don't really want to go there.
So if you want to do body fat analysis, then the options include
- underwater weighing - great fun, but kind of hard to do without a 1.8m deep pool and some waterproof scales. Also if you eat baked beans before and ferment, you can mess your reading up with the gas effect!
- stable isotope estimation - dead expensive and you need to find a clinical trial to do it with...
- skin folds - damn those calipers nip if you get it wrong, and unless your measuring person is getting 6 monthly evaluations on technique AND doing them lots, there is plenty of room for error.
- 8 point BIA scales - hand held and leg together - not bad, but hydraton is still an issue
- DEXA - my new favourite toy, because as someone looking at body composition in my PhD I now get excited looking at the scans
- MRI - expensive, but really, really, really cool
- CT - a bit too much radiation for my liking.
Personally, I just rely on the good old tape measure and the look in the mirror technique. Trained I fit a neat size 8-10, untrained I fit a size 12. I get kind of dimply on the way down to trained as I lose fat (and if anyone mentions celulite, I am going to head butt you), and when trained I don't have my cute little saddlebags at the sides of my hips.Gym addict - it was so funny trying to do UW weighing...
If you ever get the chance to have a play, then do it