Why you may not be losing weight
We have the Wonderful Emma from Smart Analysis (Look her up here) in our studio next week to kick off our next 8 Week Challenge and I thought this would be a FABULOUS time to give you guys a run down on body composition!
So, we’ve all weighed ourselves right! Maybe the scales were kind that day, maybe they weren’t!
Why do we put some much importance on what we weigh?!?!?
But that’s another kettle of fish which I will address another day, right now it’s about what we are made up of!
So, I will use myself as an example
(DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO ME) (Please).
Scan #1 18/2/16
My weight was 53.3kg, I had 27.5kg of muscle and 4.5kg of fat making my body fat % just 8.5% (not something I would recommend).
Scan #2 28/10/17
My weight is 55.7kg (2.4kg more), 26.7kg muscle (800g less) and 7.9kg of fat (3.4kg more) making my body fat % now 14.1% (almost double!)
So what does that mean?
Well in Feb 2016 I was quite lean, VERY lean, in fact I would say unnecessarily lean. This body fat % of 8.5% means I became more prone to heart problems (if maintained long term), I had less energy, was always cold and often sick, never quite recovered properly from a workout and lacked energy, I was quite irritable and always tired, also at risk of amenorrhea (losing my period). Basically it wasn’t much fun at all.
I am naturally a lean person, even now my body fat % is below the “average” recommended but I am happy, healthy and most days full of energy haha!
So, I went on a bit of a mission to get my body fat % up a bit by relaxing my workouts, instead of every day I went back to 3 per week, I made the effort to eat a bit more and slowly I put fat back on.
*The average recommended body fat for women is around 20-25%*
**A higher body fat % contributes to increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer, Stroke, Heart Disease, Pregnancy complications and much more!**
So while my weight changed 2.4kg in that time I put on 3.4kg of fat and actually lost some muscle (the lost muscle part isn’t ideal but S*** happens, more focus on weight training for me!)
SCENARIO 1
OK so lets say at my next scan I have put on 2kg. Lets assume that the whole 2kg is muscle.
I would now be at 57.7Kg, 28.7kg of muscle, 7.9kg of fat and my body fat % would then reduce to 13.7%, can you see how gaining muscle has actually reduced my body fat %?
SCENARIO 2
Let’s say my weight has stayed the same. If you’re just cruising along and weighing yourself at home you could be fooled into thinking you’ve made no progress right?
What if I had lost fat at the same rate that I gained muscle? Meaning I gained a kg of muscle but I also lost a kg of fat? The scales show no changes but my muscle is at 27.7, my body fat is at 6.9 and my % is at 12.4% (down from 14.1%).
I hope this clears thinks up a bit and everyone can now appreciate that what we are made up of is more important than what we weigh.
