How do you know if your losing fat

ok atm im trying to lose abit of weight and get into shape since im gonna be doin thai boxing soon but ive got a question. how can you tell if your burning fat as at the moment the scales are pretty constant when i weigh myself give or take a pound but im just wondering how you can tell if your losing fat .

i spoke to a few people about it and they said that i could have been losing the fat and increasing my muscle mass so it looks like nothing is happening . but is there a sure way of telling if im burning fat away or if my execise is doin nothing.

 

Best way in terms of cost vs accuracy is to get a friend to help you out with a caliper test. You can pick them up for ~£10 from Amazon:

Sequoia Fitness Products Metacal Body Fat Caliper (Just pinch, click and read): Amazon.co.uk: Health & Beauty


I personally use the 7-point caliper test, but there are several methods. Essentially the more points you use, the more accurate it'll be.

Here's a page that will let you plug in your values and give you a result:

http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

The whole process should take ~5 mins.

 

another way you could check your percentage of body fat and any loss or gain thereof is to find a gym that has an In-body checking machine.

It's a machine that uses a signal and measures the impedance of the signal as it's sent through your body. Different types of tissue impede the signal differently. Fat sonar basically. It can tell what is fat and what is skeletal muscle mass.

See if you can find one... non invasive. Safe and relatively accurate.

 

How do these work, Slip? Are they similar to the Tanita bio-impedance scales? The reason I ask is becuase the Tanita scales are notoriously inaccurate and I'm wondering if it's possible to buy commercial ones that are more accurate.

 

ok thanx guys , ive heard that my college that i study at has one of those fat % machines , i might go and investigate about them.

 

My GF had a Tanita reading done at a hospital clinic as part of a genetics study, it did body fat by limb or area - weird on leg is 2% more fat than the other. So they do have more acurate machines, this one used ultrasound. Doubt they have one in a Gym like the hospital one though.

 

ROFL, saw that one on the Simpsons, took two minutes for Homer's ripples to stop!

 

OK found something weird not too long ago . Ive lost weight but yet my waist size is about 37" which is weird as my waist and stomach haven't looked this lean before , and the fact that i have to have my belt done up tight with my 34" jeans is getting me really confused.

 

Get a big mirror.

 

Trouser sizes are notorious for being inaccurate and being totally inconsistent between different brands too.

I recently had a tailor tell me that some clothes manufacturers deliberately label their trousers as being a few inches smaller than what the real size is -- maybe it's to make people feel good about themselves.

Anyway, if you notice you're looking leaner, that's the most important IMO. That's why I agree with the advice to take regular photos.

If your trousers feel looser, that's also a great sign. But like people have said, don't judge by your weight alone.

 

yeah ive noticed my trousers are feeling a little bigger and noticed a few days ago that im using up more hole on my belts now . but the scales tell me im 11 st 10 lbs for ages i cant seem to lose the pounds without skipping meals ( which i dont want to do ). is it possible to gain muscle mass as the same time as losing fat??

 

Get a BFP (body fat percentage) monitor

 

you start seeing your blood vessels show up. where you haven't seen them before means the top layer of fat is getting burnt up

 

A 1:1 fat loss:muscle gain ratio is the holy grail of weight loss and is pretty much impossible to achieve. If you are exercising a lot more now than you were before and you aren't losing weight, something is off. Either you are eating more and cancelling out the benefit of the exercise or you have compromised your metabolism by not eating enough/training too much.

 

Yes, my GF went from a size 12 to a Size 8 (British = US 6 or 4) and stayed almost the same weight.

 

Years ago I had the caliper test done by my college gym instructor where he tested a few points on my body (like 6 spots). The body fat % he calculated was 6.5%. I didn't believe him so I had him do it again, same thing, 6.5%.

After that I grabbed the little hand machine thing and did my body fat % with that, it came up as 6.5% as well. Not a fraction off.

From what he said, the main things that screw with it are water. If you have too much water in the body, it will lower the %. If you work out, then before drinking water, it will say you have a higher %.

 

When your clothes feel looser generaly your losing body fat.

 

Oooh! Scientific as well as effective! :woo: