Calculating muscle gained, Body fat lost

[Guest guest]

I see all this data, lost x pounds of body fat, gained x pounds of lean

muscle...how do you find this out?

Thanks,

Debbie the Newbie

[Guest guest]

First you need to know your percentage of body fat. You can measure that with

calipers, an online calculator, or using a device like an Omron body fat

analyzer or a Tanita scale. Once you know your body fat percentage (say 25%)

then you know that 25% of your total weight is fat and the rest (75%) is lean

mass (muscle, bone, water, organs - anything other than fat).

So if you weighed 100 pounds (for simplicity's sake) and were 25% body fat, your

lean mass would be 75 pounds and your body fat would be 25 pounds. By doing the

math each time the percentage changes you can tell how much lean and fat you've

gained or lost... to a degree. All of these things are only estimates. All of

them have varying degrees of accuracy. The fact that water weight is " lean mass "

can make for some wild fluctuations.

The calipers are probably the most accurate with a little practice. Online

calculators like Biofitness may be slightly off but they will show a general

downward trend and that's all that really matters. The electrical devices like

Omrons and Tanitas can be seriously flaky depending on your hydration level.

They almost always read 5-8% high. They're super easy to use though.

Here are gobs of links to help you out:

Biofitness Calculator

http://www.biofitness.com/abodyfat.html

SlimGuide Calipers

http://bodytrends.com/cre874.htm

Omron Body Fat Analyzer

http://bodytrends.com/products/fat_measure/omron306fatanalyzer.htm

Body Composition for Beginners (a crash course in using calipers)

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=209body

RustyIron.Net (a good site to average a 3-site caliper test)

http://www.rustyiron.net/formfem.htm

My article on fooling the mOron

http://www.skwigg.com/id52.html

Body Fat Percentages for Women

http://www.skwigg.com/id30.html

And if you already have the numbers and just want to see how much fat you've

lost or muscle you've gained, there's a Microsoft Excel fat loss/muscle gain

calculator in the club's files section:

/files/

Calculating muscle gained, Body fat lost

I see all this data, lost x pounds of body fat, gained x pounds of lean

muscle...how do you find this out?

Thanks,

Debbie the Newbie

[Guest guest]

Also this simple math formula once you know what your previous and

after bodyfat percentages are/were:

http://www.geocities.com/jgrrl2/math.html

<<joni>>

*Lift well, Eat less, Walk fast, Live long*