Body Fat %

[NumberCruncher]

I finally got a new scale that measures body fat %.  I was tired of the inaccuracy of my calipers.  As of this morning I'm 208 and 26% BF!!  What the?!?!  I really had no idea I had that much body fat.  I do have a bit of a beer belly (I am almost 40 afterall), but I'm pretty solid and workout with weights at least 3 times per week, but most weeks it's 4 workouts.

So my goal is to get into the teens in BF%, more specifically 17%.  Any suggestions?

For the last couple of weeks I've focused on my diet.  I try to eat 5 times per day and include some protien in each meal.  A typical day looks like this:
 7:00 AM
   2 caps LIPO 6
   Either Oatmeal, whole grain cereal, or 3 Eggs with a whole wheat english muffin

 10:00 AM
   Cottage cheese with pineapple

 11:30  WORKOUT

 1:00 PM 
   Lean meat (chicken, flank steak, etc.) with rice and/or veggie  (left over from the night before)
   Just this week starting subbing Myoplex shake here

 3:00 PM
   2 caps LIPO 6
   Handful of mixed nuts or almonds with whole wheat pretzels  or string cheese

 6:30 PM
   Dinner, which is cooked for the family also, usually lean meat (chicken, steak, salmon), veggie, and startch (rice, pasta, rarely potatoes).  I would say I can manage a "clean" meal at least three of the nights per week.  The kids always want a little more variety like enchiladas, chili, hamburgers, etc.  But even those I usually sub leaner stuff in the recipes.  I will also admit that many nights there are 2 or 3 beers thrown in there.  I know I need to cut that out, but I didn't think that alone would push me up to such a high BF %.

I am starting to get up in the morning and walk on the treadmill for 30-45 mins before breakfast, which is all the cardio I do.  However, my workouts are relatively intense and give me a pretty good cardio effort, meaning I'm always winded and sweating (and can hardly walk on leg day).

Workout consists of pretty basic splits and I usually do at least three lifts per muscle group with ab work done 2-3 times per week.  The goal is 4 workouts per week, but due to work, sometimes I have to push into next week and only lift three days.

  Split 1: Chest, shoulders (abs)
  Split 2: Legs
  Split 3: Back (abs)
  Split 4: Arms (abs)

Now, from all that I would expect my BF to be lower, or at least on the decline!!  Maybe I just haven't given things enough time and it's too close to the holidays (I did slack quite a bit in my workouts over the holidays).  Given what I just laid out, how long should I expect to go before I see some improvement?

[queenofthedamned]

without even GLANCING at your routine or diet i can give you the best suggestion that you will get...

DONT TRUST BODY FAT CALLIPURS!!! i cant stress this enough...they are very inaccurate at best, the only test that is even close to being accurate is a hydo-static test which is very expensive and hard to find an institution to do it.

an average man that doesnt work out sits around 20%...and that's FAT. an average woman sits around 25% again..FAT.

i have read so many times guys say they are at 3% (to go at the other end of the spectrum) and this is wrong too....you would have no adipose tissue cradling your internal organs and you would bleed to death if you bumped into something....

callipurs are terrible....

start taking measurements of your chest/back, waist, arms, thighs.....right it down and tape once every 10 days or so. this is the best way to track your improvements....

[muscle_n_blood]

This is a topic I habitually rant on. The precise number of bodyfat % is quite worthless. Judges at bodybulding shows don't ask about your fat %...they can see all they need to. Never had a girl on the beach come at me with a set of calipers. Once my doc looks me over, checks my pulse and blood pressure, and sees my lab work, he doesn't need to ask if I'm at  9% or 12%. It's obviously good enough. If I look good, feel good, and peform well, my bodyfat% is just fine, whatever the actual number is. As Queenie said, there are much better and easier to read measures of progress.

The diet isn't at all bad. How fast you lose is dependent on so many unknown factors, like what our total daily calorie expenditure is, metabolism and how much it slows during dieting, adaption to cardio, etc. I know I lose weight in stages. I'll seem to be plateaued, then after a week or so I'll see an obvious drop. It continues this way right up to showtime, if I'm in contest prep. As you get leaner, smaller losses will be more visible, by the way. I never weigh, except occasionally out of curiosity. I go only by how I look and feel as measures of progress.

[p.s.]

Cruncher ya got scammed with that useless scale. It's a bio-impedence type of measurement and is quite useless for BF % as it will also measure body water content and that measurement is unfortunately part of the overall measurement. As an example of how absolutely worthless this type of measurement is...2 days after my nationals win in 04 I was killing time waiting for some contest photo's to be developed so I wandered the mall and ended up in radio-shack. I was looking around and stumbled across their Bio-impedence devices so I tried one (very high end at that) just to see where my BF was at.....well I was at 24%!!! And this 24% is with cross striated glutes, veins all over the place (road map) and just plain peeled, the only thing is I was now holding some water, so this high end useless piece of crap was measuring my water retention and not BF.

So the moral of my little story DO NOT TRUST these useless devices (this also includes callipres), and instead go with the mirror, pictures, how your clothes fit etc (you know real world stuff), and quit worrying about useless measurements. Like MnB or QOD I never EVER measure BF% when getting ready for a show and just go by how I look, as MnB said we are judged on how we, as BBs, look, and not on some stupid measurement!

[NumberCruncher]

Thanks all.  I'm kinda bummed.  I was looking forward to a more accurate reading of my bf.  Not so much because I'm that concerned about it, but just to be sure I'm keeping it in check.

The good news is I don't feel so bad about the number that scale was giving me.  From what you're saying p.s., it sounds like the number I'm getting is absolutely worthless.  Is there anything out there that will accurately measure bf?

[p.s.]

Thanks all. From what you're saying p.s., it sounds like the number I'm getting is absolutely worthless.  Is there anything out there that will accurately measure bf?

Ya look in the mirror! As MnB has said as well as QOD and myself who gives a rats ass about some arbitrary number. In BBing it's all about how you look so pay closer attention to the mirror and pictures to assess your BF levels.