I'm very bad at math. Very honest.

I'd like to know my progress.

I began at 175 pounds at 24% body fat.

I'm now at 170 pounds at 18.6% body fat.

When I calculate 175 at 24% I calculated that 42 pounds is body fat. Therefore, 133 pounds is lean mass, right?

Now, 170 pounds at 18.6% is 31.62 percent body fat. Therefore, I'm now at 138.38 pounds of lean mass.

So I can conclude WHAT from this?

That I've gained 5.38 pounds of lean mass and dropped 5 pounds of fat?

Thank you for your help. I'm math retarded.

Jebus I love the thread title. Please help me calculator!

Your math is right, how you describe it may confuse some people, or yourself.

Look at it this way, you've lost 5 lbs of bodyweight.

Your lean mass has increased by 5 lbs.

You've decreased your bodyfat by almost 6 percent. (Thats great!)

Now, other things can come into play...the lean mass increase could be the result of water retention (especially if you started taking creatine). Your measurements for bodyfat may not be accurate. Most methods are only accurate within a couple percentage points. Which in itself could explain any confusion in your numbers.

But probably, you've lost fat, gained a bit of muscle.

Don't get too wrapped up in the math, your results are good, keep it up. Now, if you lose 10 lbs and your bodyfat percentage only drops 1 percent, then something bad might be happening.

What method are you using to measure bodyfat?

Hey Branded, thanks.

I do take creatine, but I'm cycling off now (NOT because of efficacy or concerns about health, but due to monetary concerns ... If I have full stores of creatine due to supplementation and at some point i can reduce that store down to normal without supplementation levels by not taking it for a week or two to save money, I'll do it, so I am), and honestly I haven't seen much response from my weight. Very odd. That's partly because my diet hasn't been perfect around the same time I cycled off creatine, too.

I use FatTrack II body calipers and waist-to-hip ratio Myotape measurements using an online calculator. I take the two measurements (I used to use my electronic scale, which also dose BF% but is very inaccurate so I stopped using it) and then average them, so I'm pretty on. The two measurements were around 24% when I began and are now averaging 18.6%. They're very close. I'm confident in the measurements I've done.

This is the first time I've contemplated the math. I just wanted to be sure I was thinking about it correctly for future use.

Thanks!

*EDIT* - I should mention, also, that I don't really have water retention, and if I do I don't have it for long. That's due to the fact of the major amount of water I consume each day and have done so for nearly two months. I drink AT LEAST a gallon of water a day, but generally 1.5-1.75 gallons. 1 gallon is almost low for me now. So my body is now of the attitude that it doesn't need to retain water. When my diet isn't perfect it does indeed hold on to water but generally only for a day in panic mode. Once I feed it water again I see that I generally am either back to normal weight and measurements or I've dropped a bit, honestly. That's where I'm at now. I went from 173 pounds on Sunday (up 3 pounds from the week before due to bad diet) down to 169.5 pounds that Monday after consuming my normal water content.

I'm not much of a believer that you can gain lean mass while losing body fat. If you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras. It's more likely that one, if not both, of your body fat measurements are wrong.

But you've still lost 5lbs which is good news, right?

Why all the math?

Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you have gained enough muscle, if not get to work! :lol::tucool:

I am just not into body fat measuring tools. I will post pictures and ask others their thoughts and thats about it. Just me....:tu:

I'm not much of a believer that you can gain lean mass while losing body fat. If you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras. It's more likely that one, if not both, of your body fat measurements are wrong.

But you've still lost 5lbs which is good news, right?

I respectfully disagree and I"m pretty confident in my measurements.

Not to mention the fact that a well-known natural bodybuilder in these parts has indeed lost fat and gained muscle at the same time. His name? Aram Hamparian. ;)

http://www.bodybuildingworld.com/vol9_1/aramh.html

Why all the math?

Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you have gained enough muscle, if not get to work! :lol::tucool:

I am just not into body fat measuring tools. I will post pictures and ask others their thoughts and thats about it. Just me....:tu:

Why the math? Just because I was curious, that's all. Why is everyone so aggressive about this? Kinda catching me off guard.

Good job speedster. Your Math looks right, and its definitely possible to lose body fat and gain muscle, especially for people starting out.

Why the math? Just because I was curious, that's all. Why is everyone so aggressive about this? Kinda catching me off guard.
Didn't mean to come off aggressive. Most people just get wrapped up in items that take time away from better things. :tucool:

Didn't mean to come off aggressive. Most people just get wrapped up in items that take time away from better things. :tucool:

No worries, I'm a nerd. I like looking at all of this from various angles, etc.

I definitely believe I'm slowing down in terms of muscle gain compared to fat loss since I'm now nearly at the two-month mark.

I respectfully disagree and I"m pretty confident in my measurements.

Not to mention the fact that a well-known natural bodybuilder in these parts has indeed lost fat and gained muscle at the same time. His name? Aram Hamparian. ;)

http://www.bodybuildingworld.com/vol9_1/aramh.html

Personally, I don't think anyone can be accurate with their bodyfat readings unless they've had a DEXA scan. Don't get me wrong, I take body fat readings but I use them as a reference. If they are lower I've lost fat, if they are higher I've gained. Using them to calculate exactly how much lean mass you have daft and misleading in my opinion.

I read in so my of the fat loss threads that people think they are gaining lean mass (read muscle, who cares if they are carrying more waste then usual?) while cutting and that's the reason behind the fact they haven't lost as much weight as they expected. I just don't buy it. How is your body mean't to build new tissue when it is having to dip into it's own reserves just to keep itself running. I'm positive the answer in most cases is that these people simply haven't lost as much fat as they would have liked and they're basing all this off bad measurements. Bodyfat readings are only estimates anyway. Basing any kind of hard numbers on them seems futile IMO.

I like what Christian Thibaudeau has to say on the subject:


Trying to get both big and ripped at the same time should be a no-brainer. Maximizing muscle growth requires a caloric surplus. How much of a surplus depends on factors such as your body type, metabolism and current condition, but the fact remains that you must consume more calories than you expend. On the other hand, losing fat requires the opposite: a caloric deficit. You must expend more energy than you consume.

[...]

I'll grudgingly admit that it's possible to gain some muscle while losing some fat, for a short period of time, if you do everything perfectly. I imagine it's also possible to masturbate while riding a bicycle. In either case, though, trying to do both at the same time only ensures that you'll do neither one very effectively.