Body composition getting worse: help !?

(Brennan) #12

If you’ve been keto for months now you should be fat adapted and fasting should be easier. Make sure to keep your electrolytes up and check out the fasting threads on the forum for advice and support. Good luck!

(Brennan) #13

Try salted coffee while fasting! So good!

(Will knit for bacon. ) #14

Could it be muscle gain? Muscle is denser than fat, a pound of muscle takes up much less room than a pound of fat. Other than that I got nothing.

(Allie) #15

The scales are not accurate. Chances are your body is changing due to the weight lifting and the scale can’t read it in the same way. I stepped on mine a month or so ago to be told that I had gained 1.5% fat since the previous day and it’s not gone away yet, BUT when I see myself in my gym mirror I can see only muscle gains.

(Randy) #16

JMO: But if your waist is not growing, but your arms and legs are, that is likely muscle gains. I don’t see how a scale could track this.

(Karim Wassef) #17

My experience is that all these methods (even DEXA) are corrupted by hydration and food.

To be blunt. I can be at 22% bf and then after letting the water and food pass through me, I can be 21%. That could be 6lbs of change over a day.

So every data point on its own is meaningless. Look at the trend over a week.

Why are they so wrong? How can I gain muscle or fat just by drinking water? It depends on what you mean by “muscle” and “fat”. We’re mostly made of water and if a muscle swells up, the scale reads “more muscle”. It doesn’t know it that’s muscle fiber or water.

same with fat… I can apparently gain 3lbs of water “fat” if my electrolytes are off. And just increasing my potassium miraculously reduces my body fat. Clearly, that’s nonsense.

So it’s important to understand what causes you to retain water (like insulin) or to expel it (diuretics) and realize that exercise driven inflammation can artificially (and temporarily) increase lean mass and fat mass. It’s not linear.

Is it useless?

Individually yes.
Collectively it could indicate a pattern and you can experiment to learn what causes real long term gains and losses.

Use a tape measure for your waist. It’s still prone to bloating effects but is a better indicator.

#19

Your answer blows my mind.
Is just measuring circumference an OK method ? Should measure at the same hour each week or is it a waste of time ?
When should I panic because of weight gain ?
So if I’m still making progress in my training, I should not bother with scale and keep calm and Keto on ?

#20

@Marlitharn I’m hoping for muscle gain. But I don’t know. (btw love your tag line)

@Shortstuff Same here ! I can see muscle in my upper body. But it may be just me being newly obsessed with my biceps.

@KHAN Well, I was hoping that the percentage of fat/lean mass could be a proxy for muscle gain. But it seems that it is not…

(Karim Wassef) #21

Measuring circumference is an excellent method. I still use the scale to track he pattern over long periods of time but I ignore short term fluctuations.

I measure once a day and plot the results over time. And if you want to minimize error, try measuring in the morning after your morning bowel movements and before eating or drinking anything. That reduces my error.

Always keep calm and keto on. Unless it’s a medical emergency, never panic. Actually - never panic, especially in a medical emergency :joy:

As far as training - watch your changes. Do not overtrain and give your body enough time to recover. Focus on high intensity anabolic = lifting or low intensity catabolic = gentle cardio. That’s been my experience.

(Scott) #22

The BF measurement is determined from what I understand as a conductivity from one foot up the leg and down to the other. If this is true hydration and salinity could affect the number. I look at it as a trend, much like weight, and while I want it lower I don’t get very excited by a blip on the display. Two days ago I went up two pounds and this morning I went down two. All good!

(Karim Wassef) #23

The images here show my change tracking

#24

@Karim_Wassef OK, got it !
It’s non linear but the trends are clear.

I’ll try measurement instead of just the impedance scale and I’ll add my improvement in weight training.

Thanks for all the advices ! It’s very reassuring.

@Rclause I admire your calm ! When the scale is up, I’m always worried even if I try to not think about it.

(Karim Wassef) #25

Just to help put things on perspective… I fasted for 19 days consecutively and I had several days where both weight and fat % would go UP for two to three days in a row… keep calm

(Carl Keller) #26

Cortisol, the stress hormone, can cause weight stalls or gains, even when you are doing everything perfectly. It’s important to try to minimize the stress in your life to truly be healthy.

(Karim Wassef) #27

Check out Peter’s criticism of DEXA even around hydration and muscle glycogen x 4 = water error

30mins in

#28

Thank you for sharing all these tips about measurement !

I really think that Peter Attia is a bit condescending and pompous, especially when he talks about Dave Feldman’s work or the carnivore diet. But I appreciate the info about the lack of precision of any kind of measurement.

So I think that the more I can lift without my waist widening (beside occasionally bloating), the best it is.

(Allie) #29

I’m at the stage of trying not to worry about the number going up as my goal is mainly muscle gain now, although I’d still like to lose a few more pounds of fat but guess that’ll happen in time with the metabolic speed up that goes with the muscle gains. My instinct always took me back to the idea of needing to limit / reduce food when the scale went up but that is not the right approach when I want to gain muscle so I’ve had to rethink and keep myself in check.
It is hard not to stress seeing the number go up because lifelong conditioning is that the number should be as low as possible so I get why it’s stressing you out, but keep focused on the long term goals and try not to let numbers control you.

#30

You are sooooooo right for the numbers. It’s hard.
The tricky part is to eat enough to build muscles but also be in a kind of caloric deficit to tell your body to use the fat storage.
I’ve heard that you need 20/30g of leucine per meal in order to build muscle. So I try to eat lean meat but I’m really enjoying my eggs and bacon.
Do you have a thread with your muscle gain ? I’d like to see what you’re doing in order to improve.

(Allie) #31

No I don’t. I have thought about it but never got around to it as I struggle enough keeping up with online commitments already :joy:

Really I have no plan, just working hard on eating intuitively rather than out of habit. I do Intermittent Fasting and aim at having at least sixteen hours each day food free, but when my body is demanding nourishment I go with its request rather than sticking rigidly to the timer. Same goes for gym - I have a five day plan and aim to work hard Mon to Friday leaving Sat & Sun as rest and recovery, but again if my body is telling me it needs something different, I go with it.

This week hasn’t gone to plan at all so far. I worked hard in gym Mon & Tues (with Tues being leg day) then Weds my body was demanding extra food and rest, same yesterday, and today I’m fasting and will just do an hour of yoga this evening as my body really is in need of rest and recovery at this time.

#32

Well, thank you for the insights ! It’s always interesting to see others training routine.