Why would bodyfat increase?

kBm

I've been tracking my bodyfat (as a way of measuring progress instead of weight) and it has increased by 2% in a month. I'm not that all concerned, but i'm interested to understand how body fat increases when i'm eating healthily, exercising 4 times a week (before breakfast), and my actual weight hasn't changed.

I've use Boditrax scales so I understand its not 100% accurate. Plus looking at the bigger picture I've gone from 10.2% to 13%, so i'm still in a great place. Just curious why it would go up.

Any one else had the same?

original jungle

water weight?

sim12

I would honestly forget about what the bodytrax machine says and go by what you see in the mirror and by touch.

Its unfortune but them bodytrax machines are widely inaccurate by as much as 3-5%.
The only way to get a true measure of bf is to go on a dex machine I'm sure theres only 2 places in the uk that have them,manchester and london, for £100 you get a complete break down of everything in your body, its done by xray and is highly accurate.

Judging by what you see in the mirror cannot decieve unless of course you have some generous lighting.

And by touch, typically when rolling your skin between your forefinger and thumb in various points on your body, over the course of time you'll get to know your own body. You will get to know where you are bf wise.

As for for being the same weight and bf increasing, i was training for a marathon and changed my diet from high protein to high carbs, weight remained about the same but my bf increased by i would say a good 2-4% in 8 weeks. So whilst your diet can be good and clean what you eat can effect your bf.

Anything else you want to know feel free to ask I'll answer the best i can.

Hope this helps.Sim12.

Wardy257

There is no truly accurate way if measuring body fat unless you dissect your body and cut the fat out and weigh it.

Exercising before breakfast makes no difference to fat loss but has been shown to negatively effect muscle mass.

Chances are you are accidentally eating a bit more, have lost or stalled in muscle mass and have adapted to well to your training.

A great paper on weightloss etc

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025712517301360

BAN5HEE

Also more than likely the change of season.
When it gets cold your body will tend to be more reluctant to get rid of excess fat.

sevenxl77

This can't be right!

I undetstand people not wanting to exercise when its cold and eat more food over Christmas but if you comsume the same amount I can't understand how the cold weather would have any impact on fat %.

BAN5HEE

Just some research quotes - I don't know if it's true but it could be one of the reasons.

Research suggests low levels of vitamin D — the sunshine vitamin — can affect our weight in winter.

‘Your body needs sunlight to synthesise vitamin D, but in  winter there are fewer daylight hours, people go outside less  and when they do they wrap up in gloves and scarves, so their skin has little exposure to light,’ says Dr Stephanie Dillon, senior lecturer in Nutrition at the University of Central Lancashire.

Preliminary studies suggest that people with low levels of vitamin D store more fat, though the precise mechanism is still being identified.

One theory is that we’re genetically programmed to increase fat stores in autumn to help us survive — known as the ‘thrifty gene hypothesis’.

‘The problem is that we no longer need to store fat because we have an abundance of food available all year round. The famine never comes, so we never use up the stores,’ says Mr Ahmed.

IronGiant

Seems perfectly logical that basal metabolic rate is seasonal.

Inferno

I just pop a Multi Vitamin/Mineral tablet every day as my diet sucks, so my Vitamin D is probably in overdrive when it's sunny oh and a Cod Liver Oil Tablet as well so there is no need not to get some Vit D.

kBm

So I was little curious to see if my % had change again, and amaze-balls, its back down to 11.5%. The diet of raw carrots and laxatives really working well....

...just kidding.
I don't like carrots...