Could my LBM possibly be right?

[bike2work]

I went to a barriatric specialist yesterday, for the first time. In addtion to weighing and measuring, they use an infared sensor to measure bodyfat. They say this is the most accurate method apart from putting you in a tank naked.

My body fat came out lower than I expected and they put my LBM at 167 pounds! Could that possibly be right? I'm just over 5' 9". In high school I briefly weighed 150 TOTAL.

If I retained all this LBM and went to zero bodyfat (impossible) I'd still be overweight according to the charts. If I retained this LBM and had the recommended 20% bodyfat, I'd weigh 208, which just can't be right.

What's going on here? Do I have that much extra muscle from carrying around this extra fat? Is the infared sensor less accurate than I am told?

[Dodger]

I doubt the IR measurement is very accurate. It is used in the meat packing business to measure fat content in group meat. It was a popular techinique to use on humans 5 to 10 years ago, but the fat in humans is not evenly distributed as it is in gound meat. I was not aware that it was still being used on humans.

[cindy_cfid]

Could they possibly have added in body fat to lean body mass??? Fitday shows 167 as the most a 5'9" female should weigh and at 208 is shows as severely overweight. Unless you're a weightlifter or do heavy physical labor, I can't imagine having that muscular a frame. *IF* you do, you should be able to lose weight on a low carb diet like the men of the forum do (>15 - 30 lbs. a month)

[fridayeyes]

My guess is that your results are a little inaccurate. Yes, you will have some extra muscle because you've been carrying around some weight, but probably not that much. I would check around on a few sites like nocarbzone.com and mybodycomp.com and compare your infrared test with what those sites say. Note that measurement based formulae will still have a margin of error, but you'll begin to get a picture of what ballpark you're probably in. Don't fret the high lean mass, though - it's GOOD for you!

In my case, I DO lift weights, and I lift pretty big. I'm 5"7", I weigh about 196 with a BF% around 30, wear a size 12 and have about 138 lbs of lean mass. At 17% bf, I will weigh about 170 lbs and look like a fitness model or a busty swimsuit model.

Hope this helps,

Friday

[bike2work]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I was slightly horrified when they gave me the computer printout. (Egad! What kind of monster have I become?!) I do lift weights, but I sure don't lift at that level.

I will try the other means of calculating BF.