Active Low-Carber Forums
Atkins diet and low carb discussion provided free for information only, not as medical advice.
Home Plans Tips Recipes Tools Stories Studies Products
Active Low-Carber Forums
A sugar-free zone


Welcome to the Active Low-Carber Forums.
Support for Atkins diet, Protein Power, Neanderthin (Paleo Diet), CAD/CALP, Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Solution and any other healthy low-carb diet or plan, all are welcome in our lowcarb community. Forget starvation and fad diets -- join the healthy eating crowd! You may register by clicking here, it's free!

Go Back   Active Low-Carber Forums > Main Low-Carb Diets Forums & Support > Daily Low-Carb Support > General Low-Carb
User Name
Password
FAQ Members Calendar Mark Forums Read Search Gallery My P.L.A.N. Survey


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   ^
Old Fri, Sep-29-17, 06:52
MancChris MancChris is offline
New Member
Posts: 2
 
Plan: Low carb diet (Tim Ferris
Stats: 204/190/180 Male 6 foot 1 inches
BF:20.1
Progress: 58%
Location: Manchester, UK
Default body fat has increased in 2 months!

I’ve been on the low carb diet for 2 months, following the diet as set out by Tim Ferriss in his book 'The 4 Hour Body'. However, I'm worried that my body fat percentage has not dropped.

As well as as taking measurements and weighing myself once a week, I also had a Body Compositional Analysis when I started, and another today (wires attached at hand and feet and a current passed through. DEXA was way out of my price range, but I thought this would at least be consistent). My body fat was 19.3% when I started, and it’s now 20.1%! I have lost weight (just over 10 pounds), and my total inches has dropped by 7.8.

Now, am I worrying about nothing here, is this normal with the weight loss, or am I doing something wrong? I have lost weight before, and my expectation here was to lose mostly fat, but clearly I have lost muscle as well, and more than I was expecting. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2   ^
Old Fri, Sep-29-17, 07:33
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
Default

Are you talking about the Slow-Carb diet? I'm not too familiar with that plan, but doesn't it involve a somewhat more liberal carbohydrate intake, but stressing foods like beans?

First, I'd trust a before and after shot, or some tape measure numbers over that method of body fat analysis, any day. It can't tell you what you've lost. Excess body water? Glycogen?

Quote:
The other assumptions for BIA measurement are that the body is a cylindrical-shaped ionic conductor with homogeneous composition, a fixed cross-sectional area and a uniform distribution of current density [16,17]; BIA measures the impedance to the flow of an electric current through the total body fluid. Therefore, the conductive volume (V) which represents total body water (TBW) or FFM is directly related to the square length of conductor (S) and inversely correlated to resistance of the cross-section area (R), while p is the specific receptivity of the conductor, yielding the equation: V = p × S2/R. Based on this assumption, the same arms and legs respectively contribute to almost 47% and 50% of whole body resistance despite contributing to 4% and 17% of body weight respectively. In contrast, the trunk, which contains 50% of the body mass, contributes only 5–12% of whole body resistance


I guess you're the best judge of whether you're a "cylindrical-shaped ionic conductor with homogeneous composition, a fixed cross-sectional area and a uniform distribution of current density."



https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2543039/

The numbers you give suggest that in losing ten pounds, you only lost around a half a pound of fat. To me this just lacks plausibility. Walk in with your limbs a bit dry vs. having even a slight pump, given that thing where a lion's share of the resistance comes from the arms and legs, sounds like it could make a big difference.
Reply With Quote
  #3   ^
Old Fri, Sep-29-17, 07:39
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
Default

Some early studies looked at low carb and weightlifting. There seemed to be a bit of an advantage with low fat vs. low carb for lean mass. More recent weightlifting/ketogenic diet studies included a carbohydrate refeed at the end of the study--the slight advantage went the other way, ketogenic dieters wound up with more lean mass. I suspect this is another artificial benefit--depleted of carbs, on refeed supercompensation of glycogen stores is likely to occur, creating the illusion that people have "gained more muscle." For muscle mass, just trust working out.
Reply With Quote
  #4   ^
Old Mon, Oct-02-17, 03:05
MancChris MancChris is offline
New Member
Posts: 2
 
Plan: Low carb diet (Tim Ferris
Stats: 204/190/180 Male 6 foot 1 inches
BF:20.1
Progress: 58%
Location: Manchester, UK
Default

Sure, ok. I take on what you're saying about the scan.

I also weigh myself and take tape measurement each Friday morning. For measurement I do biceps, thighs, waist and hips, and then calculate my total inches from this. At the end of June my totals inches were 158.6, this last weekend they were 150.8. My weight has also dropped from 204 pounds to 196

That clearly shows I've lost weight and reduced in size as expected, but my hope with the slow carb diet (yes, you were right, I got the terms mixed up) was to lose mostly fat, and not muscle. The findings of the scan suggest I'd lost fat, muscle and water, as with normal weight lose.

But then, as you say, the scan itself is perhaps not helpful anyway.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 20:55.


Copyright © 2000-2024 Active Low-Carber Forums @ forum.lowcarber.org
Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.