I am what some would consider a thin person, however, I have an unhealthy level of body fat. Before I got pregnant with my youngest son my BF was 18%. He is a year old now and my BF is 33%. Although I can fit the same size clothes, I weigh more and am obviously fatter. I normally work out for 45-60min at least 3 days a week.

Any tips on lowering BF while on Atkins? I am currently in my 5th day of induction and any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have any tips, because Atkins will take care of the fat! How are you determining your BMI? Does is take into consideration age or frame type? In about the past month in a half, I have lost 10.6 pounds and according to a standard BMI formula (Excel spreadsheet) I have gone from 24.5% to 23% body fat. That still puts me in the upper realm of my healthy weight. If your BMI has not been determined by a professional, I would consider going to one if you're still concerned. Sometimes the formulas found on the web are misleading and based on "ideal" weights. Sure my ideal weight would be 140-145, but that may not be healthy.

I had a personal trainer measure my body fat with calipers and I have a scale that figures body fat. It takes age, sex, and height into account. The personal trainer said that it was 31%, not much lower. Either way too high

What do you mean when you say you work out? Do you do cardio or weights or both?

Cardio will help burn the fact - at least 30 minutes in your heart rate zone. Weight training will increase your muscle mass which will help burn the fat in the long term.

Also, you may want to check your BMI and adjust your goal to the lower end of your BMI range - around 20 - if you are concerned about body fat. 18.5 – 24.9 is the "normal" BMI range. Your goal weight is a few pounds abovea 20 BMI. I find that when my BMI is around 20 that I am on the low end of body fat.

Hope this helps.

If you are on Atkins, you are eating an ideal diet that will reduce body fat. Lowered carbohydrates and adequate fats/protein will help with lowering your BFI. In the mean time exercise will help you to use your fat as energy. Without the excess carbs, fat won't be so easily stored. Plus, stabilizing your insulin will activate its partner hormone, glucagon. This enhances lipolysis so you are making very good choices.

Buff girl is talking about body fat, not body mass index. BMI measures height and weight against average (to the BMI system) builds. It does not take into account extra muscle. And BMI system works equally for both men and women, without consideration that women have more fat, hopefully in more pleasing places!

Buff girl, I am very interested to hear if there was a difference in the caliper versus the BF scale?

I do horribly when measuring BMI as I am very muscular. My body fat (I use a Tanita body fat scale - www.tanita.com) is very healthly however.

Please don't compare the 2, because BMI is not accurate to measure body fat.

When I started Atkins, and lost 10 lbs, my BF scale really indicated that I lost 11 lbs fat....I was exercising alot more and have even more muscle. Keep at Atkins and the fat will melt.

This is true. At Curves they measure your fat loss with a hand held tool. It doesn't resemble a caliper as I remember it but it probably is the same thing.

I weight train and do cardio on a good week. (These 2 weeks will be a challange as DH is away and I can only go to the gym on the weekends right now). A good week for me is this:
Sun - Legs
Mon - Rest
Tues - Bi/Tri
Wed - Cardio
Thur - Chest/Back
Fri - Rest
Sat - Cardio
My scale is Tanita and was pretty close to what the personal trainer got, so I think it's accurate. For the next 2 weeks I'll be doing cardio at home and weight trining using DBs and body weight. I guess I am stuck on the typical thinking of how am I going to lower my body fat while eating so much fat? I 'm sure I just need to be patient and time will tell.

the calipers are the really the only "accurate" way to test your BF%.

I would also like to mention that 4 months ago (pre atkins) my body fat was at 19, I was not doing any exercise at that time, but I'm also "moving", cleaning, yard work, alot of hand sanding wood, etc, and last week I had BF% done again and it's actually gone up to 29.3% ......yep, I'm a skinny fat person.

If atkins is burning the actually "fat" why has my percentage increased?

Anyway, right then and there I made the decision to make time to exercise ......it will have to be at 5:00 in the morning, but I've got to get it done.

On a different (kind of) note, there is this women at my work that is EXTREMELY thin ..........not the healthy thin either ........and she was very upset because her BF was at 27 .........I was amazed considering how thin she is ................but that goes to show ......it's not always about how thin you are.

If I may just jump in here for a moment...the most accurate way to measure body fat is thru the water/weigh test--this is considered the "gold" standard. If you live in a larger city I would call around (see fitnness testing in the yellow pages) either larger gyms or the university or even medical fitness offices that offer sport nutrition, physical therapy for athletes etc. Calipers, pinchers, electro stimulation can be very inaccurate. The best way to decrease body fat is to weight train and build muscle mass. Just my 2 cents. I'll sneak on out and go back to my usual thread. Good Luck!

Lisa

IMO, the best way to check your body fat % is the mirror. There is no accurate way to measure BF except maybe on an autopsy table. Tanita scales, calipers and the dunk tank... they're okay, but they're all just estimates. If you're eating well and exercising, and you know you're not seeing an obese person in the mirror, don't stress over somebody else's calculations of your measurements.

My trainer says the scales are quite inaccurate and differ from the caliper test for lots of people. I think it boils down to where you carry your fat. They are more accurate for some fat distributions than others. If they work for you, great, but they don't for lots of people. The key with the caliper test is finding someone who knows how to do it correctly. Not all "trainers" do.

Also, I understand that BMI is different from body fat. However, my doctor told me that even though muscle weighs more than fat, unless you are an Olympic athlete the difference is generally only 7 or 8 pounds at most for most healthy women. It is very difficult to build muscle much higher than that with a regular workout plan. If you have a muscular build and don't work out with weights, the difference is likely even less. This would make very little difference in your BMI. The rest of the difference is body fat. I know BMI is not a great tool for measuring this but it does give us a good idea of what an appropriate weight is.

I have been guilty of saying I have a muscular build to justify my weight. However, after I got my eating squared away in my twenties before I had children, I weighed 125 pounds and am almost 5'7". This proved to me that what I called my muscle excuse really did not make much of a difference.

Of course, now I can't use the muscular build excuse before because I know what I look like in the 120s. After 3 kids in 4 years, I don't need to be 125 again but 130 would be nice.

I would guess that the scales or calipers could be a good measure of progress though, eh? I mean, if BF goes down, you're doing well....

That's exactly what I've been taught. Sadly enough... I'm a certified personal trainer and I ask these questions. I know much about exercise and kinesiology, but little about nutrition, especially the effects of low carb deiting. However, I have noticed that many of the fitness competitors I admire have adopted the LC WOL and they have awesome BF %. Thanks everyone for all of your helpful comments.