Do you measure your body fat % and muscle %?

claire21

Full Member
As we lose weight do we reduce our body fat percentage?
Do you have those scales that measure % of fat in you and what changes have you seen?
Are we also losing muscle % to a big extent ? - This is what worries me
 
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Hi Claire - BMI is a complex subject - the mathmatical calculation of your BMI will mean that it will drop as your weight decreases, but as you are already in the very healthy range, I'd be tempted to query if Dukan is for you, as it's designed to burn fat - if you are in the <25BMI range, that would suggest you don't have a lot of body fat to burn.

The most acurate way to measure body fat is to have the doctor measure you at the specific points on your body with calipers and calculate this on your age, weight and height, which would give you the true BMI and not just an approximation based on a sum.

Hope that this helps!

:D
 
My stats are right and I have measured my fat % on my new scales and my friends and it is 40% on both sets give or take less than 1%.
 
Wow. I would be really surprised if that was the actual percentage of fat in your body.
The answer to your question I guess is still that if you lose weight, your BMI should go down. Based on the calculation for BMI, your stats are giving you what I would have thought for your height and weight are nearer the mark.
Dukan burns fat, so if you don't have a lot of fat to burn, you will lose weight slowly on this plan.

It's not necessarily the case that you will lose some % of muscle, although with any plan that doesn't include excercise, you may experience natural muscle wastage. I'd consult your GP before embarking on a restrictive plan like Dukan at your height and weight - it may be better for your personal health to simply reduce your calorie intake or move to a low GI diet if you don't have much to lose.

Of course, I am not a doctor, nor am I an expert on weight loss, hence I am on a diet lol!!!!!:D
 
Thanks for that, I'm seeing the doctor Friday about the amount of water I am drinking (this has tailed off a bit now thankfully) so I'm going to have a good chat about by measurements etc.

Anyone else want to share their body fat measurement results that have been on Dukan a while?


EDIT - BMI does not look at body fat, so my BMI may be OK but what I am made up of isn't ok.

My % of water is 41.8% - this is on the low side

So I need to get my fat down whilst keeping muscle and water.
 
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You are right, BMI doesn't measure fat in the body, and so any scales that say they measure fat in your body, I reckon cannot be accurate. scales can only really do maths - and BMI is based on maths :)

If your scales say your are 40% fat, 40% water, then only 20% of you must be bone, muscle and other stuff - I still think your scales are on the blink!

Your doctor will measure your body fat with calipers properly if you are concerned. BMI really measures if the mass of your body is healthy for your height. Another commonly used indicator is your waist:height ratio - your doctor might use that, too. I would still say that Dukan may be a bit of a struggle if you really only have a small amount of weight to lose - it would be very interesting to see what your Doc say, please could you let us know?

I am intrigued now about the scales too - I am always trying to convince myself that my weight gain was caused by brain growth and that I get heavier because knowledge weighs more than fat :D hahaha!
 
Yes I will report back on Friday, 40% was a hell of a shock for me - I mean I look ok because I'm so tall - now the bliming things tell me i'm obese.
 
Mine put me at 35.?% this morning, and 46% water, which doesn't leave a lot for much else admittedly... but I do remember reading once that pear shaped people got peculiar results on home scales.

In my day, the Dukan French official site refused anyone with 25 BMI or under which I still countenance because I don't think this diet IS suited for small losses. Unfortunately the commitment required is long term (phases 3 and 4) and once on the low carb yoyo train, it's a long journey unfortunately... and the train rarely stops to let you off :(
 
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