Fat Loss as a Percentage of Total Weight Loss

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

When I started out on CR about six months ago I was curious to know

how much of the weight I was about to lose would be fat, and how much

LBM. I tried to find the answer with a few internet searches, but

without success. So, when I started CR, I decided to try to figure

this out for myself as time progressed.

I now realize this is more complicated than I had originally

expected, for a number of reasons. The first reason is huge

fluctuations in weight over periods as short as just a few days.

These make it quite uncertain what my 'real weight' is. In my case

fluctuations between the upper and lower 'downtrend lines' in my

weight, even in periods of less than a week, encompass a range of six

pounds. And there are occasional departures even beyond this range,

that go a couple of pounds even further, on both the high and low

ends. In the past six months there have been two aberrations well

above, and two aberrations well below this six pound range. It seems

clear that the PRINCIPAL reason for these weight fluctuations is the

diuretic/anti-diuretic nature of what I have consumed in the previous

few days. (I ALWAYS take my daily weight measurement in the identical

circumstances at 8 am).

I realize the above will be well familiar to many people here. I am

hoping it may be helpful to some of the newer people, like myself.

But now I have come to realize that it is not just my weight that

shows huge fluctuations over very short periods. For example, I

measure my waist, abdomen and neck circumferences with an inelastic

tape measure as carefully as I can. Yet I still find huge variations

over quite short periods. As just one example, I recorded a 0.9 inch

increase in my neck circumference over a six day period recently.

This matters a lot if one is using the US Navy method for calculating

BF%, some method for which is essential if one is trying to figure

out how much fat one is losing in comparison with LBM.

All this makes me realize, belatedly, that I need to measure these

data, and develop trendlines for anything derived from them, much

more freqently so that I know what the current middle point of the

range is, if I really want to understand what is going on. It also

emphasizes 's point, made here a few weeks ago, that there

is not much to be gained from calculating any of these numbers to too

many decimal places. Thanks !!! It has taken a while to

sink in!

Anyway, the above said, I will now return to the topic in the subject

line of this post, which is " What proportion of the weight I have

lost over the past six months was fat? "

For the reasons explained earlier in this post any number quoted must

be tentative. In coming to my conclusion I must try to take the

middle of the ranges for the relevant variables.

The tentative number is 80.2%. Yes, I know, that is quoted to far too

many (in)significant figures.

But based on this, if I was starting out and wanted to use some

number for the percentage of weight I would lose that was fat, I

would use 80%. fwiw.

Rodney.