Did anyone have their body fat % measured before surgery?

Hi everyone!

 

Just curious but I was wondering if anyone had body fat percentage testing done before surgery and what it was.  I never had it done at my heaviest and just recently I did a test at one of those little blood pressure stations and I was super surprised it was so high!  It said I was at 40.02% body fat!   

 

The normal range for a woman is 25 to 35% so I'm only 5% off but GEEZ.  That just sounds so high.  I have lost over 165 pounds and I am still 40% fat?!?! Was I just a walking glob of goo at my highest?? Was adipose tissue streaming through my veins instead of hemoglobin? 

 

It really doesn't matter and I know those machines are probably not the most accurate but it made me think I might need to change my mind about a few things.  I might need to set my goal weight a little lower and start doing a lot more weight training.  I want to at least get to 35% fat.  If I were a dairy product, I wouldn't even qualify to be labeled as low-fat... I'd have to settle for reduced fat. 

Anyone know what their pre-surgery body fat was? 

Have a great night, everyone! 

I thought about it........but was scared I'd either break their calipers or they'd run out of measuring tape.......or I'd displace all the water out of the tank.

 

I didn't do one pre op, (why pay to learn what I knew would be bad) but I had one done via a DEXA Scan. My body fat %is 31- I'd like to get done to 26-28%. 

While I don't think the method you used is accurate- it gives a general idea. It possible to be @40% even after your great weight loss... that whole concept  of 'skinny fat' is real. 

Weight training is key- along  with high protein intake to ensure fuel to build muscle. 

Yep, I was at 55.1% at my preop and now I am at 31%. 

Those machines are horribly inaccurate.

I didn't have mine tested preop, but I'm pretty sure it was about 98%

Those machines are notoriously inaccurate!  However, I track BF with my scale (also inaccurate, but good for trends) and I've gone from 55% to 33%.  w00t.

I was around 55% preop. I was embarrassed, I was made up of mostly fat!

"walking glob of goo" - LOL!!

Just what my doctors office scale measured. I think I was 60 percent fat? Or maybe it was even more...i was just a butter ball.....

Scott

If you are truly interested in your BF% I would strongly recommend a DEXA Scan - they are so much more accurate than scales or even calipers. 

I didn't have one before surgery (but I'm with Grim - thinking 98% might be conservative LOL). 

I have gotten a couple of DEXA scans since to help me set my final goal weight. When I got down to about 185, which was my original "stretch" goal (surgeon thought I would get down to about 200). I found I was 26.5% BF as a man, which still had me at "obese". This motivated me to not only continue to lose weight, but to really focus on strength training. 

Happy to report the strength training has paid off. At my last DEXA scan I was 6.4% BF (yeah, I need to stop. I'm trying). And although I had dropped 40 lbs since the last scan, I actually gained 7 lbs of lean mass. 

Pretty cool stuff.