%body fat measurement question

   Morning guys, I have been working out steadily since mid-April.  Weight training with and without my personal trainer and cardio 5-6 days per week.  My starting percent body fat according to the measurement that my trainer took was 38%.  Well, with the weight training i have notice an increase in my muscles.  I have gotten much stronger and i feel the muscles have gotten larger.  Well my trainer did a %body fat measurement last week. 3 months after the last one.  my body fat was not where I expected it to be.  it was 37.4%.  I have lost weight in that time period, and since I felt stronger and bigger I expected a better result.  He did the measurement with a hand-held device.  you grip it and it spits out the %body fat number.  My question is can this method be flawed.  I did realize afterward that my thighs were touching when we did the measurement.  Can this effect the reading?  Just curious.  We are going to repeat the measurement next week.  I have upped the protein intake to see if that helps with the lean body mass.  When you are training, is there a rule of thumb as to how much protein you should take in?  I have routinely been getting between 60-80 grams.  I have upped that this past week by adding 2 more protein shakes so I get between 115 and 140 grams. I guess another question I would have is, are there any supplements I can take to help me put on muscle mass faster?  I have discovered that I love the weight training and I love the results I have been getting, but would also love to pack on more muscle mass.  Thanks guys. Cheers, Paul

I am not a fan of the ole pinchers. The logic of how they could possibly be accurate is a mystery to me.  You need a scale with mass sensors that you stand on barefoot (my surgeon's office uses one at my checkups) or the most accurate would be one of those float tanks or the new cocoon/egg thing that you sit in.  I'd check with your PCP/physican or surgeon and see if they can get you access or if  you have a major University or Athletic faciltiy near by that has one. I'm with you, unbelieveable your mass isn't better than .6% improved.

I assume you lost something greater than ten pounds in those three months?  If so, there's almost no way those two measurements could be accurate relative to each other.  With the handheld units, you have to enter everything in manually every time (height, weight, sex), and if anything is inaccurate, it can throw the result.  Also, your hands need to be the same moistness and toughness (thicker hands cloud the result, dry hands also).  You will get a different result if you measure after working out (before is more accurate).  Your thighs touching shouldn't make a difference on a handheld result.  Your arms touching each other or your body (if shirtless or wet) could.  Finally, you will get a point or two variation throughout the day based on how hydrated you are and how much food you have in you.  I use a home scale version once a week, always legs apart, always right after showering, always feet dried off but still moistened from showering, always before I've eaten/drank/exercised that day, and I do it at least twice (and more if I get different results).  Even still, I get some strange results occasionally, though the trend line has generally been on a more stable decline than my weight, and when the numbers start diverging (weight stagnant while body fat drops), it usually predicts a big weight drop is coming soon.  You can see the results at the bottom of my profile. As for protein, I recommend 1.0-1.5 g per kg of goal body weight.  So if your goal was 220 pounds, that'd be 100kg, so you'd eat 100-150 g of protein. The only supplement I can recommend with confidence is creatine.  It works, if you work it (that is,if you work out hard while taking it).  I warn you though, it will make you gain 5-12 pounds in the first couple weeks of water weight, and you will hold most of that weight the entire time you take it (it comes off over the month after you quit taking it).  But the water is mostly in your muscles, so it doesn't look bad.  Other stuff out there may or may not work, and may or may not work much given how much it costs per dose.

Yeah, I have to agree with Joe Green on this not a fan of the fat pinchers.  They're not designed for people who are having WLS.  The body literally shifts weight around your body as you drop, thats why most men's stomachs are the last to go.  You lose your weight in your feet, lower legs, neck, face, back, arms etc first... then you'll probably stall into a starvation mode for a week or two... then the body goes "hey, I went into starvation mode and the weight didn't return to these areas, I have no more reserve fat here" then it starts looking around for other deposits and eats away at those.  Because of this constant flux of where your body may or may not being currently eating away at.  To use a fat caliper test isn't accurate in my opinion.  If you have another appointment with your doctor in the near future, have them your body mass spectrum again and let the computer say how much you have.