Any thoughts on Muscle or Lean Body mass numbers?

Wondering if any of you guys have comments about this? I figure I'd post here since its as likely as spot as any to get a answer  When I saw my surgeon he had explained that since I was at 440 to start my body would have some extra stuff like ligaments and skin etc that would not go away. Using my most excellent calculation I think my current Muscle mass is around 74 lbs and total lean mass is about 160 lbs. I read that the average male muscle mass is about 42%. I've set a weight goal of about 200 lbs which would mean if I maintain my muscle mass I'd be a little under average. Thinking a lot about what I want to try to achieve with losing. I'm sitting at about 31% BMI right now (understanding this is just an estimate). Guessing I need to finish losing fat before trying to build back muscle? Wondering what other guys experienced with this?

Chrispy,

Think women who just gave childbirth to sextuplets after carrying them full term.  That is what our bodies have gone through in losing 175+ lbs. in less than two years.  No amount of exercise is going to restore the stretched ligaments and skin to reveal the most developed abdominal six-pack and hamies.  Only PS will do that.  That said you should be building muscle while losing fat.

The impedance body composition scales utilize an algorithm to calculate your body fat %, muscle mass, bone mass, visceral fat, and body water %.  The algorithm is based on the electrical resistance between two limbs through you core, your body weight, your age, your height, your gender, and your physical activity.  These scales are accurate to within +/- 3%.  My scales give the following stats for me today:

Weight:  219.2 lbs
Body Fat %:  20.5%
Body Water %:  56.0%
Muscle Mass:  165.8 lbs
Bone Mass:  8.6 lbs
Visceral Fat:  11 lbs

Your point of muscle vs lean body mass does confuse me. What does lean body mass include?  The important thing is that you establish a baseline and measure progress against that.  A balanced exercise program between cardio and strength training will ensure that you develop your muscle mass to help overcome weight loss stalls and maintain once your reach maintenance phase.

Good luck!

-Mike

 

Mike,

Thanks for the response and good advice.Thats interesting that the methods are different on different scales. Maybe I have the numbers screwed up? I have this scale that I really just started (last month or so) watching the different measures besides BF since I have dropped much closer to goal. It does the following:

Body Fat%: 31.7%  ( 74.7 lbs)

Body Water%: 53% (124.9 lbs)

Muscle Mass%: 31.5% (74.2)

Bone Mass%: 3.3%  (7.8 lbs)

Weight: 235.6 lbs

Looks like if I add water with Muscle it is like your number above for muscle mass at 199.1 lbs. Maybe that is just what this scale calls it? Guess that doesnt answer where ligaments, skin etc come in. Plus the percentages dont add up to a 100% lol Guess that is confusing being 120% man  

Reading the manual doesn't help as  the water is in both muscle and fat so guessing the Muscle mass measure on mine is meant to be an estimate withou****er. That sort of makes sense too since I saw on line that the average male has 42% muscle mass. Since I have base lined the muscle mass, maybe what I will do is call it an indicator and track it and watch where it goes. Over this last period of weight loss I have seen both muscle and fat drop, but fat much more than muscle. They do say that it is difficult to maintain muscle that is there just to support fat. What I am really trying to do is determine how to track my work out progress in regard to muscle.

I can get a personal trainer at work so going to take advantage of that and I am meeting with him after this next business trip to start changing my strength training up in order to build more muscle. Right now I am on a rotating strength schedule focusing on a different muscle group every day, repeating on the fourth. I'll post up what his eval is when I get it done.

Chrispy

 

 

 

     

Sounds like a good plan. Btw my scale is a Tanita BC533.

Good luck!
-Mike

I mostly concentrated on the BF% numbers, aiming for the mid-teens, letting the other numbers fall where they may, and adjusted my scale weight number goals to that BF number as I lost. You are probably right to work to maintain what muscle mass that you can as you continue to lose and then build up from there - I think that it is a rare person who can actually build muscle mass while in the caloric deficit of loss mode (we did have one guy in my doc's group who got himself down to 4% BF after having been 500+ lb, but he worked out like an animal, having professional experience at such things, so he likely did actually build some.)

Great thank you for posting. Picking a number out from the chart I am shooting for around 15 percent body fat. Call it 30 pounds if I weigh 200. 200 is my current weight goal. In my mind that puts a real face on how much work body fat I need to lose. I know it will be hard but the grand scheme of things 45 more pounds isn't that much. Haha Or so I think. I'm sincerely grateful just to have this opportunity even talk about being that lower body fat. If I remember correctly I started at about 65 percent.

Ok, so it looks like you are 235ish?  Based on the BF% of 31.7%

I am 5'9", 195 and 25% or so BF% according to my scale, it jumps from 23-27% so I just take an average of those scores and that is a pretty good estimate.  (Short of a full dunk in the tank, these impedence devices are only so accurate)

What that DOES tell us is that we DO have some fat left that we can get rid of... and SOME of the stuff they are calling fat is extra skin.  I would estimate 15 pounds or so based on the numbers from my friends that had the various Plastic surgeries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage

Looking at that chart, men should be up to 24% body fat and be "average" or at least not obese!  I am right on that edge and if you removed my 10-15 pounds for extra skin I am well within that range.  (180-185, is 19-21.5% based on my lean weight of approx 145)

So I am actually durn close to the fitness range of that chart for men, which makes sense based on my current exercise and regimen.  I DO want to lose about 20 pounds of fat to get solidly in the fitness to athlete range but waiting until after my marathon before doing calorie deficit.

 

All that said... Body Fat % is the measurement to use, forget BMI... and honestly the BEST measurement is "healthy"  You are MUCH healthier today that you were a few months back when you came in here and were restarting your diet.  Exercise, good quality diet and honestly we should all feel good at that.

So just my 2 cents.  We are pretty close in thinking I believe... based on your writings and numbers!

Oh yeah I think we are close. I've been chasing the  never ending fat for so long it kind of hit me abruptly that I may run out of fat to lose? Who would have thought that? Thinking that I might want to get to the 195 ish area depending on how I wear it. Thanks for the response.

Hi All..Just wanted to add my thoughts on this. First, this is a great thread!!! I am currently at 198 lbs. I have been fluctuating between 196 and 205 for the last several months. I try to stay under 200 as a rule of thumb.

However, I am in WAY better shape than I can ever remember. I run alot and have run races from 5K to 1/2 Marathon. At my most recent 5K there was a local fitness center with a booth. I spoke to the manager about how to measure BF. He had a device mentioned that measures electrically your BF based on data you provide. I was pretty happy as it was 21.6% which is at the average range. It then got me thinking how I could get down to 17 % which is fitness. Then I remembered I used to weigh 350lbs and had a BMI of 54....I am quite content with that  21.6%....

21% is very nice