confused as to where to go from here. - JP Fitness Forums

Waittz · 12-03-2006, 07:45 PM

I went and had my bf tested and was shocked to see it was 15%. I dont feel i look 15 but we all see ourselves a bti different a guess. Now Im not one to jump back and forth from "culking". i was trying to get to 180(currently 173) only i feel if i go that route ill be getting closer to 20% then i should ever be. I am making great gains right now, crushing PR and Im contemplating entering a sanctioned PL event comming up in two months. I was planning on competing in the 181 weight class. Now im just confused where to go. I had some pics taken shortly after(they are in my log linked in the sig) and I am deffinately not satisfied size wise. The thing is, 15% is wayyyy to much. My health is first and foremost and I have alot of bad things that run in the family. So basically I dont know where to go from here. Keep gaining or try to drop some lbs before it gets unhealthy to walk around with the extra weight. I jsut feel like Im making such gains right now, that stopping to cut would just ruin it. Just looking for a bit of direction.

Frank.S · 12-03-2006, 07:47 PM

judging by your pictures there is no way you are at 15% bf. Dont worry about it, keep doing what your doing.

Waittz · 12-03-2006, 07:50 PM

The thing is i had the same palce take the same test the same way. So even if I am not 15%, i still put on 5% in an alarming rate. Which worries me more.

Frank.S · 12-03-2006, 07:57 PM

You look around 10% to me. I doubt you were at 5 before.

Its just the fact that its a 3 site test.. that doesnt mean that much. Plus if one of the people doing the test was not experienced then the numbers will be way off. Ive had bodyfast tests range 3-4% from the exact same person from different attempts.

umass · 12-03-2006, 07:58 PM

What method did they use for testing? If they used calipers did the same person do the test? That said if it's right why not try to maintain 173 and add condtioning or cardio and drop some bf%.
Ned

Waittz · 12-03-2006, 07:59 PM

THe last i had it tested it was 10%, same dude did it this time, and hes pretty experienced. I guess i can see the human error side. Thinking maybe i should get calipers and do it myself?

Waittz · 12-03-2006, 08:01 PM

mainly becasue i dont beleive you can lower bf while maintaingin a weight. Im trying to gain so if i do enter this comp i fill out the weight class.

BjsAust · 12-03-2006, 08:17 PM

Lol, you're nowhere near 15%. Trust the mirror (or better yet, photos), when you're getting fat, you'll see it. You've got fat percents a lot of people here (including me) would love to have!

Jean-Paul · 12-03-2006, 08:48 PM

I wouldn't worry too much about the number. I feel like I look pretty good at about 15%. I'm 18-20 right now, and I can still see some abs (albeit a little smoother). How old are you?

Waittz · 12-03-2006, 09:46 PM

20. They did the calipers like based on an age group. He took 3 poins, chest stomach and thigh. Then he like checked a chart with an age group and it from there. Like a range.

Alcoholiday · 12-03-2006, 10:22 PM

you're not 15. probably 12 or so.

Keep eating and lifting heavy. you're probably at the point where you're still going to get a good ratio of muscle:fat.

bryanc · 12-03-2006, 10:33 PM

The number isn't that important--but I do agree that if this guy has consistent caliper technique that you may have gained some fat. However, I don't think, by your pictures, that it's of a high enough consequence for you to worry too much about it.

Besides, the fat that causes bad things is actually intra-abdominal--which isn't measurable by calipers. Caliper measurements merely estimate it from 'normal' prediction charts. These charts were generated by doing caliper meaurements on hundreds if not thousands of people AND hydrostatically weighing them to create the prediction equation which is used to predict your specific body fat percentage. However, there is always some error in this prediction method, which although in the GENERAL context is quite small, in the SPECIFIC individual case may be quite large. The bad news is that the SPECIFIC error isn't really assessable, short of serially hydrostatically weighing you to see how far you tend to be off the predicted value.

So, the bottom line is that provided this caliper guy is consistent (and just because they've done lots doesn't mean they are), you can probably just use the number as a measure of gaining or losing fat, but not an absolute meaningful number.

Doing the calipers yourself is probably not a great idea since 1) you're probably not very experienced (which is an assumption on my part) and possibly not trained and 2) doing caliper testing on yourself is definitely known to yield wildly inaccurate results.