Quote:
Originally Posted by Rmtt
Everyone stores body-fat differently. I know some people who can be ripped everywhere, but store it all in their gut. I tend to store it evenly all over my body which actually is luck in it allows me to look leaner than I really am.
Watch a few videos of the caliper measuring and it's best if you can get someone else to do it so it's consistent. 5 site or 7 site is fine. I usually take 3 measurements of the same area and take the average of it.
I still think you are closer to the 14% range than you give yourself credit for. Also remember that it's always a mind game. When people I have trained start losing fat...they second guess themselves. Without a shirt..they are heavy looking but it does appear solid with no loose skin.
As they cut...it becomes softer and they look in the mirror and see lumps where they were not any before, and start to see skin sagging...and it makes them second guess their progress.
This is all natural as once you get past that, the elasticity of the skin returns and you start seeing progress. I have had people come up to me and say..I had a "cheat day" and I look better than the day before. That's because they filled up their glycogen stores, and the muscle has filled out making the skin and underlying tissue look more solid.
That really screws with their head.
One thing about the calipers. Even if you can't get the use of it down perfectly, hit the areas you can easily reach and keep track of the skin-fold measurements. If they go down say form 10mm to 8mm..you know you are making progress. But dieting isn't the only thing that can help that. Adding muscle reduces that skin-fold measurement too.
I think you have some surprising changes coming your way. As a rough guess I would reduce the cardio you are doing to like we discussed, and put the efforts into the weights. And don't sweat if you don't make huge jumps in weight used....even 1-2lbs more or one more rep than your previous workout is progress. You stack a lot of progress like that together over a period of months and you won't help but to notice it.
|
Story time: So I go home last night, look up a few videos on how to measure with the calipers. I pull the skin, read the calipers.....just a little under 10mm. I go the chart, that came with the calipers, and it states that I'm at 18.9%. I find this hard to believe, but I didn't question it. Just for shits and giggles, I get on the scale this morning and it states 17%, I don't trust this either. I grab the calipers, pinch again, just under 10mm.....I go to the interwebs and find the other chart posted below. Edit, the PDF is the original chart I was using, the one shown below is what I believe to be accurate.
SON OF A BISH!!!! This gentlemen is why it is important to have accurate information.
Check out that on the first chart age 41-45, that 8-9 =13.8, then 10-11 = 18.9, then 12-13 = 17.8.
and at the same time
