Body fat staying the same/weight going up

[Kristyb121]

Hi everyone - I’ve searched and seen lots of posts where body fat was going up with weight decreasing.

i have a different issue. My scale says I’ve gained 4.3lbs in one week but my body fat has remained the same. 

The only difference i made was trying intermittent fasting - only eating 11am-7pm and the week I switched to that I gained.

i have been pretty steadily loosing about 1-2/lb per week but was trying to kick start a bigger loss with the fasting. 

Any ideas why the BF stays the same with a weight gain?

[Dominique]

There are two problems: 1) one week is a very short time to assess any real change in body fat, 2) the method used by scales to estimate BF% (BIA) is very sensitive to hydration. The weekly change in weight of 4.3 lbs you observed is most likely water weight. This should have been reflected in the scale’s estimate of your BF%, but clearly that wasn’t the case. You should really look at changes over longer periods of time (several months). If you have a scale that can sync to your Fitbit account, you may want to consider linking your account to TrendWeigh (see link below).

As to intermittent fasting vs. eating according to a more normal schedule, it still boils down to total calories: the "kick start" will only occur if IF results in a higher caloric deficit.

[Kristyb121]

Thank you! 

I do have the aria scale so will take a look at the TrendWeigh.

i guess it just threw me off - in my years of trying to keep a healthy weight I’ve never had a 4lb gain in a week! 

[JimC_99]

I know in my case,  I have never been a breakfast eater - so by the definition  I have been a intermittent faster for 62 years, and have been overweight for most of my life.  I tend to agree with @Dominique in that the best way to reduce weight is to log your food and maintain a calorie deficit. 

[Dominique]

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@Kristyb121 wrote:

I’ve never had a 4lb gain in a week! 

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It’s likely an outlier. Maybe it was related to your IF experiment, maybe not. Just focus on creating a reasonable/sustainable deficit you will start losing weight/fat.

I’ve had my Fitbit Aria for close to six years. During that time, my weight has fluctuated within a 12 kg ( (26 lbs) band, and weight and body fat % have always moved in the same direction, over longer period of times (several weeks to several months).

From beginning of June 2018 to end of September 2018, weight went from about 64 to about 58 kg:

 

Body fat % went from about 17% to about 13%:

October-November was maintenance of lower weight / lower BF%.

From beginning of December 2018 to date, weight went from 59 to 63.5 kg:

and body fat % from 13 to 15.5%:

I’m trying to stay under 64kg/16% by the end of March, after which I plan to cut again, aiming to go down to 12% in three months.