Gain weight, lose fat?

[Ginikramer]

I weighed myself this morning on my Aria scale after not having done so for a couple of weeks.  To my dismay, I saw that I had gained two pounds. I also noted that my percentage of body fat had decreased. I'm all for that. But I'm curious. I do my weight training by rock climbing three times a week. Could I have added muscle in that short a time in order to shift the ratio of fat to muscle? Or am I just indulging in wishful thinking?

[Dominique]

I’m afraid it’s most likely wishful thinking  Very unlikely anyone would add that much lean mass in such a short period of time, even if they’d do all the right things. BF% vs. weight (as obtained from a scale like the Fitbit Aria) can provide meaningful insight when you look at them over a long enough period of time, like several years. At least it has been my own experience with the Aria, after 4.5 years of nearly daily use.

Since you also happen to have an Aria, I’d suggest you connect your Fitbit account to TrendWeight (see link in my signature), a free web-based service that can pull your weight and BF% data off your Fitbit account. For optimal results, you should weigh yourself as often as possible (definitely more often than once every fortnight). 

[Baltoscott]

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@Dominique wrote:

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Since you also happen to have an Aria, I’d suggest you connect your Fitbit account to TrendWeight (see link in my signature), a free web-based service that can pull your weight and BF% data off your Fitbit account. For optimal results, you should weigh yourself as often as possible (definitely more often than once every fortnight). 

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@Ginikramer - I agree with @Dominique both about TrendWeight and about weighing yourself often so you average out the daily variability.   Just adding that you should weigh in at the same time of day to further minimize the variability caused by the food and water going through your system.  If you weigh in first thing you get up (after 'fasting' since your evening meal) and again just before bed you may see an increase of a few pounds.  As weight goes up throughout the day, the body fat percentage goes down (Makes sense, right?  If you are more hydrated at 5 pm than you were when you woke up at 5 am, you'll weigh more; but that extra weight won't be fat, so your body fat percentage goes down).  I can 'drop' my bodyfat percentage by 1 or 2 points just by weighing myself in the evening instead of the morning.