I have lost 2 lbs and my % of fat went up. How can that be?

[nannyb]

How can you gain body fat when you lose weight? Is this common? Never had anyway to tell my bdy fat before.. New to this..

[Sgoos]

Any measurement of body fat is an estimate. There is a chance that it is just a mismeasurment. 

Most likely though, you lost pounds of non fat weight. For example, you have 25 lbs of fat in a 100 lbs body. That is 25% body fat. If you lose 0 lbs of fat and 10 lbs of other stuff. Then you would have 27% body fat.

So losing weight just changes the proportions of your body.

You want it to gradually change down (most likely?) over a long term interval by the day to day stuff is noise that is part of natural fluctuations.

[Tammamo]

Depending on how agressive your diet is... in some cases, a very strong diet will force your body to start breaking up muscle for energy before breaking up fat. It depends on your diet and calorie intake and on the period in which that happened. However, I think with 2LBS of weight loss that is more likely to be a mismeasurement as mentioned above. You should measure multiple times and see.

In the meantime, have more protein and rest to help your body recover from exercise and rebuild muscles.

[Mary]

Body fat scales are pretty rough estimates and change their reading for all kinds of reasons not related to your body fat.  It'll read differently at different times of day, different hydration levels and for other things.  Try to measure under the same circumstances each time and just watch for general trends.  

[whome]

What @Mary said. My BF% is 2% higher when I weigh first thing in the morning compared to the evening. This is related to hydration level, I think. My weight also goes down 1.5 to 2lbs overnight due to bodily waste elimination.

Are your measurements taken under consistent conditions? Assuming you are female, you probably need a month of consistent measurements to begin to track changes in a meaningful way, that is to know if changes are due to diet/exercise changes or monthly fluctuations from your hormonal cycle.

Good luck

[CarolS]

I completely agree with whome above.  I, too, consistently weigh 1.5 to 2.0 lbs less in the morning than I do just before bed.

Track your weight/body fat for a month and look for trends.  Hang in there and happy stepping!