RE: Honestly, the VERY best way to
Hi guys!
Well, I second what Bobby says. It depends on how fast the weight gain/body fat loss happened. If we are talking within a week here, well, yes, your gain is mostly water. But VERY important to understand is this: It is very hard to gain muscle MASS without gaining a little bit of fat. They say it is actually almost impossible. What would be more accurate is that almost all that extra weight is water, because if you are losing a good amount of true body fat, your weight should really not be increasing. See??
I also wanted to post the Covert Bailey body fat measurement test here, it is also on Health Central.com...you just plug in your values for the measurements and it gives you your percentage BF.
J...if you are 30 years old, you get to use the "women thirty years and younger measurement which is....
hips + (.80 x thigh)- (2 x calf) - wrist= BF percentage
WOMEN OVER 30 have to use this...
hips + thigh - (2 x calf)- wrist = BF percentage
Really, you should use the website. It tells you where exactly to measure and computes it for you. On the Firm Forum there was some upset about the calculation automatically adding an extra 3% BF or so if you were over 30. Well, as you can see, you have to use your total thigh measurement if you are over 30 as opposed to only .80 if you are under, and I had remarked that I thought this was due to the assumption that the size of the AVERAGE SEDENTARY NON-WEIGHT LIFTING woman, over 30, is probably due to fat rather than muscle. Kinda unfair assumption for all of us, yeah, but relatively accurate for the more unfit population. SO, if you are over 30 but under 50, and lift weights, I would say use the under 30 calculation and it is probably a bit more accurate for you. Over 50, you have to admit that inevitably you have either lost some muscle or have stopped gaining it at the same rate as when you were in your 20's.
Of course, Covert Bailey did not give a reason for his method of measuring in his book, this is just my intellectual deduction as a result of knowing a great deal on the subject. Hope you can all use the website and it gives you GOOD NUMBERS!!! Take care, Janice