Too Much Muscle And Too Much Fat!

[Tolley]

I have just finished doing some tests as part of a fitness evaluation and i was told I have too much muscle and too much fat!

Is it possible to have too much muscle?

51 years old

Weight 89 kilos......22 percent body fat, 44 percent muscle

Ideal weight according to them is 76 kilos with 15 percent body fat so I should lose 13 kilos 9 of fat and 4 of muscle.

waist measurement is 98cm.

[bottleymike]

I have just finished doing some tests as part of a fitness evaluation and i was told I have too much muscle and too much fat!

Is it possible to have too much muscle?

51 years old

Weight 89 kilos......22 percent body fat, 44 percent muscle

Ideal weight according to them is 76 kilos with 15 percent body fat so I should lose 13 kilos 9 of fat and 4 of muscle.

waist measurement is 98cm.

You don't mention your height, which impacts on your "proper" weight.But, if you start losing weight sensibly by undertaking some low stress additional exercise ( walking, swimming, bicycling ) and adjusting your diet for a bit less alcohol,a bit less fatty food and a bit more veg and fruit,you need not worry about what is fat or muscle.

You will find that slowly your weight will reduce.

I would ignore the "ideal" weight, and aim for a loss somewhere between what you now weigh, and what they recommend.

[Tolley]

Height is 178cm........my diet is quite good already it is more likely not enough exercise.

I play squash twice a week and do one weight session a week.

That is about it.

Sit at a computer for a job which is the big killer.

[robblok]

There is no such thing as too much muscle. Muscle isn't bad at all, fat is. Muscle even helps you burn fat while you rest. The more muscle you have the higher your methabolic rate.

I would not care about their ideal weight only care about my fat percentage.

I do find your bodyfat estimate a bit low. I am around your height 180 cm and weigh around 100 kg. But my waist is only 93 cm and i think my bodyfat is still over 20% (i think). I must add that i follow a bodybuilder routine and soon will try to get my waist even lower. A 15 percent fat percentage is nice but hard to obtain if you dont really go for it.

[Tolley]

There is no such thing as too much muscle. Muscle isn't bad at all, fat is. Muscle even helps you burn fat while you rest. The more muscle you have the higher your methabolic rate.

I would not care about their ideal weight only care about my fat percentage.

I do find your bodyfat estimate a bit low. I am around your height 180 cm and weigh around 100 kg. But my waist is only 93 cm and i think my bodyfat is still over 20% (i think). I must add that i follow a bodybuilder routine and soon will try to get my waist even lower. A 15 percent fat percentage is nice but hard to obtain if you dont really go for it.

They hooked me to this machine that measures electrical impulses and then determines the body fat ratio.

The exact weight i think was 44 kilos of muscle and 20 kilos of fat.

They even measured my skeletal weight which was 9kilos.

Not sure what the rest is made up of but it is pretty accurate apparently.

I did question them about the muscle mass but they were adamant that it needed to be lowered.

I was very surprised at the waist measurement as all my jeans sizes are only 90cm.

Anyway i basically don't have much fat anywhere else except around the midriff which i would like to get rid off but it is very difficult as I think a lot of it is middle age related and genetic.

I was always very thin even into my mid forties i was 10 kgs lighter than i am now.

Any ideas on what specific exercises would assist???

[robblok]

They hooked me to this machine that measures electrical impulses and then determines the body fat ratio.

The exact weight i think was 44 kilos of muscle and 20 kilos of fat.

They even measured my skeletal weight which was 9kilos.

Not sure what the rest is made up of but it is pretty accurate apparently.

I did question them about the muscle mass but they were adamant that it needed to be lowered.

I was very surprised at the waist measurement as all my jeans sizes are only 90cm.

Anyway i basically don't have much fat anywhere else except around the midriff which i would like to get rid off but it is very difficult as I think a lot of it is middle age related and genetic.

I was always very thin even into my mid forties i was 10 kgs lighter than i am now.

Any ideas on what specific exercises would assist???

The machine your talking about is really inaccurate. A bodyfat caliper would be much more accurate. I have not yet heard of a accurate machine doing this. Because it measures resistance its influenced by how much water you retain. So if you swear a bit b4 your estimate can be really off. This is comparible to those scales that send a current through your body.

A body caliper and a skilled person is much better at estimating fat then this machine. The machine might look more high tech but is actually less accurate.

You can believe them of course that you have to lower your muscle mass but in my opinion your making a big mistake. You will only slow down your methabolism and get even fatter. That is what they call skinny fat. You have the right bodyweight but too much fat.

Muscle is not bad for you it actually quite good. But there are many idiots in the medical profession. They still use BMI to see if someone is in good shape even after it has been tested and proven inaccurate.

I cannot give you exercises to loose muscle.. because when you work out you gain muscle. You cant loose muscle by working out. (Unless you starve yourself and workout). So if you want to loose the fat just go and workout. Don't worry too much about the muscle.

A good way to loose fat is a combination of weight lifting (fitness) and cardio ( running / crosstrainer / cycling)

[Tywais]

The machine your talking about is really inaccurate. A bodyfat caliper would be much more accurate.

I realize the BIA accuracy is controversial but several studies have shown it to be accurate. Of course a lot depends on the device itself and the equations used. Some use frequency sweep impedance measurements rather then raw resistance.

Other methods such as caliper-based measurements and skin-fat

measurements are generally considered to be inferior to BIA due to their subjective nature

and susceptibility to operator influence.

http://www.lifescale.com/workforce/BIAstudy.pdf

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m088...18/ai_54680277/

[robblok]

There are far more articles invalidating it then validating it. The bodyfat caliper is more accurate. Best things is just submerging someone in water and measuring the water displacement but that is a bit hard to do.

I think its something the big companies are pushing because they can make more money on it then on a simple device.

Then you use a bias website to promote your point. I mean why would someone interested in selling those scales admit they are not good.

Anyway those scales are the worst of them i think expensive testing in a hospital is better.

Craig A. Williams1 and Peter Bale1

(1) University of Brighton, Chelsea School, Gaudick Road, Eastbourne, E. Sussex, BN20 7SP, UK, GB

Abstract Previous research has often used correlations as a statistical method to show agreement; however, this is not a valid use of the statistic. The purpose of this study was to investigate the bias and limits of agreement for three methods of estimating percentage body fat for 117 male and 114 female university athletes: hydrodensitometry (HYD), bioelectrical impedance (BIA) and skinfold calipers (SKF). The mean (SD) percentage body fat for males as assessed by HYD, BIA and SKF methods, respectively, were 13.2 (3.3)%, 14.1 (3.3)% and 13.0 (3.2)%. Female body fat measurements were 22.5 (3.9)%, 23.7 (4.3)% and 23.8 (4.2)%, respectively. Pearson product moment correlations for male and female body fat percentages between the three methods were high, ranging from 0.81 to 0.86 (P < 0.05). However, compared to the criterion measure of body fat percentage (HYD), the magnitude of agreement BIA and SKF revealed a different pattern. The mean absolute difference between HYD and BIA measurements of body fat for males was −0.8 (2.0)% fat, and between HYD and SKF was it was 0.2 (1.7)% fat. The mean absolute difference for females between HYD and BIA was −1.2 (2.5)%; for HYD and SKF it was −1.4 (2.2)%. Compared to the HYD measures for males and females, the BIA and SKF measures were as much as a 3.8% underestimation and a 6.2% overestimation of body fat. This study provides evidence that the strength of a correlation does not indicate agreement between two methods. In future, reliability and validity studies should examine the absolute differences between two variables and calculate limits of agreement around which a practitioner can appreciate the precision of the methodologies.

Key words Anthropometry - University athletes - Statistics - Body fat

Accepted: 26 August 1997

In the article you see here proof otherwise.

[Tolley]

I don't really need to get into a debate over which measurement is the best for fat but i do need to lose some fat if i want to get down to acceptable levels.

For weight training I have been doing heavy weights with low reps like three sets of ten for different muscle groups.

Would i be better of doing more reps and lower weights like reps of 15 or 20 per muscle group?

[BangnaBound]

I have to ask, who told you that you had too much muscle? Where they a doctor, or just a trainer at a gym? The advice you got doesn’t sound very intelligent.

[robblok]

I don't really need to get into a debate over which measurement is the best for fat but i do need to lose some fat if i want to get down to acceptable levels.

For weight training I have been doing heavy weights with low reps like three sets of ten for different muscle groups.

Would i be better of doing more reps and lower weights like reps of 15 or 20 per muscle group?

You could go to the higher reps then you are certain not to increase your muscle mass. Hypertrophy tends to happen in the 6-12 rep range. So with higher reps you could burn off some calories. If your really interested in training try GVT. German volume training, its real hard but you burn a lot. Im doing it now some days its like pure torture.

[robblok]

I don't really need to get into a debate over which measurement is the best for fat but i do need to lose some fat if i want to get down to acceptable levels.

For weight training I have been doing heavy weights with low reps like three sets of ten for different muscle groups.

Would i be better of doing more reps and lower weights like reps of 15 or 20 per muscle group?

You could go to the higher reps then you are certain not to increase your muscle mass. Hypertrophy tends to happen in the 6-12 rep range. So with higher reps you could burn off some calories. If your really interested in training try GVT. German volume training, its real hard but you burn a lot. Im doing it now some days its like pure torture.

Sorry got carried away.. just go high reps.. do some cardio after your workout and you will be fine. But if you want to loose fat be sure to check your dieet too.. loosing fat is 90% dieet.

[Datsun240Z]

What you need need to do is only cardio here. Out of all the exercises, spinning is the quickest way of loosing body fat and gain muscle and muscle strength, also a way better heart.

With Spinning I mean:

Your fat will fly away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_cycling

[sk1max]

I have just finished doing some tests as part of a fitness evaluation and i was told I have too much muscle and too much fat!

Is it possible to have too much muscle?

51 years old

Weight 89 kilos......22 percent body fat, 44 percent muscle

Ideal weight according to them is 76 kilos with 15 percent body fat so I should lose 13 kilos 9 of fat and 4 of muscle.

waist measurement is 98cm.

Let me quess, it was a Thai with a little machine that you hold and some fat calipers. Look in the mirror, it's more accurate.

[moe666]

Check out Natural Hormonal Enhancement a very good system to loose fat and optimize your hormones.

[robblok]

Let me quess, it was a Thai with a little machine that you hold and some fat calipers. Look in the mirror, it's more accurate.

Actually the new versions of those machines are quite accurate. Before they were less accurate as fat calipers now they score about the same. A mirror is nice but its real hard to see progress in it. What i do is using a machine like that, a measuring tape and some scales + the mirror to give myself an idea if im progressing or not.

I am working out a lot bodybuilding style so i know its important to keep track of what works and what does not work.