Any body fat is a part of your BF%, but calipers don't measure BF%, they measure skinfold thickness. Sure, you can use calipers to get an idea of what way the BF is going, but I don't think it's good to measure BF%......
Karky,
Are you serious or are you just trying to demotivate and upset people? I've been told by several many professionals that, in the hands of a trained person, the BF%-calipers are extremely accurate. The guy I go to uses a digital caliper that is quite costly and he takes pinches from several areas. The unit then runs the data through an algorhythm and accounts for many factors, he then repeats this process three times to ensure accuracy and generate an average. The unit usually comes in very close with all three readings. If you go in one month and your, say, 18% and the next month you're at 17.2%....you've darn well lost Body-Fat and the unit can project what you're overall BF% likely is.
Please dude...it's bad enough our muscle gains offset numerical loses on the scale, but to now suggest (or so it would seem) that our results on the BF% are bunk is just.....
My nutritionist himself conducted an interesting test....he used a digital scale to measure his BF%, then a hand-held unit, then the calipers, then a water-tank and finally the most elaborate body-scan, DEXA. All methods produced different results and the deviation was as much as 4.8%...that's huge and perhaps that serves your point that these methods are not entirey accurate for telling you what your actual BF% is....BUT these methods, if used consistently, can tell you (like a barometer) if you're rising or falling and that's an indication of what's happening. I'm OCD, I need that measure of progress. I'm the guy wearing the HR-monitor w/calorie-counter when I exercise...I live for results.
How you look in the mirror? Well gosh....when I have my cycling shorts on and a sleeveless shirt I look pretty good, but with typical shorts (which nowadays run down to the knees and are baggy) and a polo shirt...I look pretty blah. How you look is often relative to what you wear, right down to the color, cut & style. How you look and how your clothes fit are a factor, but I (we) need numerical accountability.
What I was suggesting about the lower intensity cardio was for after doing an hour or weights. After an hour of weights you're pretty depleted and that would be a good time to pick-up some LISS cardio. If you have the energy to do higher intensity cardio, you probably didn't lift hard enough with your weights. Also, as theory goes, you've just burned the muscle and worked it hard...do you really want to push more then low-intensity and risk catabolism? Kark's, you of all people know catabolism cause I've heard you voice concern over it. So LISS after weights, yes...and for just 30 minutes at most. On other days when you haven't done weights beforehand, you can use HIIT or kick-up the intensity as much as you'd like.
I was not suggesting low-intensity burns more fat....while it may burn a higher percentage of fat, it overall burns less total fat then if you were working at a higher intensity. I was just suggesting to avoid the higher intensity after doing weights, as explained above.
And FWIW.....every single visit to my nutritionist has lower and lower BF% results, but varying results on the scale. On rare occassion the scale will go up, sometimes it's a wash and generally it's on the way down. But typically I'll be told "The scale shows you losing 2.8 pounds, but accounting for BF% measurements, the calculations reflect a true net fat-loss of 3.6 pounds with a net gain of .80 pounds of lean muscle gain.
And like I said, there is potential for error when using calipers. What if your body took some fat from the one place you measured, but that it also gained a little fat in another area?
Lost fat in one area and gained fat in another??? What if the moon was in retrograde and the gravitational pull was inversely infused with the diametric field coefficient of Pamela Anderson Lee's swelled breast? I'll concede that the body works in unusual ways, but if the fat is on an exit strategy....things are going to get leaner overall.
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