Abs/Body Fat Confusion!

[Korosia]

Hello fellow Rebels!

Like everyone else on here, I've recently started trying to level up my life. I've been trying to workout more regularly, clean up my diet (no chocolate binges for me!) and just generally become a fitter person. Fitting all of this round doing a degree is an interesting challenge, but one I rather enjoy.

I've recently noticed that my stomach isn't, well, flat. This is quite a weird thing for me as I've always had a really good matabolism. So I started cleaning up my diet -- trying to eat less, avoiding sugar and carbs, and focusing on protien and veggies. Not full paleo, because I love me some carbs to much, but at least a step in that direction.

I got a bit down because it didn't really seem to be making that much of a difference, and then I realised that all I was going on was sight, which is a pretty terrible way to measure things. So a brand spanking new Body Fat Calliper arrived today!

I did it all as directed, and got quite a suprising result: 3.9%, well into the "lean" catagory for my age (I'm 18). Which has left me somewhat confused. At first I thought that it might be that I need to work on my abs a bit more: they aren't the strongest in the world, but I can hold a minute plank without a massive amount of difficulty. But surely you would expect them to be smaller, rather than larger?

The only thing that I can think of is that maybe I've accidently caused the sort of thing you see with typical gym weightlifters, where they end up with strong muscles but puffy stomachs. But I'm rediculously weedy, and only do bodyweight stuff.

Generally I'm just rather confused. Has anyone else had this problem, or know what it is? And more importantly, does anyone know how to fix it? Now that I know that my body fat is in a good place, I was planning on eating more (still focusing on protein/veggies) so I can try and gain more muslce in my upper body. Is that a good idea or not?

Thanks

[The Tin Man]

Let me start this by saying I doubt your body at percentage is actually 3.9%. Either that or you are at an unhealthy level. From what I've gathered competition ready bodybuilders get down to the 5-8% range.

To go to your main question, the puffy stomach may just be bloating instead of fat. Photos would help, but I understand why you might not want to do that.

[Barbarossa]

Did you have someone else take it for you? Doing a pinch test by yourself will seldom give you accurate results. 3.9% is getting close to "essential bodyfat" territory, and I can't imagine that your body would be that lean without you intentionally working at it.

[VorJoshigan]

Those calipers are hard to do right, and they don't work very well at all on somebody as overweight as I am. I would suggest going to a gym, and asking for some assistance. If money is a problem, there might even be some gyms around that offer that kind of testing free as a promotion.

[aj_rock]

No abs = unlikely that you're below 10%, even if they aren't the strongest set in the world. Either you're mis-applying the calipers, and/or (probably and) carrying a fair amount of visceral fat, which is packed in around the organs and impossible to measure using a caliper.

A quick creep of your blog shows that you're still pretty early into the ABW, and probably haven't built up significant muscle mass. More details about your height and weight and I could probably give you a half-decent BF% estimate.