How to keep track of muscle vs fat ratio

Question

I very often read comments like "I am happy with the new [weigth lifting] routine because I am gaining weigth fast" (I undertand that means muscle mass or there would be no hapiness about that increase) or "hey, this works for me because I am losing fat".

Such comments mean that (a) either the authors have no idea about the difference between water retention and fat tissue and muscle mass, or (b) they are tracking their body fat percentage daily by means of some easy method.

Assuming the latter, what is that method? I find waist tape measurements quite inaccurate, the measure is very easily affected by body posture or how much you press while holding the tape against you body.

I believe there are some "fat measuring clamps" but i have no direct knowledge about them. — s3v3ns, Mar 03 '15 at 14:04
@s3v3ns Do you mean this device? - Is that what they are using? — Mephisto, Mar 03 '15 at 14:46
i believe so, but don't quote me on this. Some more research about it will give you an answer. When you find it, tell me too :D. — s3v3ns, Mar 03 '15 at 14:47
Those are called skinfold calipers. They're a common way of measuring body composition but not too accurate. — rrirower, Mar 03 '15 at 17:32
Also related to: http://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/1660/how-accurate-is-the-navy-body-fat-calculator/23613#23613 , http://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/12767/how-to-calculate-body-fat-using-calipers/23612#23612 and http://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/20850/what-is-the-minimal-body-fat-percentage-with-no-risks/ — arober11, Mar 03 '15 at 20:33

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 03 '15 at 22:03

What you are referring to is called the body fat percentage. There are numerous ways to track it with varying degrees of accuracy.

Skinfold calipers where you measure the skinfold of different points on your body (calves, quad, stomach, etc.), take those numbers and use them to generate an estimated BF%.
The navy body fat calculator which does a rough estimate based on your height, waist, and neck circumference.
Weight scales that estimate your body fat, though their efficacy is very variable (even more so than the other methods).
The most accurate reading you can get is through a hydrostatic tank, though it's also the most expensive and inconvenient option.

As with anything there are pros and cons to each, and the ideal option depends a lot on your preference. Navy is the cheapest and fastest approach. Scales are expensive but easy. Calipers are time consuming but cheap and fairly accurate. Hydrostatic is expensive and potentially time consuming but also the most accurate.

Now, there is no need to track your BF% daily, because that is simply too much trouble for too little insight. There are so many variables going into this that, much like weight, you'll see a lot of small fluctuations in the day-to-day that are meaningless so if you insist on daily tracking you'll be best off averaging all results in a week and recording that new averaged value.

Or, if you want to get sophisticated, you could look at the "moving average". That would give a daily data point to track, if that's your goal, while still minimizing noise. — Tyler, Mar 04 '15 at 00:55
@Tyler I am going to try one single measure a day at the suprailiac skinfold, and the spreadsheet will take care of the last 5 days moving average. That seems an easy approach. — Mephisto, Mar 07 '15 at 11:13

How to keep track of muscle vs fat ratio

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