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I weigh quite a lot and I am trying to lose weight.

I am currently 6 feet tall and my weight is 216 pounds, which is clearly too much.

I have been working out doing mainly clap pushups, pullups, and throwing a medicine ball and playing basketball

I have never lifted weights in my life.

The thing is, I am not really that fat, and I recently got my body fat measured from a doctor, with it coming out around 18%, which is ridiculous. It would give me an FFMI (Fat Free Mass Index) of 23.48, without ever lifting weights or anything like that.

Something has to be wrong.

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Your 'natural' body-mass percentages are hugely affected by genetics. Your hormone levels control how much muscle-mass you will have with any given level of activity.

It's entirely possible you're genetically gifted. If you start lifting weights more regularly, and get a solid plan for your diet, you could end-up being quite muscular.

The flip side is the body-fat % test might be waaayyyy off. Was it a body-caliper test? They can have major discrepancies, even when done by a doctor.

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  • Yes it was a calipher test, it could be off, but when I compare myself to pictures of people who have a similar body fat percentage, I don't think I am over 20%. I am muscular but by no means huge. I don't really want to gain a lot of muscle mass, I play basketball and feel too heavy, I am quite explosive especially in short distance sprints but run out of gas quickly and do not jump as high as I should be jumping. I just carry too much weight.
    – user3063937
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 20:05
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    If your goal is just general health and basketball, then you should be able to cut calories and drop fat without losing much muscle-mass. Keep up with the pushups/pullups/squats.
    – john3103
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 20:44
  • no, m, goal is to jump higher and run faster and I am concerned about my strength to weight ratio. My legs would need to generate much more force than another person with the weight I am carrying. Do large bones play a role in overall weight? I do have very big joints but I heard the while skeleton only amounts to 10% of the whole bodyweight or something like that.
    – user3063937
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 8:22

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