I have GAINED weight and inches but LOST 3% body fat. I want to slim down, what am I doing wrong?

Hello - it sounds like you keep very active and have certainly gotten a good grasp on the diet/exercise changes required to accomplish your goals.  It's an interesting dilema you have there...

Typically, gaining weight and dropping in body fat percentage is a good thing that usually results in losing inches.  When things start to seem a little backwards in this area, I have found there are a couple of places to begin looking:

First, this most often comes down to effectively utilizing the body fat calipers.  It's not an exact science and the output is largely controlled by the experience of the person using them.  I personally like using the FatTrack II digital caliper on 3 sites.  I will take three readings in succession of the three sites and average the figures I get.  In one sitting I often will have a 1% - 2% swing in output if my body fat percentage is at or above the 10% range.  The key with the calipers is to consistently use them so you know how it feels when you test a site and what the typical readings are for that respective site.  It's also good to average the totals across several readings to smooth out the extremes. 

Next, if you're confident in your BF% readings, I would look toward your total daily calorie consumption, the macronutrient breakdown, your approximate BMR and calories burned from activity.  I know that's a lot to look at, but if you take them one at a time you can usually spot the trouble area.  For example:

- Eating healthy is good, but eating too many calories (even if they're from healthy sources) will still take you the wrong way

- If you're healthy meals consist of lower amounts of protein and lots of carbs and good fats, you could quite easily be getting too many calories and/or not be feeding your body what it needs to recover from your workouts

- If your BMR and total daily calorie intake aren't aligned correctly for weight loss, you won't get the results you're looking for

- If your BMR + your total calories burned from exercise also aren't aligned correctly for weight loss, it will be difficult to get the results you're looking for. 

This may seem like a lot, but it's really a matter of a few minutes taking readings with the calipers and/or doing some quick calculations to insure your calorie/energy expenditure balance is where you need it. 

I hope this is helpful to you.  If you're interested in additional tips and tricks with regard to total body transformations and weight loss, I write extensively about these topics at www.dietforadollar.com

Take care~