3 Month Progress Measured with DEXA Scan: 28, 5'4", 145 lbs, 30.6%

[divinenature]

Three months ago I submitted this post. Since that time I have made some changes to my nutrition in an effort to lower my weight and body fat percentage. My most recent scan and pics can be found here. Also, I'm really, really sorry that the angle is not the same for the pictures.

About Me - Updated

- Weight: 146 lbs on the DEXA machine in clothes, hovering at 144 in the "nude" this last week

- Height: 5'4", this hasn't changed

- Half Marathon PR: 2:03, pace of 9:25-ish

- Bench 1 RM: 105 lbs, increase from 90 lbs

- Deadlift 1 RM: 175 lbs, haven't retested

- Squat 1 RM: 160 lbs

I've reined in my food, focusing on eating 1500 calories a day and using MyFitnessPal to track. I wear a Fitbit to track my steps and I set my dialy goal to 2000 calories burned. I do NOT wear my Fitbit during any of my workouts: while it would probably be fine at steady state cardio there is no way I would trust it with my CrossFit workouts. In the pictures, I've included a screenshot of the app I'm using to track my daily weigh-ins. (I'm using Libra since HappyScale is only iOS, or at least it was the last time I checked.) As you can see, I've stalled this past week.

This week my workout focus will be shifting full-time to half-marathon training, leaving me with really only one night to attend CrossFit. Anymore and I may burn myself out. With that said, I've had quite a few weeks where I haven't worked out due to sickness or injury.

I am happy that the majority of the weight I've lost since December is fat, but I'm said that I lost lean mass as well. I knew it would be hard not to but I'm still disappointed in myself. I haven't been focusing on macros up to this point, but I'm going to pay more attention to the foods I'm prepping myself for lunch and dinner to increase my protein intake. Any suggestions for high protein lunch meal preps? I'd also love some recommendations for meal prepping for runners.

 

[crr]

@divinenature This is awesome! I just booked myself a DEXA as a birthday present to myself in May. I've been on a steady cut since mid-Jan, so hopefully I can keep it up until May. This is after lifting all winter. I'm slowly transitioning into running season (next 10k in 4 weeks) sooo it'll be a nice challenge. Thanks for the progress, it provides me with motivation!

 

[divinenature]

@crr Thanks! I hope your cut is going well and good luck with the 10k! Weirdly enough, that isn't a race length I've ever done. I've done 9k and 11k but never a true 10k. And happy birthday in May!

 

[kagenonikki]

@divinenature A long time ago I read somewhere that if you lose fat, you inevitably lose a bit of muscle because some of the muscle was helping to carry around the extra weight/fat. Not sure how much you lose though. That being said, it does sound like you should up your protein a bit... at least 0.8 g per pound as someone else mentioned on here. Good luck! You’ve made great progress!

 

[divinenature]

@kagenonikki I knew with a cut that I was bound to lose some lean mass, especially with a ~500 calorie deficit for most of the days. I'm hoping I can tip the scales towards more pure fat loss. (I like my muscles and I want to keep them if not make'em bigger damn it.)

 

[ladygardener]

@divinenature What was your avg daily protein intake for those 3 months? It's a bit disappointing to see that out of 10lbs, 4 lbs lost were lean mass. I've observed the same on several other weight loss DEXA scans posted here; in one, a woman's bf % actually went up with weight loss.

I get most of my protein from protein powder.

 

[richies]

@ladygardener I think that given the measurement of error for DEXA (+/- 4% seems to be the commonly posted number), it is hard to detect small changes. DEXA is more accurate that other measures, but it's not perfect.

 

[divinenature]

@ladygardener About 60 grams/20%. Some of that comes from protein powder, especially on nights when I work out quite late in the evening and reach for the easiest thing to eat before crawling into bed.

 

[totallyfind]

@divinenature I have two high protein lunch meal preps right now. Sometimes I mix canned salmon with light miracle whip and whatever else (diced peppers, mustard, hard boiled eggs, etc.) and eat it with celery sticks or carrot chips. It’s like a bread-less tuna sandwich. If I make them on Sunday they are still fresh on Friday. However I prefer spaghetti squash and sauce with ground turkey. I use 2-3 squash, two pounds of 99% lean ground turkey, 28 ounce cans of crushed and diced tomatoes, a six ounce can of tomato paste, onion, garlic, and whatever spices I want, usually crushed red pepper and oregano at least. That makes about 5 lunches. It’s tastier than the salmon but you do need a microwave.

 

[divinenature]

@totallyfind Thanks for the ideas. I've done tuna with ranch dressing in the past to create a "kicked up" tuna sandwich. I'll have to dig that up again with some veggies or veggie chips. And I always forget about Italian inspired meals when planning lunches. It's love an excuse to buy a ton of squash!

 

[bertchen]

@divinenature My lunches this week are similar to this - I use zucchini noodles instead which are super low cal and allow you to add more high cal protein - I made ground turkey meatballs to add to my sauce. The sauce I made wa similar to /@totallyfind, but mine had extra veggies in it bc I like chunky sauce (spinach, mushrooms, peppers and onions)

 

[divinenature]

@bertchen That sounds really good. I haven't made chunky spaghetti sauce in far too long. (Probably because all of my tupperware is plastic and I default to lasagna when I want pasta.)