@7an13l Wow, that’s fantastic progress! It’s amazing you were able to keep your lean mass almost identical. Did you up your protein at all during your mini cut?
@sqs1 I was so happy to see I didn’t lose any muscle! My protein goal was 100 to 110 grams for the entire period, which has been the same since I started tracking macros
@dawn16 Thanks! I don’t think it was advantageous in terms of calories burned - 30 min of stairmaster intervals vs a 30 min medium pace run feels like similar effort to me. BUT it definitely made me more motivated and excited to do cardio since I was getting a little bored of stairs! I’m a huge proponent of shaking things up to get out of a plateau.
@dawn16 I’d be interested in this too. I have a love/hate relationship with the stair master, as I feel like most do lol, but I do enjoy it more than running. If you think running was a major factor though, I might think about switching it up! You look so great!!
@pixielee That's exactly why I am curious! I avoid the stair mater like the plague so I need confirmation that it's not bad to do that, haha. I do run about 2-3x a week (C25K).
When I get on the stair master and set it to like 3, I start sweating within 5 minutes and am totally out of breath. I know this is normal for someone who is not in shape cardio wise but good god, does it get easier? Lol
@dawn16 Yes. I thought I would die at first. At least for me, it got easier after the first 5 minutes so at first I knew I had to push through that.
I start 4 levels higher now than I used to and go up from there. The first 5 minutes is no longer hard but I start getting crazy sweaty around 10-15 minutes in and it's all a disgusting mess from then on. My best/longest time is 200 floors in 40 minutes.
@dawn16 Same. It's definitely easier than it used to be when I first started. Recently I've been able to do an hour on level 6 if I distract myself by playing sudoku on my phone, watching videos, etc.
By the way, awesome progress OP! I have a prepaid second DEXA scan (I paid for 2 when I got my first one) and I'm thinking I want to wait a few more weeks/months before I get mine just to make sure I really see a difference between my first and second one nice work!