Edit: I just noticed that I made a mistake in the title!! I weigh 167lbs, not 176. And now I can't change it. Sorry for any confusion!
Hello! Because I know you don't want to search a wall of text to find it, here is my photo album (NSFW).
Now story time: I am a 35 year old woman, mother of two children. After my second child was born, I developed Hashimoto's (autoimmune thyroid condition). I gained a lot of weight in a short period of time. At my heaviest, I was around 215lbs. I was so exhausted I could hardly get off the sofa; exercise of any kind was out of the question. I had always been fairly active, so this was a huge shift from my normal. Couple that with the stresses of having two young children and I became very depressed. It took a few years of doctor shopping, diet experimentation, various med combinations, and a lot of crying but I managed to find a treatment protocol that helped me to feel almost normal again. Over the next two years, through calorie/macro counting, I got myself down to 155lbs.
About a year ago, I decided to stop counting calories so stringently... and eat more intuitively. Well, I put on about 12lbs because I love Ben & Jerry's too much and my "food-intuition" is shit. But I still felt and looked good, so I wasn't too worried about it... I assumed it was mostly muscle. My gym performance and energy levels were improving. Unintentional bulk FTW!
This last summer, I started training BJJ twice a week. My coach approached me recently about possibly competing in a few local tournaments. As I was looking into it more, I noticed that the weight classes for women in these events are SO DUMB. The highest weight class is 155lbs+.... which could potentially put me up against someone 50 or 60 lbs heavier than I am. THAT DOESN'T SOUND FUN TO ME. So then I made it my goal to get back under 155 for the tournament next March (5 months out). My only problem? I'm not sure I have that much fat to lose... and I don't really want to give up my hard-earned muscle for some low-level local BJJ tournament. Enter the DEXA scan!
My body fat came back at 30.4%. I already knew that I was one of the few people overweight by BMI but not overfat... but I honestly thought my BF was going to come in around 26-28%. Good news is that this means my goal of losing 10-15lbs is totally reasonable! I plan to run a small caloric deficit to get there... like between 200-400 calories a day.
Other stuff that I know will be asked:
I currently eat between 2500-3000 calories a day. My diet consists of mostly meat, veggies, ice cream, homemade bread, and way too much LaCroix.
My current workout routine consists of CrossFit 3-5 days per week and BJJ 2-3 days per week. My NEAT (non-exercise activity) is very high. I bike as my main form of transportation; averaging 15-20 miles per day. This is why I eat so damned much.
My current medications for my thyroid are 75mcg synthroid and 6mcg cytomel daily.
Thanks for reading all this! I highly recommend getting a DEXA scan if you can. I learned a lot from it.
Hello! Because I know you don't want to search a wall of text to find it, here is my photo album (NSFW).
Now story time: I am a 35 year old woman, mother of two children. After my second child was born, I developed Hashimoto's (autoimmune thyroid condition). I gained a lot of weight in a short period of time. At my heaviest, I was around 215lbs. I was so exhausted I could hardly get off the sofa; exercise of any kind was out of the question. I had always been fairly active, so this was a huge shift from my normal. Couple that with the stresses of having two young children and I became very depressed. It took a few years of doctor shopping, diet experimentation, various med combinations, and a lot of crying but I managed to find a treatment protocol that helped me to feel almost normal again. Over the next two years, through calorie/macro counting, I got myself down to 155lbs.
About a year ago, I decided to stop counting calories so stringently... and eat more intuitively. Well, I put on about 12lbs because I love Ben & Jerry's too much and my "food-intuition" is shit. But I still felt and looked good, so I wasn't too worried about it... I assumed it was mostly muscle. My gym performance and energy levels were improving. Unintentional bulk FTW!
This last summer, I started training BJJ twice a week. My coach approached me recently about possibly competing in a few local tournaments. As I was looking into it more, I noticed that the weight classes for women in these events are SO DUMB. The highest weight class is 155lbs+.... which could potentially put me up against someone 50 or 60 lbs heavier than I am. THAT DOESN'T SOUND FUN TO ME. So then I made it my goal to get back under 155 for the tournament next March (5 months out). My only problem? I'm not sure I have that much fat to lose... and I don't really want to give up my hard-earned muscle for some low-level local BJJ tournament. Enter the DEXA scan!
My body fat came back at 30.4%. I already knew that I was one of the few people overweight by BMI but not overfat... but I honestly thought my BF was going to come in around 26-28%. Good news is that this means my goal of losing 10-15lbs is totally reasonable! I plan to run a small caloric deficit to get there... like between 200-400 calories a day.
Other stuff that I know will be asked:
I currently eat between 2500-3000 calories a day. My diet consists of mostly meat, veggies, ice cream, homemade bread, and way too much LaCroix.
My current workout routine consists of CrossFit 3-5 days per week and BJJ 2-3 days per week. My NEAT (non-exercise activity) is very high. I bike as my main form of transportation; averaging 15-20 miles per day. This is why I eat so damned much.
My current medications for my thyroid are 75mcg synthroid and 6mcg cytomel daily.
Thanks for reading all this! I highly recommend getting a DEXA scan if you can. I learned a lot from it.