I listened to y’all and this is what happened (body recomp results, month 1)

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prayforgaza

New member
Yes, trust the process (and follow the advice in this forum.)

I am 5’3.5” , recently lost 25 lbs. over the past six months, was left skinny fat, and was very reluctant to do anything that might cause me to regain even a pound. I can’t run due to a broken ankle years ago that healed poorly.

I took each measurement 3x to make sure they were accurate.

Jan 1 ( before rejoining gym: doing only daily yoga and home rowing machine for exercise; eating 50g protein on a good day).

Chest - 36” , Waist - 29” , Hips: 36” ; 125.7 lbs.

Feb 1 (after almost one month of Planet Fitness; adding elliptical trainer (25 min.), recumbent bike (20 min.), and weight machines (45 min.) every other day to the mix…) I also upped protein to 100-115 g. a day (inc. nightly protein shake of chocolate Jocko fuel), and followed your advice to ignore minor scale fluctuations.

Chest: 37.25, waist 28.5, hips 36”. Yup: 1.25” on the chest in 24 days (I joined the gym on Jan 8, told y’all my body loves weightlifting). Weight: 126.3.

I tried taking progress pix, but they set off my ED big time: imagine a grown woman running around the house, ugly crying and saying that if she really looked as muffin-toppy as her pix, she’d jump off a cliff. So rather than stoking what I know to be a mental illness (and not reality), I’m instead using how my clothes fit as a guide.

(Oh, and for anyone who says that they have to settle for a higher weight because they’re 30/40/50/whatever, I’m doing this at ***61.***) Will try to report back each month.
 
@prayforgaza Congrats! At age 61, you probably know this, but weight lifting exercises are incredibly important to protecting your bones and you are better off with muscle at a higher weight than low muscle tone at a low weight. We need to protect against falls. Also being too low weight can be an issue if you fall ill. I'm only 50, but my doctor prescribed me weight lifting exercises since I have a family history of osteoporosis.
 
@mercmorris28 Yes! And in addition to this, they is “muscle memory” but not in the way we think about it. If something bad were to happen to you and you ended up in a bed or recovering for months your added muscle “remembers” being stronger and you will bounce back faster. It’s amazing what weight lifting as we age can do!!!
 
@prayforgaza This active at 61? Get it mama!!! ❤️‍🔥 Love your routine, my only advice would be to possibly move up that chocolate shake to right after your workouts. I noticed when I drink protein at night my body is scrambling to digest it while I sleep and I don’t get as nearly as deep of the rest as I do on days when I don’t consume a large amount of protein right before sleeping. You don’t need to listen to my advice, but if you feel like this might apply to you, there’s no harm in experimenting with moving the time you consume your shake. Can’t wait until the next update!!
 
@prayforgaza As a 53 year old, I too would get paranoid about any weight gain and let me tell you once menopause hits it hard is as hell to keep the weight off. I started heavy weight lifting probably 3-4 years ago and I have never looked better. But I also weigh more than I did 4 years ago because muscle weighs more than fat.

The scale is not the only story of fitness, so good for you. Keep it up!!!
 
@geoh777 Thank you. I just started HRT (like three days ago) and I’m reading very contradictory info on its effects on lean body mass. One says estrogen makes you softer (which doesn’t make sense considering how lean and fit the younger women are at the gym.) The other camp says that HRT helps move fat away from the stomach and back to hips and thighs. Since my butt looks what another poster called “a leaky bag of sand” (best description ever, btw), it might be nice to get a few curves back. Will report back once I adjust to it.
 
@prayforgaza That is interesting. I do Biote pellets with estrogen and testosterone. I can tell the difference the T makes in building mass, hair growth, libido but never thought about the estrogen. I used to gain all my weight in my butt and thighs and now I gain in my stomach so it’s a constant battle. I have always been very curvy and that hasn’t really changed but I can see the difference in my butt the last few years from squats and running, it’s a much better shape. I would love to hear how the HRT works for you.
 
Reporting back in the HRT. I shed alarming amounts of hair for the first 2 weeks; my body was clearly in shock. It’s largely stopped now. The tummy pooch went down dramatically and so far, hasn’t moved to hips or thighs. And the libido is back and the atrophy is gone.
 
@prayforgaza so did you increase calories? how many cals? im curious as i am the same height. been weight lifting on 1500 cals for a bit and am not seeing progress. eating at least 100g protein
 
@timothy1212 i use MyFitnessPal, so it adds exercise calories to my daily goals. My base is around 1350 ( very slight deficit based on wanting to lose 1/2 pound of fat per week). So if I do 300 calories worth of exercise on a certain day, then I get 1650 for the day. I try to stay around 100 cal under my daily goal because I don’t trust the # of calories burned, according to the machine. (More of the disordered eating thing.)
 
@timothy1212 Not a medical professional, but here’s a digest of dozens of articles I’ve read on the subject.

“Body recomping“ is exactly what it sounds like: changing the quantity and percentage of your body makeup. Everyone has a body composition, “recomping“ is the process/activity of manipulating it, and “a recomp” is the result of going from one body composition to another. You can make yourself healthier or less healthy, based on the way you recomp.

You can recomp in a bad way by decreasing muscle mass and increasing fat (something that seems to happen by itself through the aging process. ) My fat percentage is higher now than it was at 40, from repeated dieting, even though I’m the same weight now as I was then. This is one reason why medical professionals strongly recommend that seniors stay active: to stop the downward spiral.

Your body can recomp in another bad way by losing both muscle and fat. (ex. fasting voluntarily or involuntarily, anorexia, otherwise being very sick, etc.) Your fat percentage may remain unchanged, while being at an unhealthy low weight. This happened to me in college when I had an ED, got down to 92 pounds, and looked like a walking cadaver. Working with a medical professional, I later recomped the opposite way by building both lean and fat to get back to a healthy size and weight.

On a less disordered note, you can recomp by adding lean mass while keeping your amount of fat the same. Fat percentage goes down because the denominator (total weight) is higher, even though pounds of fat is the same. Because you have more muscle, you’ll generally look better and perform better. This is the route chosen by people who are pretty much happy with their current size, but still want to move and get healthier. This is where I hope to be someday.

Finally, you can recomp your body by simultaneously trying to reduce fat and build muscle. This is something that sounds at odds, but which many trainers say is possible to do. You attempt it by reducing overall calories ***very modestly***, while taking in enough protein each day to protect your muscles for when all your daily carbs have been burnt up and your body starts looking somewhere else for the energy it needs. This is what I’m trying to do.

As an older person, my maintenance rate is not the same as a younger person’s, as my body and metabolism slow and use food differently. I also have more visceral fat in my stomach area that I’m still wrestling with, so a slightly lower daily calorie count is medically appropriate. My recomp is a continuing journey and I still have a long way to go before even considering “maintaining“ anything.
 
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