Skinny Obese?!? DEXA Surprise, 32f 5'9" 152lbs 44%BF!

[dawei7]

See below for updated goals and plan

As is says in the title I took a DEXA scan and a Resting Metabolic Rate test this week and was, as the kids say, SHOOK. I'm trying to understand the results, set a goal, and make a plan.

Why I am surprised:
My results came back showing that I am 44% body fat! I am about 20 pounds over my normal pre pregnancy weight at 4.5 months postpartum. So I certainly expected it to be higher but I thought I am still in the normal range of BMI so I wasn't expecting it to be that high, and when I think of 44% I think of these (granted, very unscientific guideline) images...

here
here
here

and this is me on the day of the scan... NSFW underwear

DEXA and RMR results: Here

I obviously need a plan but I feel confused about what to do with this information.

Qusetions:
* I googled around and found the term sarcopenic obesity, is this me?

Edit: probably not sarcopenic obesity, more likely just TOFI

*I've heard conflicting information about eating lower than your base resting metabolic rate, my RMR came back at 1411 calories a day. How much should I be eating? Before the test my plan was to eat 1300 calories a day , macros; 40%p 40%f 20%c . I do Judo 2x a week and walk 8k-10k steps a day. I'd like to start incorporating some kettle bell lifting at home. Should I be shooting for eating 1411cal a day or trying to figure out how many calories I'm burning and then add that to 1411 and eat that much. If I did that indefinitely how much would I lose? EDIT-in the side bar

*I think I'm going to start with a cut, try to get down to 125lbs (a number I pulled out of thin air) and then start a bulk. I'm trying to read leangains and some others to understand the cut bulk cycle but its a lot to take in. Any recommendations on cut/bulk cycling, should I loose a certain % of fat before trying to bulk of is 125lbs a good number?

Edit: background, I’ve been between 132lbs-142lbs my entire adult life. I don’t fluctuate weight very much but I’ve always been more or less this shape. I have 2 kids, one born a little over 2 years ago and one born almost 5 months ago. Both pregnancies and deliveries were healthy and uncomplicated vaginal births ,gained 27lbs with each, with no lasting diastisis recti. At this time post birth after my first child I was 142lbs and at 8months pp I got serious about it and with diet and exercise lost the last 10lbs.

I had major complications nursing due to mammary hypoplasia and so this time around I gave myself more leeway to eat whatever which then led to the holidays and 3 weeks in Italy sooo yea I let my self go a bit with refined carbs and sugar but since January 9 I’ve cut out all sugar and grains and I’ve already lost about 4lbs.

History with exercise, I used to lift and do CrossFit but when I became pregnant with my first child I quit big mistake in hind sight .

I started judo in November so I’m still a noob at that. I do have a toddler and baby as my job so they keep me moving and I live on the third floor of a walk up, in a city where I don’t own a car, so I walk a lot usually with baby in carrier while pushing toddler in stroller, and it’s hilly here.

I plan on adding some strength training into the mix

New goal is to recomp rather than a hard cut bulk cycle. I’m already losing weight because I cut out sugar and junk but where ever that weight stabilizes is fine with me , I won’t try to cut more. I will try to eat over 100g (maybe more?) of protein a day so I can work on building muscle . I read 1/2lb a month for women is a reasonable goal so that’s what I’ll shoot for, in 6 months I’ll do another DEXA and see where I’m at.

Because this journey will likely take years I’m trying to figure out a long term goal. Maybe 120lbs of lean mass to 25lbs of fat? That would make me 145lbs and would likely take 5.5 years.

While I’m working on that I’m going to schedule a dr appt to try and go down the rabbit hole of what my hormones are like and if there is an underlying issue to why I gain weight in this way and not on my hips like most women.

Thanks for all of you help on this ladies!

 

[thaonguyen225]

@dawei7 So, you only have 85 lbs. lean body mass. Every pound of muscle you gain will make a difference. All the recommendations here will work to improve your health and body composition, whether you cut then bulk or recomp or gain strength while losing fat. You won't lose muscle from a cut if you do any strength exercise (bodyweight or weights) and get adequate protein, which is not a lot for such a low LBM. You have 60 lbs. of fat.
I've had 3 babies myself and I'm a medical provider, you should already have been cleared to exercise normally unless there were major complications.
Find a gym with good childcare and pick a program and you will be so pleased with how fast you progress. I got into shape from sedentary/skinny-fat after my third was born.

 

[dawei7]

@thaonguyen225 Yes I’m totally cleared for exersise many have been asking about it so I will edit my post to reflect what’s going on in that department. I’m focused on building muscle from now on

 

[rui]

@dawei7 Where did you get a dexa scan and what was the cost? I’m in Canada and can’t find much information about them! Help!

 

[dawei7]

@rui I found a company near me called bodyspec .There are a few different companies here but I don’t think it matters much which company it is, just the results. My DEXA was $45 and RMR was $75

 

[cr0011]

@dawei7 I had a similar experience. Looking at the very unscientific charts above, plus being in the dead center of healthy BMI, my boyfriend and I thought I was somewhere around 22% body fat. Lo and behold, I have a dexa scan and I'm 35% body fat! I had a little too much fat, but mainly my lean mass was too low, so I've been doing some weight lifting. I'll get retested in a few months and see where I'm at.

 

[dasiebe01]

@dawei7 Is this your first baby? I wonder what kind of insanity a woman must have to get a DEXA at only 4 months postpartum LOL!!! I could easily sit at 35-40% at 4 months postpartum and then be 20-22% just over a year later: it is a BAD time to try and figure out your body because it's just too soon.

That being said, your lean mass is quite low, which is skewing your results to look like it's "too much fat".

 

[dawn16]

@dawei7 You had a baby and don’t mention any pre-existing level of fitness. Start exercising and building muscle, eating healthy nutritious food and let your body recover from having a baby.

 

[justsumgai]

@dawei7 Woman, yes, you need to lose weight. But can we just pause for a moment because: YOU'RE ONLY 4.5 MONTHS POSTPARTUM. Your body went through a huge stress and transformation recently. And it took you nearly 10 months to grow a human, your body needs recovery time. I’m not surprised that you have a high BF %, most women do after having a baby. Be kind to yourself. Focus on your diet (being aware that if you’re breastfeeding weight loss will be harder). Keep moving.

 

[pampermommy]

@dawei7 Your issue is you have very low lean muscle mass. Not to overly analyze or criticize, but note how top heavy you look. This isn't because you have skinny arms and legs per se but because they're no muscle in them. Building muscle will fix this.

Honestly, you should for the time being drop or reduce the amount of low intensity training you're doing and substitute high intensity training. You should start weight lifting and swap your cardio for HIIT (e.g. sprinting or sprint cycling).

Diet wise, just start by increasing your protein intake significantly to allow for the muscle growth to happen.

 

[dale_r]

@dawei7 Why is no one picking up on the fact you are only 4.5 months postpartum?! The body is designed to lay down extra fat reserves during pregnancy and breastfeeding and you had a baby very recently! You’re having a lot of people tell you you have a lot of fat around your midsection, but this is ignoring the changes to our muscles and connective tissue that occur during pregnancy and postpartum which change the shape of our midsections. Have you been checked for diastis recti? This is a very common cause of the post-baby mummy tummy and the wrong sorts of exercise can make it much worse. I would really caution you against engaging in drastic high intensity exercise or diet changes while you are still so recently postpartum. My women’s health physiotherapist advised me that women should consider themselves postpartum for up to 12 months and exercise accordingly to avoid damage such as pelvic organs prolapse.

 

[dawn16]

@dale_r I have had 2 kids and I still think at ~5 months post partum 44% fat is still too high and should be addressed. Not in an extreme but she needs to be healthy. That is not. She is at a point post partum where exercise and nutrition should be perfectly fine to add back in.

 

[justsumgai]

@dawn16 I think the commenter is pointing out that sure, she may need diet and exercise changes but she should be doing so under the advice and care of a physician. I also don't think she should be engaging in exercises without remembering that she just had a baby and birth recovery takes a long time. A weightlifting program (especially for a new lifter) may not be warranted right now, she needs to be kind to her postpartum body whilst addressing her weight/fat issues.

 

[dawn16]

@justsumgai Of course she does, I don't think anyone wants her to feel sorry/bad about herself. Barring any really traumatic surgery or tearing though, trust me, she's well cleared for exercise. Typically only 6 weeks of rest is prescribed following birth, then you're good, and it doesn't take many that long. Again, if there's some awful birth experience we don't know about, that would potentially factor in, but really, your body is plenty able at 5 months pp to workout and nobody has suggested anything insane.

If she's breastfeeding, she will need to factor that into her plans and not crash diet but again nobody suggested anything more crazy than dial in good nutrition, which is reasonable and won't hurt the baby or milk.

 

[angelsm355]

@dale_r Agreed!! Are you breastfeeding? My littlest human is almost 1 and she nurses way more than her siblings. She was recently sick and easily nursing 3+ times at night and at least 4+ times during the day. If we lived in times when food wasn't guaranteed I can see where reserves would definitely be needed. Even now, if I "overeat" (like at Christmas) I still barely gain anything because of her nursing and my activity level. I believe the calorie burn is something like 500/day with nursing. Also, she was in a funky breech position for most of pregnancy so towards the end I went from walking 3-5 miles daily to BARELY being active due to pelvic and other pains. So waaay to much sedentary time.

 

[dane1778]

@dale_r Upvoting this for attention. OP these adjustments you want to make are really something to talk over with your doctor because you are still recovering from birth!

 

[trustingin]

@dale_r YES! I was going to say just this. It took months to get all that weight around your belly it will take SEVERAL months for it to start to go back to normal. I would not go too crazy about your body fat percentage considering how close to pp you are. I would just do some moderate exercise and rescan at about 14 months post partum and see where you're at. I don't know how many kids you've had, but after my first I had a mommy friend who's had three of her own tell me things weren't 100% back to normal until she was 14 months post. I was shocked and horrified and then it was true. And true again after each of my other 2. I'm not saying every woman is fat for 14 months pp, but by your scale and height I wouldn't call you fat either. You just need to give your body time to put itself back together.

 

[dawn16]

@dawei7 So one thing I kind of dislike about this sub is the pervasive idea that everything needs to be a cut/bulk. You have no need to do that. You have no muscle to reveal, you're not in a bikini comp. You need to work on a) building muscle and b) burning fat with HIIT and diet. Your fat is all concentrated around your midsection which is the unhealthiest form of fat. You have slender limbs which I think has tricked you into thinking you're "skinny" but 44% of fat concentrated in your midsection is very unhealthy.

Get a good nutrition plan going. Protein at 70% of what your body weight is, at least. Lots of veggies and good grains. Add in resistance training 3x a week and a sustainable cardio plan 2-3x as well.

 

[christroy]

@dawn16 God yes. I felt so overwhelmed when I first got here and saw everything was bulking/cutting. That's never been my goal. I just want to lose some fat, gain some muscle definition and then maintain.

 

[kagenonikki]

@dawn16 Thank you! Not to hijack this discussion, but I agree that there is a lot of talk on here about cutting and bulking, when it’s probably unnecessary in most cases. I’ve read that bulking can cause you to increase the number of fat cells (not just the size), which then makes it harder to cut. Also. I’ve heard cutting and bulking described as feeling like crap for half the year and looking like crap for half the year. I understand that people do it to gain muscle, but at the expense of adding fat cells, I’m not sure it’s worth it. Maybe one day I’ll change my mind, but for now... recomp all the way!