I think that's it
Herb Nurse. I really believe that genetically I have a LOT of muscle to begin with, or at least a lot of potential to make muscle. My father's side of the family contains some very solid people, I notice it in my son, but not my daughter (who takes after her dad) that we are just more heavy even if not fat.
My son is a year younger than his sister, weighs about 20 pounds more than her and is just solid to lift. But he isn't fat. She on the other hand is this slight little thing that would be easy to lift.
My son takes after me, and I too am just really solid. I have a lot of extra fat on my body right now, I estimate that I have about 50 pounds of fat that I could lose, but I do think a lot of what I have here in extra weight is muscle NOT so much just fat.
And too I think that part of the reason I haven't dropped any weight with BFL was that at first I wasn't keeping the foods as low carb as I should have been, but also I think that I was just gaining muscle weight and water into those muscles.
I didn't say I haven't made any progress, just not weight loss progress. I do think I'm getting stronger, I do think I'm tightening up in certain places. I do think I'm building muscle and since my weight isn't changing, I am probably losing fat at the same time, otherwise I would be GAINING weight. But I do have a hard time seeing it. I think we get so used to looking at ourselves every day that we can't see small changes. If we do we don't believe in them.
I'm going to go get my photos printed today and see if I can see any progress from week 1 to week 4. Only by comparing will I really know if anything has changed, but I will let you know.
But your doctor is right, you can be overweight and not be over fat. If you weigh 200 pounds of solid muscle, it is ok, to be overweight. I've measured myself with the fat calipers, and they seem to be showing me smaller and smaller values. I have a hard time trusting that or anything, but I do believe that it indicates something good is happening.
IF so then for every percent of fat lost, (even if weight doesn't change and ESPECIALLY if weight doesn't change) it means that your lean body mass is increasing. For every extra pound you have of lean body mass, it means you can eat more food without gaining weight. It also means that your "goal" weight should be increasing.
If you originally wanted to weigh 130 (like I did) and you find that now your LBM has increased to (like I found) 145 You can no longer have a goal weight that low. To weigh 130 now would mean that I would have to lose 15 pounds of muscle and have absolutely NO fat on my body. Well women, even very lean women, carry around at least 15% body fat so that means that the goal has to increase to at least 145 plus that 15% Which would change the goal weight to 170 pounds.
Now based on that idea, if your lean body mass increases further, like for instance I went to a site the other day, plugged some numbers in and found that I might have increased my lbm to 159 pounds (if the caliper readings I'm getting lately are correct and I suspect they may not be), that increases my goal weight even more.
At 159 lbm, plus 15 % that makes the goal weight 187.
Kind of makes it seem silly to even SET a goal weight doesn't it? Unless you know how much muscle you have and how much you will increase it, how do you know how much you want to weigh at the end?
The formula is pretty simple. once you know your fat percentages, you multiply that times your total weight. That will tell you how many fat pound you have.
Subtract that number from your total weight to find your lean body mass. then divide that number by .85 percent if you want to wind up with a 15% bf (which is lean) or by .8 for a 20 % bf, or .77 for a 23% bf. This will give your goal weight at whatever body fat value you want to have.
Essentially every pound of muscle made is less fat you need to lose and more weight you can carry without being overfat.
That is the ONE thing that I feel like BFL is doing for me. It isn't bringing me closer to my goal weight, it is increasing my muscle mass and thus changing my goal weight and bringing that value closer to what I already weigh!
Weird.
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