Newcomer, Skinny-Fat man

[Caiphus]

Hello all!

I'm 29 190cm and 86kgs (currently) and it's only been the last 6 weeks or so that I have been doing anything about weight loss because I've always been quite slender. It was a massive shock when I decided to check my body composition by DEXA scan (reading the 4hr body inspired me) and found that I was 24.5% body fat.

At that stage I weighed up at almost 91kgs, so in the proceeding six weeks I changed my diet drastically. I just thought my slight gut was from my party lifestyle and that otherwise there wasn't too much wrong with me so I always ate like crap. Whatever greasy junk, whenever I felt like it. My laziness led me to steer away from strictly counting calories and jumping on the 4HB's slow-carb diet plan.

For the last 5-6 weeks, I had been losing around a kilo a week and thought it was working relatively well especially because I was maintaining my relatively sedentary lifestyle. I went and got a follow up DEXA Scan and found that of my 4-5kgs lost, that only 15% of it was fat. After almost 6 weeks of a lower caloric intake, my body composition was actually worse. My body fat % has gone from 24.5% fat to 25.1%.

I'm a bit disheartened... I came here looking for advice and solace, but I actually feel like I've wasted the last 6 weeks because although I've lost weight, health wise I'm probably worse off.

 

[Skrillex1]

Hey Buddy, im new here myself and also an aussie. your a bit ahead of me in terms of progress but ill start having a look on the internet and try and find some answers for you.

What are you hoping to achieve? how much of the body fat do you want to lose and are you willing to exercise as well?

give us some goals and details and everyone here will be happy to give you a hand, its a great and supportive environment.

i the mean time while your waiting for to get back to you when you give us that information. Have a look at other peoples diary's. I spent my first night online here just reading and you can learn some helpful information and tips.

Hope to hear from you again.

 

[aloe1]

Weight training?

"I was maintaining my relatively sedentary lifestyle." Perhaps that is the key to the problem.

Please don't be discouraged that you have lost weight but some muscle too.
I think most people do unless they add in some exercise to maintain and even build muscle. Sounds like you are already at a good weight so why not try some body building?

 

[Caiphus]

"I was maintaining my relatively sedentary lifestyle." Perhaps that is the key to the problem.

Please don't be discouraged that you have lost weight but some muscle too.
I think most people do unless they add in some exercise to maintain and even build muscle. Sounds like you are already at a good weight so why not try some body building?

I can understand losing some muscle but only 600g of fat compared to 3.3kg of muscle would only really make sense if i was over-training or my activity levels had dropped significantly.

I thought I was around half way to my goal weight, and was making good progress, I was trying to drop down to around 15% body fat before I started hitting the weights because as I understand you can't body build without gaining more fat as well.

It also seemed easier to lose 8-10kgs then to put 20kgs of muscle on which i would need to do to make the amount of fat I'm carrying somewhere near acceptable.

I suffer from dysthymia and have been relatively home bound for the last 18months due to the motivation sapping affects of the disorder. My first bout of major activity for 8 months has been over the last three weeks where I have returned to university for the first time in 10 years. I've found it difficult to maintain a gym program in the past because I have seen little effect. Last year for 3 or so months I was training and playing soccer and going to the gym 2-3 times a week. I occasionally force myself out of inertia for a period of time but can never seem to generate enough momentum that it takes less effort to maintain eventually my concentration wanes and it drops off. I don't want to overload myself and cause my studies to fail so I was leaving the weights program until i got back into the groove of studying and completing assessment.

I'm thinking of adding 60-90g of protein/day extra into my diet from a WPI to see If that is the problem... plus I have also started doing some medium intensity weights twice a week.

Ideally I want to be able to balance my life to be around the mid 80s in weight with around 12% body fat, so I know that I will have to be body buiding eventually.

It's very disheartening that I have changed my lifestyle so much, and that the
results were only an illusion.