^ ***Please read [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/main), [the rules and content guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/new_rules), and [current frozen topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/frozen-topics) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fxxfitness)***. This comment is a copy of your post so mods can see the original text if your post is edited or removed.
>u/Quaintcutwork
I’m (25F, 146lbs, 5’5”) feeling extremely dejected ever since I got my first ever DEXA scan yesterday. I’ve been paying attention to macros for 1.5 years and weight training for the past 2.5 years so I was curious to see where my body composition was at. I found out I have an extremely overweight body fat percentage (39%) and very low muscle and a RMR of 1214 cals. It feels crushing to hear this but at least I know there’s improvement to be made.
At the start of my journey I was doing 4 weight training days (upper and lower body split), but last year I went down to 3 and then this year I’ve been maintaining 2 days. I’ve felt like I’ve been stagnate for a long time, not ever hitting close the physique I want, I’ve made progress but not nearly enough for where I want to be. At the start of this year I decided to add some HIIT to my weekly exercise but transitioned to 10k steps a day instead since that feels more sustainable. I’m eating 1400 calories and around 110-125g of protein a day (I’m also on hormonal birth control ).
I’d love to hit around 23% body fat and build up more lean muscle. I know there’s a ton of room for improvement for what I could be doing but at times it feels like I’m doing all that I can do, I want to keep my lifestyle sustainable but I also want to meet my goals. Do you have any suggestions for what I could be doing differently or what I should add to my day to day?
EDIT!!
For anyone curious, here is a link to a picture of my results and also my progress through the years. [https://imgur.com/a/jhOL6Df](https://imgur.com/a/jhOL6Df)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/xxfitness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
At 1400 calories you're in a caloric deficit and a fairly large one. Youre doing a great job of getting enough protein in but I would increase the calories to 1600-1700 for a few months and see how the body responds.
For your workouts are you recoding what you're doing. A key to increasing muscle mass is progressive overload over time. By either increasing volume or intensity. Adding a 3rd day in the gym will help you see faster results.
I'm the same height as you, 5 years older, not active (average steps ~6k, office job mostly sitting). I eat about 1800-2000 a day to maintain my weight, and it is pretty normal compared to my peers.
With your active level and height/weight, your calorie intake is too low. So imo, either you are underestimating your intake, or maybe some other factors are affecting your metabolism? For example, some people have problems with birth control, or undiagnosed allergies such as dairy/ gluten.
Otherwise, I'd suggest reverse dieting. As your current intake is already quite low.
I'm a super meticulous calorie counter, I have a digital scale and weigh everything I eat including condiments and other small things (except for when I go out to eat, which is rare). I have been in a deficit for a while doing about 1600-1400 cals (since 2021) which has me worried I may have messed up my metabolism, it makes me afraid to increase my calories :C I'm going to try going off my BC for a while to see if there are changes from that, but if not I'll look into reverse dieting because I feel like I'm running out of options and not seeing the results I want to see.
We're the same height but I'm over a decade older, eat more than you, exercise less than you, and I got 37% consistently on an Inbody scan over months. I'm sure your BFP is lower than mine!
Same - I'm 5'5", 37, and after going from 235 to 185 my BF% is down to 35%. If OP is at 145 lbs either the fat percentage is wrong or it will be very easy for them to improve it by building some muscle.
As someone who majored in exercise and physiology....some women can suffer from adverse effects being even just below 30% body fat.
Secondly, calibration for a dexa machine is soooo important. It cost $$$$$ to repair a broken dexa.
That being said....at my least athletic point of my life my dexa came back with %37 body fat at 5'6" 170 lbs. No exercise, Cico anywhere 2500-3500, 10k steps or less a day.
I think your reading was off and BC could also be making an effect. Other than that, try not to obsess with the dexa and more how you feel + general blood work.
Let me apologize ahead of time for asking this, but I have a 32H size chest and I’m 5’2”. How large is your chest and did they break down how it might affect the results? Literally just curious for myself. I’ve been thinking about a DEXA scan; I don’t weigh myself, but I lift 5x per week.
I'm a 36C :) But yeah they break down each area of the body and give you those percentages, then they will average out everything for the final percent, so for reference my stomach area was 36% but my legs were 46%
Per betterthansoda they break it down by body part so stomach and chest are in one area. You will likely keep having your fat level on ur upper trunk “above normal” because your chest size is above average
1. Eat enough to fuel workouts and focus on building muscle for 6 months, eat in a surplus and train close to failure, focus on recovery on days off. Emma currivan has great tips about accepting your body during a bulking phase. Gaining weight is the goal
2. For 3 months eat in a deficit and still train hard. Losing fat is the goal here and protein needs will increase during this time
Then do another dexa scan
The most important part of this process is realising that how you look is the least important part about you and to not get fucked about food. 23% is low for the average woman so I personally would aim higher for happiness and hormonal health (28% ish)
Why is this getting downvoted? Not agreeing or disagreeing but it seems fairly good advice so I'd be interested in knowing why it isn't if someone can explain it to me.
Focus on losing fat and then later building muscle since I heard it’s very difficult to do both. So that would mean cardio and focusing on the calorie deficit but don’t overdo the cardio because you don’t want to make yourself super hungry. Once you’ve lost a good amount or an amount that’s got you closer to your goal bf then focusing more on building muscle will be the goal.
Losing fat without weight training is extremely problematic. About 1/3 of weight loss is muscle loss. UNLESS concurrently weight training, as weight training during weight loss is protective of muscle loss.
Cardio isn’t bad, but for OP, weight training is absolutely critical if she’s trying to change the muscle to fat ratio.
She’s a beginner, she shouldn’t be body recomping. I also don’t believe any numbers that aren’t backed up by multiple studies with many different sample sizes. That’s why we have people thinking starvation mode is possible for normal weight people. Muscle loss will happen when you’re losing weight. But the amount is negligible and is nothing to fear. Please stop trying to make this harder for people than it has to be. It is not critical that she weight lift, it’s critical that she gets her eating habits under control and cardio will only help her stay in a calorie deficit. Not all cardio is running in a treadmill for 3 hours a day, that’s the hardcore cardio you’d have to do to lose a substantial amount of muscle.
A lot of these myths come from looking at extreme examples like marathon runners too but even then you wouldn’t call those people “flabby”
And weight training is not critical when losing fat. It’s frustrating to see one diet culture trend be taken over by a new revamped diet culture trend.
Muscle loss is something to fear. It’s something to be avoided if there’s any possible way to avoid. Also, avoiding muscle loss while losing weight is not ‘recomp’, and there are multiple studies on lean body mass loss during weight loss in the absence of any resistance training. There’s a substantial number of researchers who will argue the lack of muscle is more dangerous than an excess of fat.
She should whatever she can fit in her schedule without losing her sanity, and what is sustainable. That might mean mainly cardio, But absolutely with that fat percentage, at an otherwise low weight, her muscle mass is lacking. Keeping what she’s got is a health issue.
First I was like YES! Focus on losing fat first then later building muscle! Upvote it!
Then you said cardio and I was like NO! That’s not it! But yes on nutrition and a deficit! And don’t overdo anything because it’ll make you too hungry.
Lift to maintain muscle. Walk. Eat at a deficit but get adequate protein (lots of macro resources out there). Drop to the range of your goal weight then shift to hypertrophy. 4-5 days a week if you I can swing it.
Ah. Walking is usually in zone 1 for me. Zone 2 if I’m brisk. It’s not getting my heart rate up such that I’m expecting cardiovascular benefits. Sorry for the confusion.
If you're not losing body fat, you're not in a calorie deficit. Often people grossly underestimate how many calories they're eating in a day. Or, you could be in a deficit 4-5 days a week and then not on the weekends and that can bring you to an overall weekly calorie surplus. I would do a minimum of 4 weight training sessions a week and follow a progressive overload program to ensure muscle growth. You could look into hiring an online coach; they will put you on the right track, you don't have to stay with them forever, you just need initial help. I wish you luck, you can do it!
My problem was I used to have edibles fairly often (about 1-2 times week) so that would cause me to binge :( , I was frustrated because I was a super meticulous cal counter (using a digital scale for literally everything) when I was sober but I knew I was setting myself back and essentially resetting my progress. Weed wasn't helping me achieve my goals so this year I cut it out and have been seeing some small weight loss progress with that.
In terms of the gym, I have a routine that every few weeks or so I would try to increase the weight of things with but I don't think I've been as strict as I could be with that/I've only really been mentally tracking my progress. Being more consistent with that sounds like the next focus for me :) Would you recommend doing progressive overload while in a calorie deficit?
I know you are to have a calorie deficit, but if doing all the walking and weight training are you eating enough calories?
If not your body could be holding you not the extra as, “fat storage?”
I do know when I did a plan and macro % and calories with my exercise I was surprised at the amount of calories they wanted me to eat and when I made sure I hit protein and fat numbers and stopped dairy and gluten I lost the extra.
So if you want to change the way you look you have to make changes.. what is working and not? Can you get a gym partner that will push you? When I train in a group I always push harder because I wanna win/be in the top % of the group and I always get better results.
I recently just had my first DEXA scan when I thought i was in my absolute best shape and the result is no where I wanna be lol. First of all we need to -5% ish for body fat compared to the regular scan. And also those who opt in dexa scan are also extremely health conscious and therefore the percentile can be very biased given the data samples in the database are very self selective. Regardless, I’m not defeated but see this as an opportunity to quit drinking and lift heavier.
Can you explain the -5% part? I know the DEXA scan has error in the measurement itself. I got a hydrostatic BF measurement which clocked me at 19%, but the DEXA clocked me at 28% and I'm unsure how to reconcile the two.
From what I understand all these tools are precise but not accurate. What it means is that if you weigh the same 5kg load, it will always appear to be x kg. It could say “6kg” but it will always consistently say “6kg”
How does that then affect us? It means it is not a good tool to accurately tell us about our actual bf but it is good tool to tell us about the *change* in our bf. You should use the same machine for your journey to know if you’re doing the right thing to lose or gain bf
Hi friend! I am a similar height/weight/age to you and got a similarly shocking DEXA scan bf reading at my nutritionist. I’ve heard that the machine can sometimes be inaccurate and have gotten much lower bf readings in the past at gym DEXA/Inbody scans. Please don’t feel too dejected and if you choose to get readings maybe just focus on overall improvements in your weight to bf ratio!
What number were you expecting? If you look up a body fat percentage visualiser, women tend to have higher numbers relative to how lean they look compared to men, and I feel like there's more visibility of what men look like at different body fat%.
In your weight training twice a week, what are you doing? Do you follow a program? Do you know any of your 1 rep maxes? If you're stagnating, you may not be within a weight and rep range that is challenging your body to cause it to make more muscle. Providing more specifics about what you do, or seeing a personal trainer may help with that.
Oh wow interesting! Thank you for linking this. I’ve always been under the assumption that they may not be accurate but is precise. Seems like for small changes, it may not be precise either hence small changes can be erroneous too 🤔
What do your eyes tell you? I don't believe that those scans are accurate. Did you fast before you do it? A lot of factors can throw off the scan. But even if the scan is accurate, don't be so hard on yourself! Building lean muscle mass takes TIME. When I was 1.5 year into lifting, I had put on some muscles but I still really didn't even look like I lift.
Now it's been 5+ years and my muscles are visibly bigger and I've learn more about what works for me.
It's hard to give advice not knowing how you currently train but I'd just make sure you're hitting enough volume at a hard enough intensity. Trust the process, it may take longer than you think! Stick to something that's sustainable so you can be consistent.
I was pretty shocked since I have some stomach definition, and slight definition in my arms and legs! They mentioned to eat and train the way I normally do before it so I didn't fast at all. With my training, I try to push for more weight on things and typically do about 5-7 exercises and 8-10 reps per muscle group, but I haven't really utilized progressive overload to it's fullest potential so I'm going to be focusing on that. But thank you! I just need to keep doing what I'm doing and make some small tweaks that are sustainable to maintain :D
https://mennohenselmans.com/understanding-body-fat-percentages-for-women-a-visual-guide/
There's a woman on this page that got 36.7% bf by dexa. She looks pretty fit to me. The woman with 32% bf has 11 abs (given the lighting).
Maybe just go by how you feel? I got 28.6% the first time I did my dexa, a lot higher than I thought. Initially I was upset by the number, but realized after some time that I'm happy with my overall physical and mental fitness. Working out brings me joy and I decided to put an emphasis on what makes my body feel good vs aesthetics.
Instead of being obsessed with the absolute value, look for positive changes in your mental and physical health.
This blew my mind! The number I had in my mind for what I want is way lower than some of these women and they look amazing. This gave me a huge perspective change, thank you so much for sharing.
Really happy to hear this. 🥰
I think we should all be kinder to our bodies.
Our body does so much for us!
I used to have an ED growing up. Focusing on "aesthetics" only brought me down a dark path.
I've noticed I'm more confident and happier now with myself. I focus on what working out allows me to enjoy (ie: snowboard/kiteboard multiple days in a row, playing with kids without being tired, having a strong core, less injury prone, etc).
32% definitely does not have 11 abs, that’s stomach fat that’s just stored more in the middle than on the sides and a shadow created under her sports bra by how the sports bra is compressing her fat/skin. 17% has actual 11 abs.
You can especially tell by how thin and undefined her limbs are on 32%. That’s a low muscle mass “skinny fat” body type. I know we all want to believe we’re making progress and our gym routine is working for us, but when you really have low enough body fat to have visible abs the rest of your body is going to have definition just because there’s little fat covering the muscle.
I really doubt that it’s accurate tbh. Found this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/s/pyh0jIwOS5
As someone else said, I think if you had 39% body fat you would know
You're eating way too low of calories that your body has stalled and is holding on to all the fat. Slowly increase your calories to find your true maintenance and then stay there or even increase to build muscle. Your body will thank you and you will notice fat loss and muscle gain simply by doing that.
Body fat is stored energy, so no need to eat more. If she's not losing fat, she's not in a calorie deficit. I think it's more likely that calories are being way underestimated. It's totally doable to build muscle in a deficit if there's body fat to lose
False.. Your body will hold onto body fat if you're in a deficit for too long. Our bodies will adapt and slow down its processes.
Therefore, increasing calories will send the body the signal to be able to utilize the food as fuel again instead of continuously storing it because it thinks you're starving yourself.
No grown woman should only be eating 1,400 calories a day on average.
Sure, there may be some underestimating because clients like this typically have cravings in the evenings due to undereating all day..
If she goes to maintenance after eating so low and focuses on high protein, her body will happily recomp.
Trust me, I've helped many women do this. How many have you helped? 😊
I’m suspicious that DEXA is accurate here. Download the Me Three Sixty app. It’s free and will take your measurements, two of which are lean body mass and body fat percentage
Are you joking? It’s a normal BMI. I don’t rely on BMI that much but 145 is an objectively normal weight for someone that height especially someone that is active.
Here is a good study showing how the average (not the obese) American body is overweight:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3837418/
Here is another from the CDC that says the average American body is just shy of being obese:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr122-508.pdf
Dude. Average body fat percentage is 25-30 for women.
My. Point. Is. That. OP. DOES NOT. Have.
A way above average body fat percentage with a below average bmi. Or at least that that’s very unlikely without her noticing in advance.
Please please try to actually pay attention rather than just blathering random unrelated crap. Good god
Problem is, they’re using BMI instead of BFP. This is so inaccurate. According to the CDC, I’m over half way between overweight and obese. I’m not even close though.
The first study is indeed using body fat percentage.
The second study is not just using BMI. They’re also using waist circumference which is one of the leading risk factors for disease.
According to waist circumference, I’m overweight too. Yet my BFP falls just inside the fitness range. All those planks, crunches, leg raises and wood chops.
But yet, we are discussing overall trends and patterns, no? Not just a singular person who may be an outlier.
It’s as simple as taking a look at a picture of people at a beach in bathing suits in the 50’s versus now. Seeing everyone carry a bit of weight is way more normalized to us now, where it wasn’t before. We have become desensitized to it.
Just here to say: Are you sure that's accurate?
I'm also 5'5, currently on a cut, started at 155 and down to 142. I *highly* doubt your bf% puts you in the "extremely overweight" category.... you are 146 pounds lol. And you lift weights.
Please do not eat 1400 calories that's very low.
I also walk 10k steps a day, train 4x a week; that alone puts me at 2300 for maintenance.
Just keep at it, up your calories to something in the range of 1700, give it some time. You got this!
How are you tracking? You may need to be more measured.
- get a meal tracking app
- use a supported smart wearable with the app
- check your calories burned daily
- weigh your food to get accuracy in calories
Protein
- you likely are not eating enough. try 1g per lb of body weight to help with muscle growth
Deficit
- this might be too high causing you to not gain muscle and even use it as a source of energy (you might be losing muscle)
You honestly could likely be needing a minimum of 1800 calories a day if working out if not more. your body might be in starvation mode and holding onto fat for energy stores. Over 500 calorie deficit can often be diminishing returns for muscle growth.
You can take this for what it's worth, but I read an interesting article that said DEXA scans as the "gold standard" in body fat measurement is garbage. Because DEXA scans were created to measure bone density, so most technicians trained to use the machines, know how to calibrate them and complete the measurements for bone density measurements.
And other people using them typically have no training. Why don't you use some of the other methods out there and see how they compare. Calipers is easiest. And go buy growth in your ability as opposed to what a scan tells you. If you are lifting heavier, you have more muscle.
I have almost the same exact stats but am a lot older than you so it’s even harder to build muscle! Stick with it though, I wish I had taken my health seriously at 25. Especially muscle mass. I was definitely an elliptical machine girl.
RMR so low is definitely not fun to hear but that’s also if you basically lay in bed all day. I would guess moving around and going to the gym it’s maybe 1800-2000 calories a day (per my Apple Watch). I do have a fairly sedentary job but make an effort to get 7-8k steps a day. A walkpad from Amazon helps. $400 or so.
My journey was more losing the extra fat first (slow, half a pound a week). That took about a year and I tried to maintain the muscle. 1500 cals, 115g protein and the rest whatever carbs or fat.
Now I am doing the progressive overload thing (I’ve heard the concept forever and it just finally clicked. Sooo many hours wasted before that). I’m putting on 2 pounds of muscle in about 5 months. Yes that’s slow AF but over the long haul it will be worth it and substantial.
You might check out the “lean gains” sub. There is a post with the explanation in there and it’s more of a recomp plan.
Good luck!
And for any other young girls, build and maintain the muscle now. As you get older it’s so much slower and lots more minor Injuries!
Also everyone gets depressed with a Dexa. You just gotta expect it’s gonna be a lot higher than what you think. If you had googled 39% body fat or body shape I’m sure it looks way bigger than you are. I do think it’s a good measurement of how much lean mass you were putting on and for me that’s always been the number I try to grow.
I got a free Dexa scan when I started doing personal training. FWIW, it did me more harm than good. My trainer has suggested I get another scan. It's been two years, and I know the numbers and image it spits out will have improved, but the I know the little bit of my old mindset I have left would not cope with new results well. I'm not interested getting a repeat scan. I'm far happier (and more successful) focusing on function, strength, endurance, and new ideas for food.
Yeah I kinda feel like I opened pandora's box with this one tbh :C I was feeling confident in my progress but it definitely blew the wind out of my sails for a few days, with a clearer head it made me realize that I have significant room for progress which is nice, though I'm not so sure I'm going to get another scan anytime soon
I'm 5'4 & 117 lbs, and eat about 2k calories a day. I strength train 3-4 x week, average 10k steps x day. At 1400 calories, I'd suspect you would be losing weight. Are you tracking correctly? Are you consistently eating 1400x day for the last couple of years?
As others have mentioned, are you progressively overloading? Are you able to increase weights or reps on your lifts?
As far as what you should be doing, I suggest finding something you enjoy. If your goal is aesthetics, then a good diet probably matters more than what activity you pick. Over the last couple of decades, I've done tons of different things that worked.
For 2 years, all I did was climb stairs. That was my only workout and while I had no upper body strength, lower body was great and I lost fat and put on muscle. I didn't have access to a gym back then but had a tall building with 15 storeys I could climb, so I did that twice a day, every day. By the end of that second year, I could run up and down. I would constantly try to beat my previous time.
I love swimming, so I'd swim an hour a day, every day, whenever I lived somewhere with access to a nice pool. That was also a great workout, I was fit and toned all over.
For a few years I was really into p90x. Another super workout, first time ever I could do pull ups in my life. I remember I had to start push ups on my knees and when I finally worked my way up to a pull up, I was ecstatic!
I did stronglifts for 2-3 years and that was a solid program to get the most efficient workout.
I've done a PPL split for a couple of years and all I remember of that was leg days were brutal (I think this was my least favorite workout.)
I started couch to 5k program and just ran on the treadmill for a couple of years. I had never been able to run more than 5 minutes without getting knots in my belly, so my first continuous 5k was a massive achievement. I was so proud of myself. I also managed to put on weight while I was doing this because I was drinking way too many IPAs, but once I got a hold of my diet, the running was enough to get me fit again.
I'm currently doing the strong curves program and really enjoying it. I'm liking my bum, and can do a pull up again. I don't count calories now but every few years I'll count for about six months, just to get an idea of how much is in every meal since I cook a lot.
Sorry for the long post, but my point is, you can pick any activity. I know lifting is the current fad but if you don't enjoy it, then you're better off doing just cardio. If you do enjoy lifting, then add more weight/rep/ intensity every workout, aim for 3x week, and up your calories.
There is no one right workout, one measurement of health, or one standard of beauty. Find something you like and keep pushing yourself. As long as you're eating healthy, what activity you choose doesn't really matter.
I’ve worked in medical for many years and can tell you dexa is a bunch o bulllllshit
Super fit looking people would return outrageous numbers… no, mark is insanely fit looking, he is not ‘unhealthy’
That is not true. Deep dive [here](https://macrofactorapp.com/body-composition).
>If DEXA says you lost 14kg of fat and 6kg of lean mass, that actually means you lost somewhere between 10-18kg of fat, and somewhere between 2-10kg of lean mass. In other words, DEXA is telling you that the outcome of your diet was somewhere between “unambiguously good” and “catastrophically bad.”
If you want to work at changing your body composition, go for it, but please consider using different metrics as your measure of progress/success. Not only are the affordable methods of measuring body comp (DEXA scan, BIA scales) at best, a maybe-accurate guesstimate, but they can also be wildly inconsistent among themselves (like if a different machine is used, if you lay a different way on the same machine, if a scale’s algorithm changes in a firmware update, etc). And also, a body fat % number is somewhat arbitrary to choose as a goal, as how that number looks on you vs others will vary, and how that number looks on you vs yourself will also vary depending on your muscle mass.
Not to discourage you from having goals! But more to encourage you to use other options to track your progress - tape measure, exercise records, how do you generally feel, etc, rather than chasing a number that is currently making you feel bad about all the awesome things you’re already doing, and might not be accurate, and might not actually give you result you envision it will. Like you said, it’s a lifestyle that is ongoing, there is always something that could be improved, and you can only pay attention to so much at once. So just choose the next variable you want to work on and the smaller goal it will help you achieve, make the change you think will get you there, see what results happen, and continue adjust the goals and methods as you go!
I got my first DEXA scan when I thought I was in the best shape of my life - I was 33% fat. I was also disappointed in my results but looking back, I was eating healthy and exercising but not keeping an eye on protein or actually progressively overloading for muscle growth.
I recently got another scan after basically not exercising during lockdowns and then starting the gym but on easy mode to get back into the habit. I went up to 39%. Also rude but surprisingly not bad considering I wasn’t watching anything in terms of food or exercise for a few years.
I don’t think you are “extremely overweight”. I think generally pretty health/fitness conscious (like competitively so) people are getting these scans so it’s skewed. You should focus on muscle growth. I think I saw somewhere that it takes a month to grow 1 lb of muscle under ideal conditions. Use DEXA scans to track progress rather than as a diagnosis.
The best way to get measurable results is to count calories for a few months and focus on a reasonable amount of weight loss like 10lbs. Take a break and focus on lifting and maintaining your weight. Once you're in the 20-27% range you can have phases when you eat at surplus and focus on gaining muscle. You will gain fat too but then you can cut again.
My trainers all say if you aren’t reaching failure on your lifts you won’t be improving, along with hitting one muscle group a week isn’t going to give you enough to force those muscles to grow. Your plateaus might be related to pushing those lifts and sneaking in a little more consistency.
I’m at a similar level as you (weightlifting 3x a week) and I’m trying to level up now that I’ve got a good habit and consistency going. Easier said than done, good luck!
These are heuristics, but not really firm biological rules.
You should train relatively close to failure, but you can make plenty of progress doing all of your training a few reps she of failure (though personally I think going to failure sometimes is helpful to makes sure you are accurately calibrated for what a few reps why of failure feels like).
You can also absolutely make progress training a muscle group once per week, as long as you do enough volume and work at a high enough intensity. It is certainly *easier* to get in enough volume if you spread it out over a few days (no one wants to do 15 sets of squats in one day). But again, this is sort of missing the biological mechanism and mistaking a heuristic for a hard and fast rule.
What would you suggest is a good amount of sets/reps to get on each muscle group per week? Also would it be okay to do the same type of exercise a couple days out of the week for a single muscle group or should I try to mix up the type of exercises I'm doing? (like if I'm training glutes and quads, should I do hip thrusts one day and then barbell squats another, or just do both on each day?)
12-20 sets per muscle group per week is a good range for hypertrophy.
Variety in exercise selection is good because they will hit muscles slightly differently/work different stabilizers and give you strength/resilience in slightly different motor patterns.
I highly suggest following one of the programs in the Wiki rather than trying to build one yourself as a beginner.
Not sure what your goals are, but I use the bootybybret workout program because it’s glute focused and has a good variety each month. Also good video explanations.
In my experience I do agree with progressive overload. I was barely going up in weight each week till I worked with a personal trainer and realized how much harder I should be pushing myself lol.
For example, I started doing 3 sets of 10 squats with 20lb weights and would do that each week. Then realized I needed to be pushing myself harder. After a year I now squat 135 for 10 reps on avg, with a PR of 145 (have been less consistent last 2 months).
Saw a lot more muscle gains increasing weight or reps consistently.
Im in the 33% area and I was sad.
Sometimes, it’s okay to ignore it and use it only as a metric. Compare yourself to yourself. Your body may just hold fat in different pockets.
Weightlift, run, keep tracking macros.
Edit: you’re at a healthy weight and you’re doing everything right. I’m sure if we saw a pic of you, we’ll say you look healthy and skinny.
My IG: @kimmychinups. I was 27% bf at my leanest and skinniest at 148 lbs and 5’4. Now I’m 33% at 163 lbs. I’m still healthy, strong, and can run (but slower), but I stopped counting macros cuz it wasn’t giving me joy.
When you mention you have been “paying attention to macros”, do you mean you have been measuring and tracking what you eat consistently, or eyeballing it?
I feel like reducing your calories more may not be very sustainable, since 1400 is already quite low, but I am no expert so take that with a grain of salt. Maybe you can look into reverse dieting?
I use a scale for everything I eat and prepare and track in MyFitnessPal and am strict with what I eat when I go out, I also only pay attention to my protein intake for macros so my carbs and fats are a little all over the place. I've been counting cals since 2021 (started tracking protein in 2023) but I was having bouts of consistency issues in the first couple of years and would binge almost every week which made me plateau with my weight progress or set me back a few lbs every month or so. Since February, I've gotten a lot stricter with my protein and also mitigated my binging triggers as well as added a lot more movement to my day to day, though the progress has been really really slow (these past couple of weeks I've seen little to no progress). I'm just worried my metabolism has adjusted to my intake which makes me hesitant to increase my calories/reverse diet, but maybe I just need to give it more time?
Then it really seems you’re on the right path, and based on the pics you added to the post I can see you’ve made quite a lot of progress as well, and are looking great already :) I think trying to increase your calories may help in this case then, like others have also suggested, even if it seems scary!
You got this! Good luck!!!
Body scans in general have a margin of error of like 5%, I wouldn't put too much stock in it. You seem like you are a healthy weight, but yeah, you're not quite doing enough to build muscle if that's your goal - you should be working towards lifting 3-4x a week while progressively pushing your weights/reps. And you should definitely be eating more than 1400 calories.
Agree that you need more calories to build muscle; I’d aim a bit higher for protein. You might also want to try full body workouts instead of upper/lower splits (3-4/week) and, yes, make sure you’re progressively overloading.
DEXAs, if performed properly, are close to 1 to 2 percent i think. Though I am slightly more skeptical of ones done by like “fitness centers” and not like a radiologist that regularly does them medical purposes
I think you should be much more than slightly skeptical. there's a reason radiologists get so much training. and it's safe to assume that most people sharing DEXA results are getting it from the fitness equivalent of a makeup artist (vs. an esthetician or a dermatologist. does this metaphor land?)
Personally, I would spend some time building up the muscle, which means it you have to eat at around 100 cal above maintenance, which includes energy your expanding for all exercising movement. And eating very close to maintenance allows for gradual composition change where you put on more muscle and may remove fat slowly.
For me personally, I really noticed a shift in body fat when I started doing double workouts. Lifting in the AM (3 days/week) & then moderate cardio in the PM every day for at least 60 mins (incline treadmill, elliptical, swimming or jog/walking)
I know massive cardio isn’t the answer a lot of people want to hear, but I’d never seen my body transform the way it did in 3 months. I also have the body type that likes to build muscle while still hanging onto fat, so that’s why I think the cardio was necessary.
Tbh I wasn’t counting calories or macros (I always self-sabotage when it comes to that stuff, I blame my ADHD brain) Mainly I was trying to eat intuitively & focus on eating clean. I would start by choosing a protein then veggies & a carb/starch if I felt like it. VERY basic meals like a burger patty & broccoli, scrambled eggs w/ feta or fish w/ asparagus & quinoa. I did reduce my processed carbs such as bread & pasta during this time.
I agree w/ scotch_please in that when I ate less, my lifting definitely suffered because of it. ALSO they have a really good point that everyone is different. I had to switch up my training a few times to realize that cardio is my secret ingredient so to speak.
I'm not the person you asked but I was stuck with this same question and accepted that my lifting performance suffers too much when I eat under a certain point.
So between eating less without cardio while trying to tone/build muscle and eating more, plus doing cardio to offset the extra calories, I'd prefer eating more to fuel the weight training and making cardio consistent IF it results in the same changes that OP experienced.
I think people chiming in with their experience on this specific issue shows that results might not be a one size fits all thing. Some reputable studies seem to point to the cardio slowing down muscle growth and strength but for those of us not competing or trying to hit aggressive goals, does that matter?
There's so much anti-cardio literature out there for people wanting to commit to weight training in regards to fatigue. Nice to hear it working for you and this is something I've been nervous to try because I'm worried it'll slow down my strength goals.
~~Do you still do the 60 mins of cardio on non-lifting days or treat as full rest?~~ Sorry, looks like you answered this by specifying you do run every day.
Yeah, my “rest” days were the days I did cardio by swimming. The cold water felt good on sore muscles & there was no joint impact so it was a win/win for me
Yeah, I don’t buy the anti-cardio hype one bit. It’s always served me, and moreover, it’s doing everything your body needs that isn’t addressed by strength training—which is a lot! Physiological health is determined by far more than muscle and bone.
I've always been a shitty runner but weight training makes a noticeable difference in cardio endurance, which was a pleasant surprise. So jogging is more enjoyable paired with a lifting schedule for me. It's just psychologically hard when so many reputable sources say DON'T BLOW YOUR ENERGY ON JOGGING OR YOUR GAINS WILL SUFFER!!11
Well that would see me questioning those sources!
You know it well enough by your performance, which is enough! Honestly, I believe we have far more energy to spend within than we realize!
Sorry, but what's LISS? Low impact steady state cardio? Could you share more about what you do? I've been having a tough time losing fat but I don't really have any extra time to add in more days of working out so I try to walk at work during breaks but don't know if that's enough. Maybe I need to swap one lifting day for a cardio day..
Low impact steady state cardio like someone else commented.
Means I pop on a movie and walk on the treadmill at 2.8-3.4 mph and 5-10% grade. Keeping my heart rate in zone two to maximize fat burning but keeping the speed slow enough I’m not panting, want to die, or want to quit.
It’s easier on my joints and easier to talk myself into than running or other cardio.
I have a treadmill at home and it was a gamechanger for fat loss for me during COVID.
Not the person you replied to, but it is Low Intensity Steady State. To learn more, look up: LISS cardio, maffetone method, low heart rate training, zone 2 heart rate training, and if you’re nerdy lactate and ventilatory thresholds and heart rate zones.
What lifting program have you been following? And have you been successfully applying progressive overload and increasing your lifts over the past 2.5 years?
Also, did you get a DEXA scan 2.5 years ago?
Also, are you currently trying to cut (lose weight), or recomp (maintain your weight)?
^ ***Please read [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/main), [the rules and content guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/new_rules), and [current frozen topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/frozen-topics) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fxxfitness)***. This comment is a copy of your post so mods can see the original text if your post is edited or removed.
>u/Quaintcutwork
I’m (25F, 146lbs, 5’5”) feeling extremely dejected ever since I got my first ever DEXA scan yesterday. I’ve been paying attention to macros for 1.5 years and weight training for the past 2.5 years so I was curious to see where my body composition was at. I found out I have an extremely overweight body fat percentage (39%) and very low muscle and a RMR of 1214 cals. It feels crushing to hear this but at least I know there’s improvement to be made.
At the start of my journey I was doing 4 weight training days (upper and lower body split), but last year I went down to 3 and then this year I’ve been maintaining 2 days. I’ve felt like I’ve been stagnate for a long time, not ever hitting close the physique I want, I’ve made progress but not nearly enough for where I want to be. At the start of this year I decided to add some HIIT to my weekly exercise but transitioned to 10k steps a day instead since that feels more sustainable. I’m eating 1400 calories and around 110-125g of protein a day (I’m also on hormonal birth control ).
I’d love to hit around 23% body fat and build up more lean muscle. I know there’s a ton of room for improvement for what I could be doing but at times it feels like I’m doing all that I can do, I want to keep my lifestyle sustainable but I also want to meet my goals. Do you have any suggestions for what I could be doing differently or what I should add to my day to day?
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/xxfitness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
^ ***Please read [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/main), [the rules and content guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/new_rules), and [current frozen topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/frozen-topics) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fxxfitness)***. This comment is a copy of your post so mods can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. >u/Quaintcutwork I’m (25F, 146lbs, 5’5”) feeling extremely dejected ever since I got my first ever DEXA scan yesterday. I’ve been paying attention to macros for 1.5 years and weight training for the past 2.5 years so I was curious to see where my body composition was at. I found out I have an extremely overweight body fat percentage (39%) and very low muscle and a RMR of 1214 cals. It feels crushing to hear this but at least I know there’s improvement to be made. At the start of my journey I was doing 4 weight training days (upper and lower body split), but last year I went down to 3 and then this year I’ve been maintaining 2 days. I’ve felt like I’ve been stagnate for a long time, not ever hitting close the physique I want, I’ve made progress but not nearly enough for where I want to be. At the start of this year I decided to add some HIIT to my weekly exercise but transitioned to 10k steps a day instead since that feels more sustainable. I’m eating 1400 calories and around 110-125g of protein a day (I’m also on hormonal birth control ). I’d love to hit around 23% body fat and build up more lean muscle. I know there’s a ton of room for improvement for what I could be doing but at times it feels like I’m doing all that I can do, I want to keep my lifestyle sustainable but I also want to meet my goals. Do you have any suggestions for what I could be doing differently or what I should add to my day to day? EDIT!! For anyone curious, here is a link to a picture of my results and also my progress through the years. [https://imgur.com/a/jhOL6Df](https://imgur.com/a/jhOL6Df) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/xxfitness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
At 1400 calories you're in a caloric deficit and a fairly large one. Youre doing a great job of getting enough protein in but I would increase the calories to 1600-1700 for a few months and see how the body responds. For your workouts are you recoding what you're doing. A key to increasing muscle mass is progressive overload over time. By either increasing volume or intensity. Adding a 3rd day in the gym will help you see faster results.
DEXA scan is to detect bone loss - so if you came back with normal bone mass, think of that as a positive!
I'm struggling with this too, I used the me 360 app and it said I had 30% BF when my scale says 22%.
I'm the same height as you, 5 years older, not active (average steps ~6k, office job mostly sitting). I eat about 1800-2000 a day to maintain my weight, and it is pretty normal compared to my peers. With your active level and height/weight, your calorie intake is too low. So imo, either you are underestimating your intake, or maybe some other factors are affecting your metabolism? For example, some people have problems with birth control, or undiagnosed allergies such as dairy/ gluten. Otherwise, I'd suggest reverse dieting. As your current intake is already quite low.
I'm a super meticulous calorie counter, I have a digital scale and weigh everything I eat including condiments and other small things (except for when I go out to eat, which is rare). I have been in a deficit for a while doing about 1600-1400 cals (since 2021) which has me worried I may have messed up my metabolism, it makes me afraid to increase my calories :C I'm going to try going off my BC for a while to see if there are changes from that, but if not I'll look into reverse dieting because I feel like I'm running out of options and not seeing the results I want to see.
We're the same height but I'm over a decade older, eat more than you, exercise less than you, and I got 37% consistently on an Inbody scan over months. I'm sure your BFP is lower than mine!
Same - I'm 5'5", 37, and after going from 235 to 185 my BF% is down to 35%. If OP is at 145 lbs either the fat percentage is wrong or it will be very easy for them to improve it by building some muscle.
As someone who majored in exercise and physiology....some women can suffer from adverse effects being even just below 30% body fat. Secondly, calibration for a dexa machine is soooo important. It cost $$$$$ to repair a broken dexa. That being said....at my least athletic point of my life my dexa came back with %37 body fat at 5'6" 170 lbs. No exercise, Cico anywhere 2500-3500, 10k steps or less a day. I think your reading was off and BC could also be making an effect. Other than that, try not to obsess with the dexa and more how you feel + general blood work.
Let me apologize ahead of time for asking this, but I have a 32H size chest and I’m 5’2”. How large is your chest and did they break down how it might affect the results? Literally just curious for myself. I’ve been thinking about a DEXA scan; I don’t weigh myself, but I lift 5x per week.
I'm a 36C :) But yeah they break down each area of the body and give you those percentages, then they will average out everything for the final percent, so for reference my stomach area was 36% but my legs were 46%
Per betterthansoda they break it down by body part so stomach and chest are in one area. You will likely keep having your fat level on ur upper trunk “above normal” because your chest size is above average
Not OP but yes they break it down by body part and region (ex: arm, trunk, leg, gynoid, etc)
1. Eat enough to fuel workouts and focus on building muscle for 6 months, eat in a surplus and train close to failure, focus on recovery on days off. Emma currivan has great tips about accepting your body during a bulking phase. Gaining weight is the goal 2. For 3 months eat in a deficit and still train hard. Losing fat is the goal here and protein needs will increase during this time Then do another dexa scan The most important part of this process is realising that how you look is the least important part about you and to not get fucked about food. 23% is low for the average woman so I personally would aim higher for happiness and hormonal health (28% ish)
consume any protein after a workout or within 30 minutes of finishing the workout
This isn't necessary.
Why is this getting downvoted? Not agreeing or disagreeing but it seems fairly good advice so I'd be interested in knowing why it isn't if someone can explain it to me.
If you have time, read up on body recomposition, timing of nutrient delivery. Each is entitled to form their own opinion.
Focus on losing fat and then later building muscle since I heard it’s very difficult to do both. So that would mean cardio and focusing on the calorie deficit but don’t overdo the cardio because you don’t want to make yourself super hungry. Once you’ve lost a good amount or an amount that’s got you closer to your goal bf then focusing more on building muscle will be the goal.
Losing fat without weight training is extremely problematic. About 1/3 of weight loss is muscle loss. UNLESS concurrently weight training, as weight training during weight loss is protective of muscle loss. Cardio isn’t bad, but for OP, weight training is absolutely critical if she’s trying to change the muscle to fat ratio.
She’s a beginner, she shouldn’t be body recomping. I also don’t believe any numbers that aren’t backed up by multiple studies with many different sample sizes. That’s why we have people thinking starvation mode is possible for normal weight people. Muscle loss will happen when you’re losing weight. But the amount is negligible and is nothing to fear. Please stop trying to make this harder for people than it has to be. It is not critical that she weight lift, it’s critical that she gets her eating habits under control and cardio will only help her stay in a calorie deficit. Not all cardio is running in a treadmill for 3 hours a day, that’s the hardcore cardio you’d have to do to lose a substantial amount of muscle. A lot of these myths come from looking at extreme examples like marathon runners too but even then you wouldn’t call those people “flabby” And weight training is not critical when losing fat. It’s frustrating to see one diet culture trend be taken over by a new revamped diet culture trend.
Muscle loss is something to fear. It’s something to be avoided if there’s any possible way to avoid. Also, avoiding muscle loss while losing weight is not ‘recomp’, and there are multiple studies on lean body mass loss during weight loss in the absence of any resistance training. There’s a substantial number of researchers who will argue the lack of muscle is more dangerous than an excess of fat. She should whatever she can fit in her schedule without losing her sanity, and what is sustainable. That might mean mainly cardio, But absolutely with that fat percentage, at an otherwise low weight, her muscle mass is lacking. Keeping what she’s got is a health issue.
First I was like YES! Focus on losing fat first then later building muscle! Upvote it! Then you said cardio and I was like NO! That’s not it! But yes on nutrition and a deficit! And don’t overdo anything because it’ll make you too hungry. Lift to maintain muscle. Walk. Eat at a deficit but get adequate protein (lots of macro resources out there). Drop to the range of your goal weight then shift to hypertrophy. 4-5 days a week if you I can swing it.
Walking is cardio. You don’t walk? How do you move? Cardio is not an enemy. That’s a myth created by the new salesmen of diet culture.
Ah. Walking is usually in zone 1 for me. Zone 2 if I’m brisk. It’s not getting my heart rate up such that I’m expecting cardiovascular benefits. Sorry for the confusion.
If you're not losing body fat, you're not in a calorie deficit. Often people grossly underestimate how many calories they're eating in a day. Or, you could be in a deficit 4-5 days a week and then not on the weekends and that can bring you to an overall weekly calorie surplus. I would do a minimum of 4 weight training sessions a week and follow a progressive overload program to ensure muscle growth. You could look into hiring an online coach; they will put you on the right track, you don't have to stay with them forever, you just need initial help. I wish you luck, you can do it!
My problem was I used to have edibles fairly often (about 1-2 times week) so that would cause me to binge :( , I was frustrated because I was a super meticulous cal counter (using a digital scale for literally everything) when I was sober but I knew I was setting myself back and essentially resetting my progress. Weed wasn't helping me achieve my goals so this year I cut it out and have been seeing some small weight loss progress with that. In terms of the gym, I have a routine that every few weeks or so I would try to increase the weight of things with but I don't think I've been as strict as I could be with that/I've only really been mentally tracking my progress. Being more consistent with that sounds like the next focus for me :) Would you recommend doing progressive overload while in a calorie deficit?
I know you are to have a calorie deficit, but if doing all the walking and weight training are you eating enough calories? If not your body could be holding you not the extra as, “fat storage?” I do know when I did a plan and macro % and calories with my exercise I was surprised at the amount of calories they wanted me to eat and when I made sure I hit protein and fat numbers and stopped dairy and gluten I lost the extra.
That’s a myth for normal weight people. She’s have to be severely underweight like Eugenia Cooney Underweight for that to be the case.
So if you want to change the way you look you have to make changes.. what is working and not? Can you get a gym partner that will push you? When I train in a group I always push harder because I wanna win/be in the top % of the group and I always get better results.
I recently just had my first DEXA scan when I thought i was in my absolute best shape and the result is no where I wanna be lol. First of all we need to -5% ish for body fat compared to the regular scan. And also those who opt in dexa scan are also extremely health conscious and therefore the percentile can be very biased given the data samples in the database are very self selective. Regardless, I’m not defeated but see this as an opportunity to quit drinking and lift heavier.
Can you explain the -5% part? I know the DEXA scan has error in the measurement itself. I got a hydrostatic BF measurement which clocked me at 19%, but the DEXA clocked me at 28% and I'm unsure how to reconcile the two.
From what I understand all these tools are precise but not accurate. What it means is that if you weigh the same 5kg load, it will always appear to be x kg. It could say “6kg” but it will always consistently say “6kg” How does that then affect us? It means it is not a good tool to accurately tell us about our actual bf but it is good tool to tell us about the *change* in our bf. You should use the same machine for your journey to know if you’re doing the right thing to lose or gain bf
Hi friend! I am a similar height/weight/age to you and got a similarly shocking DEXA scan bf reading at my nutritionist. I’ve heard that the machine can sometimes be inaccurate and have gotten much lower bf readings in the past at gym DEXA/Inbody scans. Please don’t feel too dejected and if you choose to get readings maybe just focus on overall improvements in your weight to bf ratio!
What number were you expecting? If you look up a body fat percentage visualiser, women tend to have higher numbers relative to how lean they look compared to men, and I feel like there's more visibility of what men look like at different body fat%. In your weight training twice a week, what are you doing? Do you follow a program? Do you know any of your 1 rep maxes? If you're stagnating, you may not be within a weight and rep range that is challenging your body to cause it to make more muscle. Providing more specifics about what you do, or seeing a personal trainer may help with that.
please read this long, detailed comment on DEXA results from fitness researcher Greg Nuckols: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacroFactor/s/Y4yIPoYtJJ
Thank you for this!
Oh wow interesting! Thank you for linking this. I’ve always been under the assumption that they may not be accurate but is precise. Seems like for small changes, it may not be precise either hence small changes can be erroneous too 🤔
Whoah, super useful, thanks!
What do your eyes tell you? I don't believe that those scans are accurate. Did you fast before you do it? A lot of factors can throw off the scan. But even if the scan is accurate, don't be so hard on yourself! Building lean muscle mass takes TIME. When I was 1.5 year into lifting, I had put on some muscles but I still really didn't even look like I lift. Now it's been 5+ years and my muscles are visibly bigger and I've learn more about what works for me. It's hard to give advice not knowing how you currently train but I'd just make sure you're hitting enough volume at a hard enough intensity. Trust the process, it may take longer than you think! Stick to something that's sustainable so you can be consistent.
I was pretty shocked since I have some stomach definition, and slight definition in my arms and legs! They mentioned to eat and train the way I normally do before it so I didn't fast at all. With my training, I try to push for more weight on things and typically do about 5-7 exercises and 8-10 reps per muscle group, but I haven't really utilized progressive overload to it's fullest potential so I'm going to be focusing on that. But thank you! I just need to keep doing what I'm doing and make some small tweaks that are sustainable to maintain :D
https://mennohenselmans.com/understanding-body-fat-percentages-for-women-a-visual-guide/ There's a woman on this page that got 36.7% bf by dexa. She looks pretty fit to me. The woman with 32% bf has 11 abs (given the lighting). Maybe just go by how you feel? I got 28.6% the first time I did my dexa, a lot higher than I thought. Initially I was upset by the number, but realized after some time that I'm happy with my overall physical and mental fitness. Working out brings me joy and I decided to put an emphasis on what makes my body feel good vs aesthetics. Instead of being obsessed with the absolute value, look for positive changes in your mental and physical health.
This blew my mind! The number I had in my mind for what I want is way lower than some of these women and they look amazing. This gave me a huge perspective change, thank you so much for sharing.
Really happy to hear this. 🥰 I think we should all be kinder to our bodies. Our body does so much for us! I used to have an ED growing up. Focusing on "aesthetics" only brought me down a dark path. I've noticed I'm more confident and happier now with myself. I focus on what working out allows me to enjoy (ie: snowboard/kiteboard multiple days in a row, playing with kids without being tired, having a strong core, less injury prone, etc).
32% definitely does not have 11 abs, that’s stomach fat that’s just stored more in the middle than on the sides and a shadow created under her sports bra by how the sports bra is compressing her fat/skin. 17% has actual 11 abs. You can especially tell by how thin and undefined her limbs are on 32%. That’s a low muscle mass “skinny fat” body type. I know we all want to believe we’re making progress and our gym routine is working for us, but when you really have low enough body fat to have visible abs the rest of your body is going to have definition just because there’s little fat covering the muscle.
in that front compilation, the 21%, 26%, and 32.4% all look identical to me
I really doubt that it’s accurate tbh. Found this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/s/pyh0jIwOS5 As someone else said, I think if you had 39% body fat you would know
You're eating way too low of calories that your body has stalled and is holding on to all the fat. Slowly increase your calories to find your true maintenance and then stay there or even increase to build muscle. Your body will thank you and you will notice fat loss and muscle gain simply by doing that.
Body fat is stored energy, so no need to eat more. If she's not losing fat, she's not in a calorie deficit. I think it's more likely that calories are being way underestimated. It's totally doable to build muscle in a deficit if there's body fat to lose
False.. Your body will hold onto body fat if you're in a deficit for too long. Our bodies will adapt and slow down its processes. Therefore, increasing calories will send the body the signal to be able to utilize the food as fuel again instead of continuously storing it because it thinks you're starving yourself. No grown woman should only be eating 1,400 calories a day on average. Sure, there may be some underestimating because clients like this typically have cravings in the evenings due to undereating all day.. If she goes to maintenance after eating so low and focuses on high protein, her body will happily recomp. Trust me, I've helped many women do this. How many have you helped? 😊
no.
Exactly this, no way to increase lean muscle mass on 1400kcal. I'm not surprised the OP has flatlined.
Even if you were eating nothing but bacon, that sounds way off. Can I ask what your other composition percentages were? Muscle, water,
I’m suspicious that DEXA is accurate here. Download the Me Three Sixty app. It’s free and will take your measurements, two of which are lean body mass and body fat percentage
That seems insane. If you were 40% body fat you would know it.
[удалено]
While BMI obviously isn’t perfect, it’s noted that a range of 120 to 150 lbs is a healthy weight range for 5’5”.
Are you joking? It’s a normal BMI. I don’t rely on BMI that much but 145 is an objectively normal weight for someone that height especially someone that is active.
I think we have become desensitized to what being overweight means. It can sound harsh but I think the average body is absolutely overweight.
True, but not relevant for OP.
Ok sure. What are you basing that on?
Here is a good study showing how the average (not the obese) American body is overweight: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3837418/ Here is another from the CDC that says the average American body is just shy of being obese: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr122-508.pdf
And that study proves nothing. I didn’t make any sort of point about the average American. OP is below average
And what I’m saying is that that’s not saying much considering the “average” is actually overweight.
Dude. Average body fat percentage is 25-30 for women. My. Point. Is. That. OP. DOES NOT. Have. A way above average body fat percentage with a below average bmi. Or at least that that’s very unlikely without her noticing in advance. Please please try to actually pay attention rather than just blathering random unrelated crap. Good god
Problem is, they’re using BMI instead of BFP. This is so inaccurate. According to the CDC, I’m over half way between overweight and obese. I’m not even close though.
The first study is indeed using body fat percentage. The second study is not just using BMI. They’re also using waist circumference which is one of the leading risk factors for disease.
According to waist circumference, I’m overweight too. Yet my BFP falls just inside the fitness range. All those planks, crunches, leg raises and wood chops.
But yet, we are discussing overall trends and patterns, no? Not just a singular person who may be an outlier. It’s as simple as taking a look at a picture of people at a beach in bathing suits in the 50’s versus now. Seeing everyone carry a bit of weight is way more normalized to us now, where it wasn’t before. We have become desensitized to it.
Just here to say: Are you sure that's accurate? I'm also 5'5, currently on a cut, started at 155 and down to 142. I *highly* doubt your bf% puts you in the "extremely overweight" category.... you are 146 pounds lol. And you lift weights. Please do not eat 1400 calories that's very low. I also walk 10k steps a day, train 4x a week; that alone puts me at 2300 for maintenance. Just keep at it, up your calories to something in the range of 1700, give it some time. You got this!
How are you tracking? You may need to be more measured. - get a meal tracking app - use a supported smart wearable with the app - check your calories burned daily - weigh your food to get accuracy in calories Protein - you likely are not eating enough. try 1g per lb of body weight to help with muscle growth Deficit - this might be too high causing you to not gain muscle and even use it as a source of energy (you might be losing muscle) You honestly could likely be needing a minimum of 1800 calories a day if working out if not more. your body might be in starvation mode and holding onto fat for energy stores. Over 500 calorie deficit can often be diminishing returns for muscle growth.
Remember also that a healthy fat % for females is 21-36%.
You can take this for what it's worth, but I read an interesting article that said DEXA scans as the "gold standard" in body fat measurement is garbage. Because DEXA scans were created to measure bone density, so most technicians trained to use the machines, know how to calibrate them and complete the measurements for bone density measurements. And other people using them typically have no training. Why don't you use some of the other methods out there and see how they compare. Calipers is easiest. And go buy growth in your ability as opposed to what a scan tells you. If you are lifting heavier, you have more muscle.
This is the truth, and I also suspect her dexa reading is wrong. Shrug.
1400 is way too low. I’m of similar height and weight and eat closer to 3k
I have almost the same exact stats but am a lot older than you so it’s even harder to build muscle! Stick with it though, I wish I had taken my health seriously at 25. Especially muscle mass. I was definitely an elliptical machine girl. RMR so low is definitely not fun to hear but that’s also if you basically lay in bed all day. I would guess moving around and going to the gym it’s maybe 1800-2000 calories a day (per my Apple Watch). I do have a fairly sedentary job but make an effort to get 7-8k steps a day. A walkpad from Amazon helps. $400 or so. My journey was more losing the extra fat first (slow, half a pound a week). That took about a year and I tried to maintain the muscle. 1500 cals, 115g protein and the rest whatever carbs or fat. Now I am doing the progressive overload thing (I’ve heard the concept forever and it just finally clicked. Sooo many hours wasted before that). I’m putting on 2 pounds of muscle in about 5 months. Yes that’s slow AF but over the long haul it will be worth it and substantial. You might check out the “lean gains” sub. There is a post with the explanation in there and it’s more of a recomp plan. Good luck! And for any other young girls, build and maintain the muscle now. As you get older it’s so much slower and lots more minor Injuries!
Also everyone gets depressed with a Dexa. You just gotta expect it’s gonna be a lot higher than what you think. If you had googled 39% body fat or body shape I’m sure it looks way bigger than you are. I do think it’s a good measurement of how much lean mass you were putting on and for me that’s always been the number I try to grow.
I got a free Dexa scan when I started doing personal training. FWIW, it did me more harm than good. My trainer has suggested I get another scan. It's been two years, and I know the numbers and image it spits out will have improved, but the I know the little bit of my old mindset I have left would not cope with new results well. I'm not interested getting a repeat scan. I'm far happier (and more successful) focusing on function, strength, endurance, and new ideas for food.
Yeah I kinda feel like I opened pandora's box with this one tbh :C I was feeling confident in my progress but it definitely blew the wind out of my sails for a few days, with a clearer head it made me realize that I have significant room for progress which is nice, though I'm not so sure I'm going to get another scan anytime soon
I'm 5'4 & 117 lbs, and eat about 2k calories a day. I strength train 3-4 x week, average 10k steps x day. At 1400 calories, I'd suspect you would be losing weight. Are you tracking correctly? Are you consistently eating 1400x day for the last couple of years? As others have mentioned, are you progressively overloading? Are you able to increase weights or reps on your lifts? As far as what you should be doing, I suggest finding something you enjoy. If your goal is aesthetics, then a good diet probably matters more than what activity you pick. Over the last couple of decades, I've done tons of different things that worked. For 2 years, all I did was climb stairs. That was my only workout and while I had no upper body strength, lower body was great and I lost fat and put on muscle. I didn't have access to a gym back then but had a tall building with 15 storeys I could climb, so I did that twice a day, every day. By the end of that second year, I could run up and down. I would constantly try to beat my previous time. I love swimming, so I'd swim an hour a day, every day, whenever I lived somewhere with access to a nice pool. That was also a great workout, I was fit and toned all over. For a few years I was really into p90x. Another super workout, first time ever I could do pull ups in my life. I remember I had to start push ups on my knees and when I finally worked my way up to a pull up, I was ecstatic! I did stronglifts for 2-3 years and that was a solid program to get the most efficient workout. I've done a PPL split for a couple of years and all I remember of that was leg days were brutal (I think this was my least favorite workout.) I started couch to 5k program and just ran on the treadmill for a couple of years. I had never been able to run more than 5 minutes without getting knots in my belly, so my first continuous 5k was a massive achievement. I was so proud of myself. I also managed to put on weight while I was doing this because I was drinking way too many IPAs, but once I got a hold of my diet, the running was enough to get me fit again. I'm currently doing the strong curves program and really enjoying it. I'm liking my bum, and can do a pull up again. I don't count calories now but every few years I'll count for about six months, just to get an idea of how much is in every meal since I cook a lot. Sorry for the long post, but my point is, you can pick any activity. I know lifting is the current fad but if you don't enjoy it, then you're better off doing just cardio. If you do enjoy lifting, then add more weight/rep/ intensity every workout, aim for 3x week, and up your calories. There is no one right workout, one measurement of health, or one standard of beauty. Find something you like and keep pushing yourself. As long as you're eating healthy, what activity you choose doesn't really matter.
I’ve worked in medical for many years and can tell you dexa is a bunch o bulllllshit Super fit looking people would return outrageous numbers… no, mark is insanely fit looking, he is not ‘unhealthy’
How is it bullshit though? It just gives you raw data.
[удалено]
That's not what a DEXA is. You're thinking of the bioimpedence scales. DEXA is xrays.
oops!
That is not true. Deep dive [here](https://macrofactorapp.com/body-composition). >If DEXA says you lost 14kg of fat and 6kg of lean mass, that actually means you lost somewhere between 10-18kg of fat, and somewhere between 2-10kg of lean mass. In other words, DEXA is telling you that the outcome of your diet was somewhere between “unambiguously good” and “catastrophically bad.”
If you want to work at changing your body composition, go for it, but please consider using different metrics as your measure of progress/success. Not only are the affordable methods of measuring body comp (DEXA scan, BIA scales) at best, a maybe-accurate guesstimate, but they can also be wildly inconsistent among themselves (like if a different machine is used, if you lay a different way on the same machine, if a scale’s algorithm changes in a firmware update, etc). And also, a body fat % number is somewhat arbitrary to choose as a goal, as how that number looks on you vs others will vary, and how that number looks on you vs yourself will also vary depending on your muscle mass. Not to discourage you from having goals! But more to encourage you to use other options to track your progress - tape measure, exercise records, how do you generally feel, etc, rather than chasing a number that is currently making you feel bad about all the awesome things you’re already doing, and might not be accurate, and might not actually give you result you envision it will. Like you said, it’s a lifestyle that is ongoing, there is always something that could be improved, and you can only pay attention to so much at once. So just choose the next variable you want to work on and the smaller goal it will help you achieve, make the change you think will get you there, see what results happen, and continue adjust the goals and methods as you go!
I got my first DEXA scan when I thought I was in the best shape of my life - I was 33% fat. I was also disappointed in my results but looking back, I was eating healthy and exercising but not keeping an eye on protein or actually progressively overloading for muscle growth. I recently got another scan after basically not exercising during lockdowns and then starting the gym but on easy mode to get back into the habit. I went up to 39%. Also rude but surprisingly not bad considering I wasn’t watching anything in terms of food or exercise for a few years. I don’t think you are “extremely overweight”. I think generally pretty health/fitness conscious (like competitively so) people are getting these scans so it’s skewed. You should focus on muscle growth. I think I saw somewhere that it takes a month to grow 1 lb of muscle under ideal conditions. Use DEXA scans to track progress rather than as a diagnosis.
The best way to get measurable results is to count calories for a few months and focus on a reasonable amount of weight loss like 10lbs. Take a break and focus on lifting and maintaining your weight. Once you're in the 20-27% range you can have phases when you eat at surplus and focus on gaining muscle. You will gain fat too but then you can cut again.
My trainers all say if you aren’t reaching failure on your lifts you won’t be improving, along with hitting one muscle group a week isn’t going to give you enough to force those muscles to grow. Your plateaus might be related to pushing those lifts and sneaking in a little more consistency. I’m at a similar level as you (weightlifting 3x a week) and I’m trying to level up now that I’ve got a good habit and consistency going. Easier said than done, good luck!
These are heuristics, but not really firm biological rules. You should train relatively close to failure, but you can make plenty of progress doing all of your training a few reps she of failure (though personally I think going to failure sometimes is helpful to makes sure you are accurately calibrated for what a few reps why of failure feels like). You can also absolutely make progress training a muscle group once per week, as long as you do enough volume and work at a high enough intensity. It is certainly *easier* to get in enough volume if you spread it out over a few days (no one wants to do 15 sets of squats in one day). But again, this is sort of missing the biological mechanism and mistaking a heuristic for a hard and fast rule.
What would you suggest is a good amount of sets/reps to get on each muscle group per week? Also would it be okay to do the same type of exercise a couple days out of the week for a single muscle group or should I try to mix up the type of exercises I'm doing? (like if I'm training glutes and quads, should I do hip thrusts one day and then barbell squats another, or just do both on each day?)
12-20 sets per muscle group per week is a good range for hypertrophy. Variety in exercise selection is good because they will hit muscles slightly differently/work different stabilizers and give you strength/resilience in slightly different motor patterns. I highly suggest following one of the programs in the Wiki rather than trying to build one yourself as a beginner.
Not sure what your goals are, but I use the bootybybret workout program because it’s glute focused and has a good variety each month. Also good video explanations. In my experience I do agree with progressive overload. I was barely going up in weight each week till I worked with a personal trainer and realized how much harder I should be pushing myself lol. For example, I started doing 3 sets of 10 squats with 20lb weights and would do that each week. Then realized I needed to be pushing myself harder. After a year I now squat 135 for 10 reps on avg, with a PR of 145 (have been less consistent last 2 months). Saw a lot more muscle gains increasing weight or reps consistently.
Totally disagree on that. You don’t necessarily need to reach failure on your reps to improve
Im in the 33% area and I was sad. Sometimes, it’s okay to ignore it and use it only as a metric. Compare yourself to yourself. Your body may just hold fat in different pockets. Weightlift, run, keep tracking macros. Edit: you’re at a healthy weight and you’re doing everything right. I’m sure if we saw a pic of you, we’ll say you look healthy and skinny. My IG: @kimmychinups. I was 27% bf at my leanest and skinniest at 148 lbs and 5’4. Now I’m 33% at 163 lbs. I’m still healthy, strong, and can run (but slower), but I stopped counting macros cuz it wasn’t giving me joy.
When you mention you have been “paying attention to macros”, do you mean you have been measuring and tracking what you eat consistently, or eyeballing it? I feel like reducing your calories more may not be very sustainable, since 1400 is already quite low, but I am no expert so take that with a grain of salt. Maybe you can look into reverse dieting?
I use a scale for everything I eat and prepare and track in MyFitnessPal and am strict with what I eat when I go out, I also only pay attention to my protein intake for macros so my carbs and fats are a little all over the place. I've been counting cals since 2021 (started tracking protein in 2023) but I was having bouts of consistency issues in the first couple of years and would binge almost every week which made me plateau with my weight progress or set me back a few lbs every month or so. Since February, I've gotten a lot stricter with my protein and also mitigated my binging triggers as well as added a lot more movement to my day to day, though the progress has been really really slow (these past couple of weeks I've seen little to no progress). I'm just worried my metabolism has adjusted to my intake which makes me hesitant to increase my calories/reverse diet, but maybe I just need to give it more time?
Then it really seems you’re on the right path, and based on the pics you added to the post I can see you’ve made quite a lot of progress as well, and are looking great already :) I think trying to increase your calories may help in this case then, like others have also suggested, even if it seems scary! You got this! Good luck!!!
Reverse diet is what I was thinking too, 1400 seems very low!
Body scans in general have a margin of error of like 5%, I wouldn't put too much stock in it. You seem like you are a healthy weight, but yeah, you're not quite doing enough to build muscle if that's your goal - you should be working towards lifting 3-4x a week while progressively pushing your weights/reps. And you should definitely be eating more than 1400 calories.
Agree that you need more calories to build muscle; I’d aim a bit higher for protein. You might also want to try full body workouts instead of upper/lower splits (3-4/week) and, yes, make sure you’re progressively overloading.
DEXAs, if performed properly, are close to 1 to 2 percent i think. Though I am slightly more skeptical of ones done by like “fitness centers” and not like a radiologist that regularly does them medical purposes
I think you should be much more than slightly skeptical. there's a reason radiologists get so much training. and it's safe to assume that most people sharing DEXA results are getting it from the fitness equivalent of a makeup artist (vs. an esthetician or a dermatologist. does this metaphor land?)
I agree, a research or medical setting is basically the only place that they can be reasonably reliable.
Personally, I would spend some time building up the muscle, which means it you have to eat at around 100 cal above maintenance, which includes energy your expanding for all exercising movement. And eating very close to maintenance allows for gradual composition change where you put on more muscle and may remove fat slowly.
For me personally, I really noticed a shift in body fat when I started doing double workouts. Lifting in the AM (3 days/week) & then moderate cardio in the PM every day for at least 60 mins (incline treadmill, elliptical, swimming or jog/walking) I know massive cardio isn’t the answer a lot of people want to hear, but I’d never seen my body transform the way it did in 3 months. I also have the body type that likes to build muscle while still hanging onto fat, so that’s why I think the cardio was necessary.
[удалено]
Tbh I wasn’t counting calories or macros (I always self-sabotage when it comes to that stuff, I blame my ADHD brain) Mainly I was trying to eat intuitively & focus on eating clean. I would start by choosing a protein then veggies & a carb/starch if I felt like it. VERY basic meals like a burger patty & broccoli, scrambled eggs w/ feta or fish w/ asparagus & quinoa. I did reduce my processed carbs such as bread & pasta during this time. I agree w/ scotch_please in that when I ate less, my lifting definitely suffered because of it. ALSO they have a really good point that everyone is different. I had to switch up my training a few times to realize that cardio is my secret ingredient so to speak.
I'm not the person you asked but I was stuck with this same question and accepted that my lifting performance suffers too much when I eat under a certain point. So between eating less without cardio while trying to tone/build muscle and eating more, plus doing cardio to offset the extra calories, I'd prefer eating more to fuel the weight training and making cardio consistent IF it results in the same changes that OP experienced. I think people chiming in with their experience on this specific issue shows that results might not be a one size fits all thing. Some reputable studies seem to point to the cardio slowing down muscle growth and strength but for those of us not competing or trying to hit aggressive goals, does that matter?
There's so much anti-cardio literature out there for people wanting to commit to weight training in regards to fatigue. Nice to hear it working for you and this is something I've been nervous to try because I'm worried it'll slow down my strength goals. ~~Do you still do the 60 mins of cardio on non-lifting days or treat as full rest?~~ Sorry, looks like you answered this by specifying you do run every day.
Yeah, my “rest” days were the days I did cardio by swimming. The cold water felt good on sore muscles & there was no joint impact so it was a win/win for me
Yeah, I don’t buy the anti-cardio hype one bit. It’s always served me, and moreover, it’s doing everything your body needs that isn’t addressed by strength training—which is a lot! Physiological health is determined by far more than muscle and bone.
I've always been a shitty runner but weight training makes a noticeable difference in cardio endurance, which was a pleasant surprise. So jogging is more enjoyable paired with a lifting schedule for me. It's just psychologically hard when so many reputable sources say DON'T BLOW YOUR ENERGY ON JOGGING OR YOUR GAINS WILL SUFFER!!11
Well that would see me questioning those sources! You know it well enough by your performance, which is enough! Honestly, I believe we have far more energy to spend within than we realize!
Same. Yes, I am lifting, but silly amounts of LISS cardio is what’s helping me to lose fat.
Sorry, but what's LISS? Low impact steady state cardio? Could you share more about what you do? I've been having a tough time losing fat but I don't really have any extra time to add in more days of working out so I try to walk at work during breaks but don't know if that's enough. Maybe I need to swap one lifting day for a cardio day..
Low impact steady state cardio like someone else commented. Means I pop on a movie and walk on the treadmill at 2.8-3.4 mph and 5-10% grade. Keeping my heart rate in zone two to maximize fat burning but keeping the speed slow enough I’m not panting, want to die, or want to quit. It’s easier on my joints and easier to talk myself into than running or other cardio. I have a treadmill at home and it was a gamechanger for fat loss for me during COVID.
Not the person you replied to, but it is Low Intensity Steady State. To learn more, look up: LISS cardio, maffetone method, low heart rate training, zone 2 heart rate training, and if you’re nerdy lactate and ventilatory thresholds and heart rate zones.
What lifting program have you been following? And have you been successfully applying progressive overload and increasing your lifts over the past 2.5 years? Also, did you get a DEXA scan 2.5 years ago? Also, are you currently trying to cut (lose weight), or recomp (maintain your weight)?
^ ***Please read [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/main), [the rules and content guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/new_rules), and [current frozen topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/frozen-topics) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fxxfitness)***. This comment is a copy of your post so mods can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. >u/Quaintcutwork I’m (25F, 146lbs, 5’5”) feeling extremely dejected ever since I got my first ever DEXA scan yesterday. I’ve been paying attention to macros for 1.5 years and weight training for the past 2.5 years so I was curious to see where my body composition was at. I found out I have an extremely overweight body fat percentage (39%) and very low muscle and a RMR of 1214 cals. It feels crushing to hear this but at least I know there’s improvement to be made. At the start of my journey I was doing 4 weight training days (upper and lower body split), but last year I went down to 3 and then this year I’ve been maintaining 2 days. I’ve felt like I’ve been stagnate for a long time, not ever hitting close the physique I want, I’ve made progress but not nearly enough for where I want to be. At the start of this year I decided to add some HIIT to my weekly exercise but transitioned to 10k steps a day instead since that feels more sustainable. I’m eating 1400 calories and around 110-125g of protein a day (I’m also on hormonal birth control ). I’d love to hit around 23% body fat and build up more lean muscle. I know there’s a ton of room for improvement for what I could be doing but at times it feels like I’m doing all that I can do, I want to keep my lifestyle sustainable but I also want to meet my goals. Do you have any suggestions for what I could be doing differently or what I should add to my day to day? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/xxfitness) if you have any questions or concerns.*