Week 4 Weigh in: Big Changes to Body Composition…But Not Weight

Another week has come and gone, and I’m four weeks into this project! I feel like I’m not to the point, yet, where all of these efforts have become second nature. But I’m willing to keep working on it! I’m happy to say that I’ve pushed through many moments of food temptation, without giving in. Although imperfect, I’m happy with my efforts. I’ve made progress in how I feel, and I’ve also made progress which is now visible! I’m super excited about that, and can’t wait to see what the next four weeks brings! Let’s get right to it!

End of week 4: Before and After pictures

Week 4 food journal:

I’m placing today’s food log here. If you really care to see how I ate the rest of the week, those logs can be found at the bottom of this post. As always, it is highly likely that I ate the food in a different order than it was logged. But the foods I ate were all measured, and logged as accurately as possible.

There were many moments where I had to give myself a pep talk to stay on plan with my food intake, this week. I actually found things really difficult on Saturday, the day after my indulgence meal. It felt like I was playing a cruel trick on myself because I was super permissive with food the night before. It felt really challenging to go back into strict strategy mode. But I did it! I did eat a couple extra hundred calories on Saturday, but I’m not very concerned about that.

Then today, when I took Progeny #1 to the drive through at Chic-fil-A, I had to think through what I wanted more between a couple of his waffle fries or continued forward progression. My will power to win at this weight loss game won out. All it required was for me to be mindful of my ultimate desire rather than my desire in the moment.

Monday, I switched my macros to the even lower carbohydrates. My body seemed to really respond to that. I did find myself to be hungrier. I’m wondering if I should incorporate more intermittent fasts as my body adapts to this new macronutrient target range. That way I can eat slightly larger meals, less frequently, until my body adapts to utilizing more fats as energy rather than carbs. We’ll see…

Also, I know I said in the week 4 meal plan post that I was gravitating towards dairy free. I still find myself struggling to commit to that. And I do believe that it can prove to have positive health benefits. I am just a bit anxious about nurturing the part of my brain that thinks thoughts about food prison. And I want to avoid inviting in the binge tendency, so I’m somewhat easing into the no dairy thing. Maybe I’ll shoot for every other day without dairy to begin with.

Week 4 bioelectrical impedence assessment results:

The results, this week were pretty drastic. I went ahead and did some research on the bioelectrical impedance assessment accuracy. It looks as though there is a 4% margin of error in the accuracy of the results. I’m already excited for next Thursday’s weigh in to see if this week’s results did trend a bit toward that 4% error. Just look below, there were some huge changes in body composition. I can’t help wondering, is too good to be true? I’m just telling you what the InBody report told me:

Breaking my total body weight down into different categories of body composition:

My total body weight: 136.5 lbs (Exact same as last week! Total of 6.4 lbs. lost since start date).

• Total Body water: 81.8 lb. (This increased by a whopping 4.7 pounds since last week! Biggest water weight increase, yet! Total of 3.5lb. increase since start date).
• Dry lean mass: 30 lb. (Increase of 1.2 lbs. since last week, and increase of .9 lb. since start date. Remember that this includes muscle, organs, and bone minus any fluid)
• Body fat mass: 24.7 lb. (This was a 5.9 lb decrease from last week! Total of 10.8 lb. lost since start date!)
• Skeletal muscle mass: 62.6 lb. (Increase of 3.3 lb. from last week. Total of 2.6 lb. increase in muscle since start date)
• BMI: 23.4 (Same as last week. Total BMI decrease of 1.1 since start date)
• Body fat percentage: 18% (This is down by 4.4% from last week. A big jump because of large increase in water weight and big drop in fat. Total of 6.7% decrease in body fat percentage since start date.)
• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): 1465 calories (This increased by 58 calories. Increasing muscle means greater calorie burn at rest.)
• Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): 2267 calories (Because my BMR increased, this number increased by 86 calories from last week)
• Calorie target range for weight loss: 1560 calories (This is the first week that I’m not adjusting this number. There were only two days, this last week that my end of the day calorie log came in lower than this number. With the excellent body composition change, this week, I see that I can still eat a bit more than 1560 calories and successfully lose fat, if I feel like I need it. If I don’t feel like I need to eat more than this calorie range, then I won’t.)

Week 4 measuring tape results:

• Right calf (measured at widest part): 14 3/8 inches (Down 1/8 inch from last week, and down 3/8 inch from first measurement)
• Right thigh (measured at widest part): 22 1/2 inches (Same as last week, and down 1/2 inch from first measurement)
• Hips (measured at widest part): 38 3/4 inches (Down 3/8 inch from last week, Down 4 1/4 inches from first measurement)
• Butt (measured at widest part): 37 3/4 inches (Down 5/8 inch from last week. Down 1 inch from first measurement.)
• Right below my muffin top: 35 inches (Down 5/8 inch from last week, and down 3/4 inch from first measurement)
• Waistline (measured across belly button): 34 inches (Down 1/8 inch from last week, and down 1 1/4 inch from first measurement)
• Chest (measured at widest part): 37 inches (Down 5/8 inch from last week. Down 1/4 inch from first measurement.)
• Shoulders (measured at widest part): 40 1/8 inches (Down 1/4 inch from last week. Down 3/8 inch from first measurement)
• Biceps: (measured at widest part): 11 1/4 inches (Down 1/4 inch from last week, and 1/4 inch from first measurement).

This is what my workouts looked like:

Summary

My results were pretty big, this week. The scale weight didn’t budge from last week, but I had these three huge shifts in my body composition: my water weight increased by 4.7 lb., I gained 3.3 lb. of muscle, and I lost 5.9 lb. fat. My body seemed to really respond to the shift in my macronutrient target range as I decreased my carbohydrates, and increased my fat consumption. Remember last week when I didn’t lose any fat? I made up for it this week with a large amount of fat loss. As mentioned above, these amounts seem drastic, almost too good to be true. So we’re open minded to the fact that this might be the effects of the 4% margin of error, and we’ll get a better idea when we view next week’s results.

FOOD JOURNALS

Friday, January 22

Reminder: This was my indulgence day. I only recorded my food intake up until my indulgence meal. One of the rules of the indulgence meal is that I get to have the liberation from logging my food. This provides a much needed mental break from the rigidity of this process. I wrote all about the indulgence meal here.

Saturday, January 23

Sunday, January 24

Monday, January 25

Tuesday, January 26

Wednesday, January 27