The Metrics of Muscle Gain

[blueskighs]

Now I know that everyone is not interested in this but for those of you who, like me, DO have a certain fascination with metrics I found this very interesting.

I joined a gym in December 2007 and at my complementary "intake" my body fat measured 27.3%

I weighed 125 pounds that day. Between December and March, three months, I did resistance training very regularly and cardio very inconsistently or not at all.

I also started doing mulitmeals/snacks and by the time I started NO S I was at 134.6.

March 24 I started No S.
May 15 I started working with a personal trainer at the gym and my body fat was 26.4%. So you can figure that somewhere along the way in those five months (Dec -May) I gained some muscle along with my with my fat

This past Thursday, after four weeks, they took my bodyfat and it was 24.8%
Today I took some measurements and used some charts and was at 24.79%

So while it is considered that these ways of measurment can be highly inaccurate to get both within two days so close, they are probably fairly accurate.

I also weighed this morning to do some Lean Body Mass and Body Fat metrics.

If you calculate for December 2007 I was 125, 27.3% body fat with 90.875 pounds of LBM and 34.125 pounds of body fat.

Today I am 125.7, 24.8% body fat, with 94.526 pounds of LBM, and 31.174 pounds of body fat.

I think this is interesting because it gives you an idea of the metrics underyling why I actually weigh .7 pounds more today, but my clothes fit much looser than they did when I was at 125 in December at 27.3% body fat.

It looks like over past six months I have had a net 3.651 pound gain of muscle and 2.951 pound loss of fat. Which also would mean that my metabolism is actually higher because I have more active muscle tissue in my body.

Kinda cool, huh? for those who are into this kind of thing

Blueskighs

[OrganicGal]

I'm not really into the metrics thing, but I do understand what you are saying, and it is actually quite interesting when you are referring to someone I 'know'

Those are great stats blue, good for you!!!!

[JillyBean]

What OrganicGal said.

[CrazyCatLady]

That was pretty interesting, since as OrganicGal said, it's about someone we know! And it really helps put into perspective how a weight gain or loss can vary, depending on if it is muscle or fat!!!

And GREAT JOB on getting healthy! Woo hoo!

[kccc]

I think it's way cool - how neat to actually KNOW that!

While I never have such specific measurements, I do know that I can fit my clothes very differently at the same weight. One of the reasons I want to let go of the scale as a significant metric...

Congrats on some impressive progress!

[BrightAngel]

If you calculate for December 2007 I was 125, 27.3% body fat with 90.875 pounds of LBM and 34.125 pounds of body fat.

Today I am 125.7, 24.8% body fat, with 94.526 pounds of LBM, and 31.174 pounds of body fat.

I think this is interesting because it gives you an idea of the metrics underyling why I actually weigh .7 pounds more today, but my clothes fit much looser than they did when I was at 125 in December at 27.3% body fat.

It looks like over past six months I have had a net 3.651 pound gain of muscle and 2.951 pound loss of fat. Which also would mean that my metabolism is actually higher because I have more active muscle tissue in my body.

That's really, really good news.

[t0r1]

This is a very interesting topic! Thanks for sharing Blueskighs! I try to focus on my body fat % rather than weight on the scale. Muscle weighs so much more than fat! I currently have about 107 pounds of lean body mass and my ultimate goal is to be between 15 and 18% bodyfat. That would put me between 125 and 130 if I don't put on anymore muscle. I am currently at 136, so I have some work to do. I workout at home, but think that it would be nice to have a personal trainer as well. Keep up the good work and thanks for the interesting post!

[blueskighs]

OrganicGal, JillyBean, CrazyCatLady, KCCC and BrightAngel,

thank you for your support!

t0r1,

the body fat thing is kind of amazing. Especially the visual results. 15-18% are you male ?

anyway, I am going to stick with my goal of 20% bodyfat, hopefully in about five more months. it seems right now going for a lean body is highly motivating for me.

Blueskighs

[t0r1]

Blueskighs,

No, I am a 28 yo woman. The average body fat for female athletes is around 15%, so I am thinking 18% is more attainable. I have always been in decent shape and had good muscle tone without dieting, so who knows how lean I could get with a consistent eating plan! My problem is that I have never had to watch what I eat, although I do eat and cook healthy food for the most part. Sweets are my downfall! I only seem to lose weight when I stop worrying about it, that is why the No S seemed like the answer!

I really enjoy your blog. How long have you been vegan? The Z Pizza place you talk about sounds delish...I am moving to Denver in August and saw on the website that one is opening in Boulder. I will have to check it out!

[blueskighs]

Tori,

well then you are already about 20-21% bodyfat? THAT IS GREAT!
Your right about female athletes, they tend to be very low bodyfat.

I really admire you being your age and taking such good care of your body. I wish when I had been your age I would have understand the significance of having and keeping muscle. I am a 45 year old woman so I think if I can get to 20% and just maintain I would be really happy.

I gained weight when I was 15. and 15-19 years old was my heaviest years. I used to jog and then I walked for many years which helped me keep my weight significantly lower. I started doing FIRM videos for about three years when I was 34 but stayed with very low weights.

It wasn't until last year when I started doing some committed work with weights ... I did something here called perfect workout for nine months ... it was 20-30 minute 1 time a week fully body weights for nine months and then I have just started studying it all more. I think that was the most important part of having a personal trainer. WOrking on my own I am too afraid of hurting myself by lifting weights that are too heavy. But with a trainer they are like ... yes you can

It is all kind of exciting especially when you start to visually see the change in your body and then that is validated by the "hard numbers"

If sweets is your downfall it seems like NO S would be a big help with that. I am not where I want to be with my sweets yet, I would like to be satisfied with less but I am not binging and my sweets on S days are in the realm of normalcy so I am pretty happy with that.

How long have you been nosing? How is your weight training going?

I became vegan on may 19, 2006. This past march, 2008, my hair was falling out so I added free range eggs and organic yogurt, that seems to be working well. I eat some cheese, but very small portions mostly because I don't have the taste for cheese I used to.

Z pizza is really cool. How far is denver from boulder? I would think in boulder they would have a lot of vegan/vegetarian restaraunts? Well at least a few.

That is such a BEATIFUL part of the country!

Blueskighs

[t0r1]

Blueskighs,

I think that you are doing very well, 20% bf is very good, I would be happy with that number as well! I have an accu-measure caliper to measure my body fat, but I am not sure how accurate it actually is. I would love to get a test in one of those water tanks!

I have been working out and eating pretty good for years, but I abused my body in other ways. I was a pretty heavy drinker for the better part of the past decade. The binge drinking habit I picked up in college stuck around for far too long. I finally got tired of it all and cut way back at the beginning of the year. I can count on one hand how many times I have drank since then and it has been limited to 2 drinks. The only problem is that I replaced that habit with snacking on sweets! I have noticed that eating sweets has made me gain weight in different places than the drinking did. Bottom line, I feel much better, but would love to get my craving for sweets in check!

My brother is a octolavo? vegetarian. He eats cheese and eggs. I don't think that it has made him healthier though as many snacks and treats are vegetarian. He eats a lot of pizza and chinese food (typical college student!).

Boulder is only 20 minutes from my mom's house in Golden, CO. I wouldn't doubt that they have tons of great restaurants. From what I saw when I was there in Dec. it is a very neat place! Supposedly they have an awesome farmers' market that I can't wait to check out!

[t0r1]

P.S. As far as the No S diet goes I am easing my way into it. For the past 2 weeks I have been trying a rapid fat loss diet as my high school reunion is this weekend. It's emphasis is protein, you figure your daily requirement based on your lean body mass and activity level. I have dropped 3 pounds so far. I have been trying to apply the no s diet guidelines to it, which hasn't really worked. After this weekend I plan on sitting down and figuring out my plan of action for the next 6 weeks or so regarding my workouts and such. I am moving the first week of August and would like to drop a good amount of weight by then, since my schedule will be weird for most of that month. No S would be so easy with normal eating, but since I want to lose about 1-2 pounds per week I think I am going to have to be more strict with my meals...although didn't you lose about 7 pounds your first month of No Sing?

[blueskighs]

Tori,

I lost 8 pounds my first two months, which was a pretty nice drop.

I hope you have fun at your highschool reunion.

What you said about your brother makes the point that being vegetarian itself is not necessarily healthy. I have met vegetarians of all size and shapes through the years. It is easy to be a "junk food" vegetarian as it is to be a "junk food" ominivore

I read the book World Peace Diet in March 2006 and even though I don't agree with everything said in it, it was just hard to do anything but vegan after I read it. It kind of made me ill physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Anyway, I was never a committed meat eater so it has not been that difficult. Well the first year was the most challenging cause you are trying to figure out how to eat, but after that it becomes pretty "normalized."

I admit Southern California is particularly "vegan/vegetarian" friendly so that is nice.

So are you moving for a job or graduate school? Do I remember correctly that you just graduated recently?

I think it is great you found NO S. I think you could really use it as a foundation for any kind of healthy eating program,

Blueskighs

[t0r1]

Good morning! I will have to look into that book. I read most of the Skinny B***hes book, and I found it very disturbing. I considered going vegan after that, but it only lasted a few days. I have been reading the Omnivore's Dilemma, and it has been very enlightening as well. I hope to finish it soon to move onto the sequel, In Defense of Food. I have enjoyed becoming more educated about food, and the way it is produced, but it is also very disheartening. It is amazing how greed drives people to do such inhumane and distructive things, and how so many people turn a blind eye to it. I am hoping that I will have access to grass fed beef and real free range chicken in Colorado.

I actually graduated from college 5 years ago with a degree in accounting. I have worked in public accounting for 3 years and can't possibly imagine myself doing this for the rest of my life. I have always had an interest in nutrition and almost majored in that in college. My mom moved to Denver last fall, and I just happened to find a holistic college up there that has a program in nutrition therapy. I really want to have a job that I enjoy, so being able to move up there and crash with my mom and step dad for a while is a great opportunity.

8 pounds in 2 months is really good. Have you gone down a size? One of my big motivations to drop the weight is so I can get back into all of my clothes. I will not go up a size b/c I have plenty of perfectly good clothes in my closet!

[blueskighs]

tori,
that is so funny! I too have an accounting degree and did not see my future there ... at all! I was "in the profession" for about 12 years moving through accounting/auditing/internal auditing/edp auditing and project management. I had my CPA and everything. I let it all go and did many years as a local singer songwriter and now I am off to another project.

Fortunately, it never hurts to know how to read a balance sheet, etc so the accounting degree is never completley a waste and in a pinch you can always find a job.

that is great that you have an opportunity to study nutrition therapy. That is exciting. I have a passion with health/food/etc.

What are we on the same wavelength or something ?

Blueskighs

[cvmom]

Hi Blueskies

How do they measure your body fat at the gym? And, what is a pretty accurate way to measure body fat percentages aside from submerging one's self in water?

TIA
cvmom

[t0r1]

Blueskighs,

That's crazy!!! We are most definitely on the same wavelength! I never did get my CPA...right off the bat I didn't really have any interest in getting it. That should have told me something right there! I don't know how you did it for 12 years! I don't so much mind doing taxes, but I really don't like the hours during tax season. But you are right, it never hurts to know about financial statements. I hope to someday have my own consulting business so my current degree will help with that!

[kbits]

Great job!

One tidbit I'd like to add:

If they used calipers, electric impedance or worse, measuring tape, you should know that the % the give can be an OVER-ESTIMATE by 2-5%. In all likelyhood your % is lower than you think. (Of the lot, the calipers are most accurate if used correctly)

One simple thing they taught in college was the 100/90 rule and the photo test.

If your waist measure is less than 100cm (from women) and 90cm (for men), you're heading in the right direction. The "double technical way" is to measure the circumference of your neck AND waist. If that ratio keeps decreasing, even a little, you're doing well.

Better yet, take a picture of yourself every 3-6 months and then compare. Your mobile phone can be handy for this. I have a picture of me at target weight (when I had to cut weight for comp) and I looked friggen great. Yes, true, the things I had to do to get there left me feeling terrible (40 pounds in 8 weeks) ...still, if you're No-sing you should have the 'sensible fat loss' aspect of it down pact.



FWIW

[blueskighs]

cvmom,

they use a hand grip thing at the gym and I use measuring tape at home, while I know as kbits points out they are often inaccurate, using both together they seem to be on target so it seems they must at least be in the ball park as the calculations last month were .01 difference. THe charts are out of, yes an OLD diet book I kept BECAUSE of those charts.... PROTIEN POWER ... obviously NOT recommending the diet.

So between the two I figure I am getting a close enough estimation for me.

Kbits,
thank you for your support and additional tidbits!

tori,

I got the CPA because passing it gave me an immediate and nice size raise, up until then I had refused - on principle! I had already passed practice and theory so wasnt' too hard to knock out the rest and worth the raise at the time.

when we moved to CA i let the whole thing go. But I didn't do taxes at all though, accounting/auditing/project management. I was thrilled when I shifted to EDP auditing and no longer had to have a ten-key on my desk!

But that's the past and it is part of what got me where I am today. Suffice it to say I am glad that it is part of my past and I am much happier with where I am at today!

Blueskighs