76lbs and 7 months later... (Pics!)

blugoogirl · September 2010

WOW what a difference. amazing achievement!!

whyflysouth · September 2010

Very impressive! I'd suggest you start to incorporate some of the muscle building work soon b/c you may get down to a level where your body will be more prone to use caloric deficits to deplete muscle mass rather than fat stores. I got myself down to the 14% bf range and started to find myself losing weight but not losing the fat.

Basically whenever you're at a deficit the body breaks down some % of fat along w/ some % muscle, when the amount of fat you've got is much greater than muscle, the larger percentage burned will be fat, but as the fat stores deplete the body is less interested in taking from them and as such will take more and more energy through breaking down muscle - you don't want that to happen. You have to convince your body that the muscle is important and valuable to your survival and the only way to do that is to keep stressing it, overloading it so that your body is forced to pull from fat stores only.

Just something to keep in mind, I noticed this at around 14%, some others can get down lower before this creeps up. I know for me, the only way to lower my body fat at this point is to actually eat at or slightly above maintenance, lift heavy, and put on muscle.

fullboost · September 2010

Thanks whyflysouth, i have been doing weight training from the very beginning though and as i've been losing fat have begun slowly increasing the amount i do to a point now where i spend more time strength training than doing cardio. I've definitely built muscle over the process, strengths improved and it is visible in some areas but still covered up in pesky fat in the rest!

When i say i'll be moving more towards building muscle when i lower my fat percentage i mean i'll only be maintaining my calories as opposed to creating a deficit and focusing primarily on strength training.