Lost muscle and gained fat, help!

IMO I would swap out the crossfit and implement a strength program. Some 5x5 program similar to Stronglifts (if you are a beginner) or Texas Method to name a couple. Bone density should increase with a well formulated strength program as the muscle fibres pull against the bone forcing them to thicken etc.... As far as I can tell crossfit would be less hypertrophy (muscle growth) and more cardio although I could be wrong, I'm only writing this based on what I have seen on YouTube. Seems to be more about totals than good form etc...? I'm lifting MadCow 5x5 currently after starting with Stronglifts and I have seen some great gains both in RM's and muscle growth.

In terms of the diet I personally would drop the carbs because I follow LCHF and it is working for me. Granted it isn't for everyone but it is something you could consider trying if you continue to put on fat? In my own n=1 experience I have lost 18cm around my waist, lost 16kg since the beginning of the year and improved other health markers such as Trigs and HDL.

You may be consuming too much food as well? Hard to know. I don't actually count calories. I have a rough idea but generally I let my body tell me when I'm full and leave it at that. If I'm still hungry I eat, if I'm not I stop. I mainly only eat one meal in the day and fast the rest. I alternate fasting days to help lower my insulin which in turn should allow my body to release fat to be used for energy. Black coffee for breakfast and I'm good until dinner.

Maybe you aren't consuming too much food but too much of one macro? Play with your ratios to see if that helps?

I offer the above advice as my own personal example. May not suit yourself or any others for that matter.

Did you scan at the same time of day under the same conditions? The in body machines can show wildly different numbers depending if you measure in the morning vs evening, before a workout or after, fasted or after a meal... I imagine the Dexa has similar issues?

But I do agree you want to be careful in case these readings are correct. Make sure you're consuming at least 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight, and I agree that a progressive lifting program would be best, no more crossfit and not random workouts here and there but a proper lifting split and track your weights & reps on each exercise from week to week... if you are increasing strength over time it's likely you aren't losing muscle. If you're losing strength or not improving then maybe something is amiss.

Lean body mass includes water and glycogen. Your "loss" is within the variance of the machine.

dandeppen wrote: »

30 days ago I had a DEXA scan and my body fat was 16.3%. Over the last month I tried to tighten up my diet and do more exercise. My ultimate goal is to get my fat % down to 10. I'm a 41 year old male, 5'11", weighed 183.8 a month ago.

I tracked what I ate in myfitnesspal and averaged 2310 calories, with 27% carbs, 40% fat, 33% protein. Had a couple cheat days where I didn't follow that diet, but didn't eat anything crazy. Mostly ate high quality organic foods, very little sugar and processed stuff. Did 6 CrossFit WODs, 8 Orange Theory workouts and a few lighter workouts on my own over the course of the month.

I had another DEXA scan today and the good news is I lost 3.4 pounds. But the bad news is I lost 4.4 pounds of lean mass and gained 1 pound of fat. Now I'm up to 17.8%. Bone density dropped some as well. So WTF? I'm really confused by this and trying to figure out where I went wrong.

There could definitely be some error or calibration issues in the machine. It would be very difficult to lose that kind of muscle in a short period of time, especially while doing resistance training and eating adequate protein (assuming you don't have a crazy high TDEE rate).

psuLemon wrote: »

i6Shot wrote: »

IMO I would swap out the crossfit and implement a strength program. Some 5x5 program similar to Stronglifts (if you are a beginner) or Texas Method to name a couple. Bone density should increase with a well formulated strength program as the muscle fibres pull against the bone forcing them to thicken etc.... As far as I can tell crossfit would be less hypertrophy (muscle growth) and more cardio although I could be wrong, I'm only writing this based on what I have seen on YouTube. Seems to be more about totals than good form etc...? I'm lifting MadCow 5x5 currently after starting with Stronglifts and I have seen some great gains both in RM's and muscle growth.

In terms of the diet I personally would drop the carbs because I follow LCHF and it is working for me. Granted it isn't for everyone but it is something you could consider trying if you continue to put on fat? In my own n=1 experience I have lost 18cm around my waist, lost 16kg since the beginning of the year and improved other health markers such as Trigs and HDL.

You may be consuming too much food as well? Hard to know. I don't actually count calories. I have a rough idea but generally I let my body tell me when I'm full and leave it at that. If I'm still hungry I eat, if I'm not I stop. I mainly only eat one meal in the day and fast the rest. I alternate fasting days to help lower my insulin which in turn should allow my body to release fat to be used for energy. Black coffee for breakfast and I'm good until dinner.

Maybe you aren't consuming too much food but too much of one macro? Play with your ratios to see if that helps?

I offer the above advice as my own personal example. May not suit yourself or any others for that matter.

As long as a person is achieving progressive increases in volume, then crossfit can be a good tool. I had a woman client ained 10lbs of lean body mass (recognize this is more than muscle) over a 24 month period with only doing crossfit 5x/week. Went from 26% body fat down to 14.5% (confirmed through multiple hydrostatic readings). It was rather impressive.

Rather impressive is an understatement! 5lbs a year of muscle gain whilst dropping that much fat would be brilliant for a male, let alone a female.