Body Composition Changes

Click on the image above to see my progress since I started focusing on tightening up my nutrition plan. Previous to becoming a certified fitness nutrition specialist, I was having trouble maintaining my weight. Over the course of 3 years or so, I lost about 15-20 lbs even though I was consistently strength training. I tried tons of fad diets that had me doing ridiculous stuff, all to lead me further from my goals. While I know many people would kill to have a weight loss problem, it was a major problem for me since this weight decrease was clearly muscle. As I got skinnier, my strength plummeted and my explosive power I relied on in the martial arts also began to deteriorate. Whether you care about strength and power or not, big decreases in muscle mass are problematic for two main reasons:



1) Metabolism - Muscle mass takes a ton of energy for your body to maintain, so more muscle = faster, more powerful metabolism. Of course, a powerful metabolism helps to burn and prevent unwanted body fat. At the rate I was going, I would have burned off all my muscle, then started gaining body fat. By the time hit my thirties, I would have already been talking about my glory days as an ex-athlete who USED to be in peak condition.

2) Energy Levels - I feel so much better when I am stronger. I enjoy DOING things and being active because they feel so much more effortless. Life is just harder being weak. Muscle loss is indicative of poor eating habits. Essentially, your body is in survival mode. Your body does not function optimally when it is in the state and would rather you still around and feel like garbage.

You can see based on the chart that I easily gained back over 10 lbs. of muscle over the course of 5 months. What changed? My nutrition, of course.

As far as my current goals go...

My 8 week re-acclimation and strength cycle left me with over 4 lbs. more muscle plus a little extra body fat. I purposely was eating like a horse, so i am not concerned with the body fat gain. I am still lower than 6% and I am confident that number will drop when I start working on my cardio for my next BJJ tourney.

Thanks for tuning in!

Tomorrow, I will blog about my next phase of training.