My Journey With Weight Loss – Getting Lean

After my workout today I showered and changed into real clothes (note, real clothes because I often spend the day in workout clothes) and realized something, I now tend to tuck my shirt into my pants. If you have never been really overweight you won’t get this but the usual trick was always wear your shirt on the outside of your pants to cover up things like your fat rolls and muffin tops. Well, I don’t do that anymore. If I have a nice blouse that looks better tucked in, that is what I do. The best part is I don’t even think about this anymore, I just do it when I am wearing a blouse that should be tucked in. It’s been a long time since I could do this and it feels pretty good.

Now I am on maintenance for my weight loss. My final goal was 92 lbs and currently I alternate between about 93 and 94 lbs. I have not changed my eating habits though my workouts have increased a bit due to the ongoing 10k training (oh, and walking the dog a bit more as she needs to shed .6 lbs to be at her ‘ideal’ weight). But what I have noticed is I am still getting smaller. I’ve gone from a very small size 8 to a comfortable size 6 yet the scale is not moving. To be clear, I am not trying to get the scale to move though obviously will be good with it if it happens. So how can this be?

Really it is simple. I’ve written before about how the same size mass of muscle weighs more than an equal size of fat. What is going on with my body is there is getting to be very little fat and an awful lot of lean muscle mass. To give you an example, my arms have gotten so slim that my watch tends to ride half way up my arm. But, if I flex that same arm there are amazing muscles that become apparent. The same can be said for my legs (which have always been on the bulky side). I now have very defined quads that not only can I feel but are pretty obvious to anyone who is looking at them.

Weight is not coming off but I am still moving forward. I previously mentioned the American Heart Association says if you lose 1 lb of fat and gain 1 lb of muscle you may think you didn’t score because the scale didn’t move but in fact it is a 2 pointer, trading off that fat for muscle. Yes I know I have been doing this trade off for nearly a year now but it is becoming so much more apparent when you see my body.

One of the things I also recognized has changed for me is really looking at my body. If I stand in front of a mirror now I see muscles I really didn’t know I had. No, I am nowhere near body builder quality (and don’t want to be) but I notice when I move I can see very defined muscles. Those muscles are lean as opposed to bulky but they are definitely are there.

The bottom line is losing weight or not my body continues to transform. Who knew that I would end up appreciating lean muscle mass or even having it for that matter but I do. Every time I sit back and reflect on these type of things it just keeps me motivated to keep going.