A Dexa Scan Told Me I Lost Muscle

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Jul 26

And here’s what I did next:

Well first, I lost my mind 💀💀💀 I WAS PISSED

I’d spent most of fall 2023 and spring 2024 at maintenance and was making an effort to LIFT HEAVY SH*T and I drank a zillion Fairlife protein shakes… then I entered a 6 week deficit phase in early spring. So I did lose weight in April 2024… but I thought it was nearly all fat.

Then to have a Dexa machine tell me in June 2024 that I’d lost 4 lbs of muscle… it was devastating!!!!

Besides the fact that I felt a pang of shame as fitness and health professional, I felt anger 😡 I felt betrayed by my body

I work hard on the gym
I push myself to failure
I take creatine
I eat 120+ grams of protein every day
My bloodwork has improved YoY

I spent *only* 6 weeks of those 8 months in a diet phase - “HOW could this muscle loss be possible I thought to myself?”

I wanted to ignore it.
To tell myself it’s just simply wrong.

But instead - I took a step back.

I asked myself- “what do I want this to mean for me?”

1️⃣ First of all - I feel amazing in my body. My arms have never felt more toned. I feel leaner than I can remember ever feeling in my life. The gym makes me feel energized. I love the feeling of metal dumbbells in my hands. I love the pull of the muscles in my arms when I use the cable machines.

A NUMBER DOESN’T DEFINE MY SUCCESS

I know myself better than a test.

I feel great and I trust my body. ❤️

2️⃣ Second - maybe I’m not pushing myself hard enough in the gym. Maybe I can admit to myself that sometimes I could add a few more pounds to the rack. Maybe I could get even closer to failure. Maybe I don’t know where my limits are. Maybe I’m stronger than I even thought.

So I commit to pushing harder on limits I thought I already found 💭 I want to push even harder!

3️⃣ Third - I have room to improve my tempo with my exercising. I have a tendency to rush through moves when I am tired and ready to get it done.

If I’m showing up to work out… I might as well try to tweak what I can to get the most out of it.

So, I’ll be slowing down with intention during exercises.

4️⃣ FINALLY & perhaps most importantly - I’m not sure that it’s accurate. I’ve recently shifted my diet to be lower carb & higher fat which can reduce the water content held in muscles… per some research, this can change how the dexa scan reports muscle mass. Upon later research, it noted that eating the same diet beforehand is important and I definitely… did not.