Despite going up on the last day of the month (I hate when that happens), I managed to defy the odds and come out with my weight down for the month, marking the fifth month my weight has either declined or at least stayed the same (I was up in February and May).
And yet for the year to date, I am still down less than a pound, so what’s going on? How can I keep losing weight and not really lose weight?
I think there are a few factors at play:
- I am exercising more. Specifically, I am running more often, back to my normal three times per week, and regular exercise is a good way to help control weight–but not lose weight.
- I have cut down on snacking, but my total calorie intake has not shifted dramatically.
These two factors combined mean a couple of things will happen:
- I will lose weight, but slowly.
- The slowness is partly due to a change in body composition. As I run more, I burn fat and replace it with hunky, sexy muscle. But hunky, sexy muscle is denser than fat and weighs more.
My theory is that my body fat should be down over the year to date, even if it it is essentially unchanged this month. Let’s see if it is!
January 1, 2019 body fat: 32.2 pounds, 19.2%
July 31, 2019 body fat: 30.9 pounds, 18.6%
Although still not dramatic, there is more change here, as I’ve shed 1.3 pounds of fat, but only dropped 0.8 pounds in actual weight. So this is good news, albeit not exactly the blistering pace of weight loss/fast loss I was hoping for. But if I keep running regularly (we’re tentatively planning on getting a treadmill for the spare bedroom, so running will be easy ‘n convenient, even when the weather is bad or it’s dark out and you might run into a werewolf) and do a bit better on snacking (it’s getting there), I should see more rapid declines. I’m trending in the right direction, at least, so I’ll take it.
Also, I managed to lose weight during vacation, something that is the opposite for most people, so I offer some self-kudos for that. Woo, I say.
And the stats:
July 1: 166.9 pounds
July 31: 166.3 pounds (down 0.6 pounds)
Year to date: From 167.5 to 166.3 pounds (down 0.8 pounds)
And the body fat:
July 1: 18.4% (30.8 pounds of fat)
July 31: 18.6% (30.9 pounds of fat) (up 0.1 pounds)
