I did my Dexa scan today and am pleased with the changes over these past 12 weeks:
40 lb of fat loss with
zero loss of lean mass!!!
I've been averaging about 31.5% BF lately on both NAVY and BIA. The Navy measurements have varied from ~30-32% and the *morning* BIA measurements have varied from 30.5-33.0% (although post exercise post shower BIAs have gotten as low as 27.0). Last time the Dexa scan was dead-on with the Navy method so it surprised me when it said 28.6%! That translates to a body fat loss of 0.9% per week (0.5% is my goal):
Also note that I'm nearly out of the "high risk" category for visceral adipose (fat) tissue! Only 40 more lb to go to be "healthy"
I'm even more over the "natty limit" than last time (a fat free mass index over 25 supposedly means steroids/PED use - obviously wrong...)
The DXA scan's metabolism estimate says I should be burning 195 more calories a day now. According to my own calculations my metabolism has been pretty steady around 2550 over the last 3 months - and that is with about 1 hour/day of exercise (i.e. not Sedentary). Either I'm just like everyone else and underestimating my meticulously weighted & measured calories by 20% or I've had some pretty substantial metabolic adaptation (or perhaps a combination of both):
And finally my VO2 max results. I was expecting over 4 Liters of air per minute, but came up a little short. Excuses to flow after the image, but before that I'd also like to point out that my peak power went up 62.5% at the same time my (absolute - L/min) VO2 max went up 18% - all while maintaining a pretty severe calorie deficit:
Excuses for not doing better: I legitimately feel I had a >4 L/min VO2 max in the bag (4 being what I consider exceptional for my age - if I had a Vo2 max of 4 L/min and weighed 135 like a serious cyclist that would mean a VO2 max of 65 mL/kg/min with 50+ being excellent and 75+ being pro endurance athlete). The thing is, a VO2 max test is supposed to take 10, maybe 15 minutes. Mine took 30!
The reason my test took so long is because they set the resistance progression at +20 watts every 2 minutes - the same as last time. This was reasonable since most people don't improve their VO2 max - and power - as dramatically I have these last 12 weeks. Unfortunately for my test, my leg muscles were fatiguing towards the end yet I still had a little lung left in reserve (note that I hit 180bpm last time vs just 172 this time). So I'm confident my actual VO2 max is somewhere north of 4 rather than 3.93, but again I'm the only person in the world who cares...
Fitbit continues to overestimate my VO2 max. It was saying 29-33 when I was at 26 ml/kg/min and now it is saying 37-41 when I'm at 35 (or 36). But its heart rate was pretty much dead on with the fancy university's equipment...
Anyway, I'm still a long way away from doing an Ironman, but I'm celebrating the progress made so far...