BetweenPenandthePins Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Just completed my first Whole30 and let me tell you, today, day 31, was interesting to say the least. Initially, I was very skeptical of the Whole30. I have my Bachelors degree in Physical Fitness and Wellness Management and am completing my Master's degree in Human Performance. I've also had my fair share of nutrition classes--not saying I'm an expert, but I have a decent understanding of how nutrition works. I believed that the majority of weight loss that occurred during the Whole30 would be water weight, especially since it's lower carb than the Standard American Diet. In order to validate my supposed future "results," I scheduled an appointment with the research lab at my university to get my body composition determined via DEXA (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) at the end of the month (AKA, today). (Sorry, Melissa and Dallas, I'm a bit of a skeptic) Before the Whole30, my diet was out of control. Since the start of graduate school, I went from 26% BF to almost 30%; my stress levels were at an all time high; and I was dealing with a lot of trauma. Luckily, I was able to join my university's Olympic weightlifting (OWL) team, but my body composition and diet habits remained subpar. I was always down on myself and making poor decisions that consistently impacted me negatively. Fortunately, over the course of the Whole30, I saw a lot of non-scale victories, namely my confidence. Things just started falling into place... I was making better choices, hanging out with the right people... I even started working on my spirituality more. I stopped smoking hookah, not just because I had to, but because I stopped relying on it for social interaction. Everything seemed to be going so well! I was determined that if I must be feeling this good, my body must be following in my mindset's footsteps. With all of these feel-good results in mind, when I initially stepped on the scale this morning and saw that I only lost 2 lbs... I was not the happiest of campers. I mean, I wasn't completely disheartened, but I was expecting more of a BANG, especially since my clothes started fitting like I had lost 5-10 lbs. I wasn't hopeful about the DEXA either. I had trained hard with my OWL team but over the course of the past semester (4 months, mind you), I lost muscle, gained body fat, and lost bone mineral density. I was not looking forward to my hopes being dashed even more. Well, I was wrong. By increasing my training on my team (1.5-2 hour practice, 6 days/wk--which is normal for our sport) and finally eating right, I dropped 2% body fat and gained 2.5 lbs of muscle. So, although the scale didn't change much, my body composition definitely had. I was shocked. I was hoping for at least a 1% BF change with no change in muscle mass. Melissa and Dallas... way to show me. Thanks for turning my life around. TLDR: My life has changed. I'm making better decisions in life. I'm eating right. And my body followed suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators ladyshanny Posted January 31, 2018 Administrators Share Posted January 31, 2018 Scepticism is healthy! And how fortunate for you that you had a DEXA available exactly when you wanted it before and after, that is excellent! What a great success story! Do you mind if I flag this one to Melissa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetweenPenandthePins Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 1 minute ago, ladyshanny said: Scepticism is healthy! And how fortunate for you that you had a DEXA available exactly when you wanted it before and after, that is excellent! What a great success story! Do you mind if I flag this one to Melissa? Thank you so much! And I don't mind at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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