Whole30 Pre & Post InBody Scans

[Colt Wolfson]

Hey folks, I completed my first ever whole30 this week and I thought I'd share my pre and post InBody Analysis scans with you guys. For those not familiar with an InBody scan, basically it is a special scale that measures your body fat %, skeletal muscle mass, and a few other things (https://inbodyusa.com/)

Before I started whole30 I weighed 175.6 LBS, had an 8.4% body fat, and had a skeletal muscle mass of 92.4

After doing whole30 I weigh 175.4 LBS, have a 9.2% body fat (highest that's been in quite some time) and a skeletal muscle mass of 91.1 LBS

So basically over the course of 40 or so days on Whole30 I lost muscle and gained fat (1.3 pounds of fat to be exact)

While doing whole30 I kind of felt like I was eating less "healthy" than I was used to and I felt that my workouts suffered.

I'm not upset I tried whole30, about 85-90% of my normal diet is whole30 compliant, but I don't see myself doing another round of strict whole30 again .

 

[Reddoerr]

That is super interesting! I’ve done two Whole 30s before and done the requisite pre and post weigh ins and measurements but never did an InBody assessment. I’ll try to get one done tomorrow so I can compare.

[FairyL0u]

Just a thought - given that W30 is not necessarily a weight loss plan, could it be that the small increase in body fat is actually an health improvement? 9.2% body fat is still pretty low.... 

[Jihanna]

I find it interesting that the OP has no other posts here. This means we can't go check out a log of his intake and activities just to see what he was actually eating, nor do we see if there were any Non-Scale Victories (which honestly are the best part of Whole30 for me).

Whole30 isn't a weight-loss plan and doesn't claim that you won't gain fat. It IS a strict elimination intended to "reset" your system and give you a baseline from which to determine if you have intolerance to any of the removed food groups (with potential to test individual foods within those removed groups, if desired).

It's also pretty easy to customize your experience (within the restrictions) as needed to cater to an array of individual needs or preferences -- so someone who is mostly concerned with physical performance during workouts or activities is able to tweak their intake to support those activities, compliant foods can be removed if a person knows they suffer gastric distress after eating them, and so on.

According to WebMD.com, the American Council on Exercise notes that they want people to shoot for a range of body-fat percentage rather than a magic number. Here's what that range looks like:

Essential fat: 10-12% for Women, 2-4% for Men
Athletes: 14-20% for Women, 6-13% for Men
Fitness: 21-24% for Women, 14-17% for Men
Acceptable: 25-31% for Women, 18-25% for Men
Obese: 32% + for Women, 26% + for Men

So our OP started and ended in the optimal range for a male athlete, but didn't believe Whole30 was a good mechanism to keep him moving forward in optimal health alongside whatever athletic activities he performs. That totally okay, because Whole30 isn't really intended to be a long-term kind of plan, anyway (though it can be very helpful for certain situations where multiple-intolerance is an issue)... and it sounds like his normal diet and lifestyle are already on a different level than what most of us are experiencing when we start our Whole30 journeys.