The FastDay Forum

Hello, I'm new to the forums but not to fasting as I've been following 4:3 with spells of ADF since 2011.

I've been in maintenance for some time and settled down nicely with 4:3 because it suits my weekend sports commitments.

Although my BMI is <20, my body fat level is high (as measured by a Dexa scan) and I'm continuing 4:3 rather than shifting to 5:2 because it seems to help nudge the body fat levels downwards in tiny fits and starts.

I look forward to getting acquainted with fellow fasters.

[carieoates]

Hello and welcome to the best and friendliest forum ever,
We are a sporty bunch here, with a fitbit group and walkers, and runners, and HITers. So what sporting commitments do you take part in?

Good luck and once again welcome,

I'm keen on paddle sports and kayak at every opportunity I can plausibly manage. To support the kayaking, and to maintain the muscle mass that I do have, I'm currently following Body by Science as the weight training that I used to do was deteriorating. I also follow a modified version of Body by You (the women's version of YAYOG or You Are Your Own Gym).

Extensive detail to follow that is summarised as, I'm that new bane of Public Health, the TOFI (Thin Outside, Fat Inside), but, I'm working on reducing the fat, so feel free to skip the detail.

My highest weight was 168lbs following an accident that left me abruptly sedentary for some time. I didn't previously have a history of obesity.

I adopted ADF and then 4:3 to shed the excess weight. As I neared my original goal weight of 130lbs, I realised that I must have substantially increased my body fat percentage as I was much larger than I anticipated that I would be. (My body fat used to be <18%.)

So, realising that my goal weight was not a good proxy for my body composition (which I believe is more relevant for me), I had a Bod Pod analysis. I was devastated to discover that at a BMI of <23, I was in the category of Normal Weight, Morbidly Obese (using the classifications suggested by Shah & Braverman): I had a body fat of 42%.

My values were odd because my waist-hip ratio was <0.68 and my waist was reasonably small (<68cms). Nobody believed that I was technically morbidly obese, and well and truly a TOFI and the general opinion was that the analysis must be wrong as I appeared to be slender.

The issue nagged away at me because I was horrified by the 'morbid obesity' of my body composition but more than a little concerned at the (to me) low level of lean body mass (LBM) that I had (the Bod Pod reported it as <77lbs). It took me months to reverse engineer various papers and studies to establish that my reported LBM was low and much lower than anyone else around my age and general habits.

I decided that I should probably maintain my original goal weight for a while before deciding what to do next, so I did. However, I reasoned that if the body composition report was even vaguely accurate then I probably needed to continue to drift downward, reducing body fat but absolutely not compromising my scant LBM.

Eventually, I decided that I could only settle my mind by having the more accurate Dexa scan. I did, and learned, to my horror, that although the Bod Pod had slightly underestimated my LBM, I did still have a low LBM and sufficiently low skeletal muscle that I'm categorised as sarcopenic. By this time, I'd shed an additional 10lbs, so my body fat at 117lbs was approx. 30%, which still counts as obese by some revised categorisations.

Today, I'm 109lbs or <19 BMI. If I've lost no more LBM, I'm still approx. 25% body fat (I can't confirm that until my next scan which is 2015). Ideally, to reduce the metabolic diseases associated with sarcopenia (diabetes, CVD etc.) I'd be no more than 20% body fat but that isn't feasible as I'd need to weigh <100lbs which would make me unsustainably and unhealthily underweight (<17 BMI).

My impression of 4:3 in maintenance is that it's helping me to drift downwards and is removing body fat but not compromising LBM. This remains to be confirmed however and I'm investigating why I lost 30lbs or so of LBM and gained such a vast quantity of body fat.

I was asked how I located the tests: search engines. I searched for
"Bod Pod" assessment university X
where X was the nearby city and counties. Some sports clubs have them. Prices seem to range from £40-£70.

I had my Bod Pod analysis in a university's research dept. (several universities offer this facility on a private basis).

Several NHS practices with Dexa scan facilities offer private scans as well. I found one that offered the level of detail that I wanted, was reasonably local and an acceptable price. Similar search to the above except I substituted
Dexa scan
and
"body composition".
Prices for these vary enormously: £100-200. Private hospitals tend to charge more and the NHS places that do OOH private work seem to be a tad more reasonable.

I'd never have purchased the Dexa if I hadn't been so worried by the results of the Bod Pod that everybody kept telling me must be wrong. Expensive as it was, I wanted the reassurance of an acknowledged high quality evaluation so I'd know whether the Bod Pod was wrong or if I had reason to be concerned. I was shocked at the results but the money was well worth it.

However, I'm in the interesting position that as I have a scan and assessment that categorises me as sarcopenic, I'm now trying to navigate a path through the NHS to investigate it.