Body weight and body fat percentage changes in the last 12 months
When I started working out (after a 17-year hiatus) I weighed around 84 kg (185 pounds), my waist size was 96 cm (37.8′′), and my body fat was around 23 - 24%. After a month, with the help of the workout routine and some diet adjustments, I lost about 1 - 1.2 kg (2 - 2.5 pounds) of fat and decreased waist size to 92 cm (36′′).
Today, after staying consistent with my fitness plan for 12 months, I weigh 78.4 kilos (170.6 pounds), my waist size is 85 cm (33.4′′) and my body fat is around 16%.
I took this progress photo on September 28th, 2024
Everyone agrees that shedding fat and building muscle simultaneously is more challenging than bulking and cutting to reach fitness goals. Judging by my own experience, I agree. It would have been easier to build muscle if I had started my fitness journey with a cutting phase and then gone through a bulking phase because figuring out the daily calorie needs had been easier. However, I chose recomposition to get leaner and appear a bit more muscular quicker. And, it happened! Since I've reached a point where my body fat is closer to an athletic range, I want to maingain (maintaining body fat percentage while slowly and gradually increasing muscle mass over time) by consistently eating at or near my maintenance calorie needs and keeping protein intake a little over 2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight. Calculating how many calories to eat daily depending on physical activities is quite challenging when targeting 50-150 calories above maintenance. Luckily, the MyNetDiary app I started to use one year ago has been helpful for me so far in understanding foods, counting macros, and adjusting my diet plan to reach my after-40 fitness goals.
I took the first progress photos 5 weeks after I started my after-40 fitness journey, in November 2023. Here are the different progress photos I took after that for comparison.
The weight chart for the last 12 months of my fitness journey reflects my effort to find the best macro plan matched with the right workout program. In the first part of my fitness journey, after I dropped most of the extra fat I lost in these 12 months, my weight oscillated between 79 kilos (174 pounds) and 80 kilos (176) because I was trying to get leaner but eat enough calories to build muscle simultaneously. Estimating how many calories I burn during each workout I find it to be quite difficult. MyNetDiary adds 404 calories to my daily budget for each hour of strength training with vigorous effort. Sometimes this estimate seems right, other times it's a bit lower or higher than my calorie needs for that day. This makes it hard to know precisely if I consume as planned, respectively 50 to 150 calories above maintenance needs or more on the days I work out. To follow the plan, I weigh myself every morning, look at the food logs from the previous day, and adjust the calorie intake plan for the current day according to those readings. That means one day I might eat more calories than the targeted number and another day less. But I do my best to have an average as close as possible to a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 150 calories per day above the maintenance need to remain at 16-18% body fat.
In the last couple of months, my weight oscillated between 76 kilos (167 pounds) and 78 kilos (172 pounds) as I've continued to learn how my body responds to training and dieting for recomposition at this age and adapt the meal plan to stay lean but add more muscle simultaneously. Within the next 3-4 months, I aim to gain 0.5 - 1 kilos (1.10- 2.2) pounds a month while keeping the same body fat percentage with the new workout plan and creatine supplementation I started in September. If this maingaining program doesn't work as planned, most likely I will go through a light bulking phase and start a mini-cutting phase close to the summer. Time will tell.
