I’ve lost 6.6 pounds since my DEXA scan two months ago, which I did to check my body composition and body fat percentage. For a woman measuring 5 foot 7.5 (171 cm), that’s more than one clothing size. Yet, the weight loss doesn’t show that much. In the unedited pics below–unedited of my body–you can’t see much difference unless you look closely. Plus, unfortunately the angle of my body in the Aug 27 pic is more flattering than in the new one, making my legs look slightly longer and waist smaller. That’s only because of the way I’m standing;) Long story short, if you look closely, you’ll see my body is in fact leaner in the Oct pic (the left one with my elbow higher up and closer to the camera, making it look huge).

You’d think a female of my medium-sized frame losing six and a half pounds would make more of a difference. That’s because I only lost 3.8 pounds of fat as well as 1.5 pounds of muscle. (I was sick and didn’t work out for a while). The rest is water weight. In other words, all in all, I really only lost 3.8 pounds SINCE FAT LOSS IS ALL THAT MATTERS. Unless you’re Christian Bale and are starving yourself to look like an anorexic for a movie:) Anyway, that explains why there isn’t a big difference.

Below, I have included the two InBody sheets from Aug 27 and Oct 26 so you can see my numbers for yourself. The InBody is a machine that uses Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) and is just as accurate as a DEXA scan. Read about methods to measure your body composition here to learn more. The scribbles on top saying Sep 30 are from the InBody I did that day, which was right after a bad cold when I barely ate. I lost 7 pounds in 8 days of which 2.5 pounds were muscle mass, 2 pounds fat and the rest water weight. Again, proving that crash diets are ridiculous: you’ll lose tons of muscle mass, not much fat, which you obviously don’t want to do!

Back to the InBody sheets below. The most important part is the one that says Muscle-Fat Analysis, i. e. my body composition Aug 27. Look at the graph (the lines extending horizontally in front of the words Weight, SMM (skeletal muscle mass) and Body Fat Mass, and compare them to the sheet below, from Oct 26. While the Aug graph look almost like the letter I, the Oct one looks more like the letter D BECAUSE MY WEIGHT DECREASED, ESPECIALLY MY BODY FAT MASS. This is what you want–a graph that looks more and more like the letter D. An I-letter graph is okay if you have an ectomorph body type, meaning a naturally lean person who struggles adding muscle mass to your body. Read more about different body types here.

You can also see that my body fat percentage decreased only by 1.6%, which is the main reason you can’t see a huge difference on the pics of me above. Anyway, just wanted to give you an update on my progress to returning to the body of my 18-year-old self, which is possible even though I’m now 51. I’ll prove it to you shortly:) I also wanted to YET AGAIN REITERATE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO FOCUS ON YOUR BODY FAT PERCENTAGE, not the scale, if your goal is to be lean and slender, which is my goal. I’m only halfway there (okay, fine, slightly more than halfway there:). Be on the lookout for the third and final part of this article series about body composition. Coming soon!