Everyone definitely picked up on the love handles! Just to be clear: they aren’t so bad, but it pisses me off given my time at the gym (for instance I killed it yesterday on my “push day” for a solid hour until secondary muscles were cramping). My BMI is 24.8 right now and was 23.5 at my thinnest last year, but I added significant muscle since then so I wasn’t tragically concerned. I was BMI 23.5 in grad school (and in great shape, albeit a serious backpacker and not a “strong” guy) so i was working toward that. In college I reached 20.5 and let me tell you I was too thin. I have never really had noticeable muscle until the beginning of 2023 when I started really lifting much heavier weights at the gym, and my “thickness”, “veinyness” and posture — and of course much more strength — changed remarkably in the first year.
I’d love to reach 22.5 like you are @desertshores but I’m not sure that is in the cards unless I start cutting like a professional bodybuilder, and I’m not sure I would be able to keep it off realistically. Given my waist is 30, its not so bad.
I worry that my stress levels (my own company) aren’t conducive to being lean, but that may just be an excuse. I’d love to lean up but only if it is easily continued indefinitely, and not interested in semiglutides. That is where the idea of maybe a bit of T might help, especially if it is likely I’ll benefit from it in the future. I’m not against taking it, more than I’d rather fix myself as much as I can with diet (well, at least clean whole foods, and amino acids and vitamins/minerals) and exercise before moving to rapamycin and testosterone, and drugs beyond these.
My scan on June 14 was 15.5% BF, and going into it I thought 14-16.
My basis was how much scale weight I had lost since my last one in Nov '23, how much muscle I thought I had added, and my level of abdominal definition.
DEXA tends to surprise a lot of people, especially if they have used an impedance scale like InBody. Those tend to underestimate by so much that I consider them useless except for relative tracking over time.
Surprisingly, the Spreen [edit: Spren, not Spreen] phone app, set on “athletic” mode or whatever they call it, has been within 0.5-1% of DEXA!
This weightlifting workout in your 60s can preserve strength for years
It’s never too late to start lifting weights — and now there are more signs it can provide enduring health benefits for older people.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark found that regularly lifting weights for a year in your mid-60s can preserve the strength of your leg muscles for years to come. Here are the key findings:
Retirement-age people who underwent a 12-month weight lifting training regimen had noticeably stronger leg muscles three years after finishing the program than those who did more moderate strengthening exercises or none at all, the study found.
The weight lifting training group visited a commercial gym three times a week for a year and repeatedly lifted what was considered a heavy load: 70 to 85 percent of the maximum weight a person can physically lift at one time.
Although the supervised program lasted only a year, scientists followed up three years later. Individuals in the “heavy” weight lifting cohort were the only participants to have maintained, on average, the leg strength they had before they began the training program.
Yes, from Elite. I think I got it as a free beta test on Android before they pulled it from Android and made it Apple only. So I don’t know what it costs. Much less than a DEXA
The results are very different in normal person mode vs. athlete mode. I would not have known which mode was appropriate without the DEXA scan. You need the latter mode.
Cancer combined is the number two killer I think in the western world
And unlike diabetes and heart decease there are fewer levers we can pull to control the risks. Calories and protein (especially growth aminos) is one lever where we might have some control.
Compared with people who died at the age of ≤79 years, centenarians belonged 2.5 times (odds ratio (OR) = 2.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.23-5.10) more often to the highest third of grip strength in midlife, were never smokers (OR = 5.75 95% CI = 3.06-10.80), had participated in physical activity outside work (OR = 1.13 per daily hour, 95% CI = 1.02-1.25), and had a long-lived mother (≥80 vs. ≤60 years, OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.06-5.01). Associations for nonagenarians and octogenarians were parallel, but weaker. Multivariate modeling showed that mother’s longevity and offspring’s grip strength operated through the same or overlapping pathway to longevity. High midlife grip strength and long-lived mother may indicate resilience to aging, which, combined with healthy lifestyle, increases the probability of extreme longevity.
Memory and strength always in my thoughts.
Yes, β-Hydroxy-β-Methyl Butyrate (HMB) is a natural metabolite of the amino acid leucine that’s produced in the human body. It’s also found in small amounts in some foods, such as grapefruit, alfalfa, and catfish.
WebMD
I’ve added HMB to my shake for about a year now. At the time I started, the research was weak, but I figured it couldn’t hurt and my source is not expensive. I haven’t noticed any particular result but it’s hard to say since I do a lot of things in parallel.
Years ago HMB was touted as a “avoid muscle loss” tool for people who had to stop exercising due to illness or injury. My takeaway back then was it was fine but I might as well just get enough protein (and leucine). Has anything new been confirmed?
I basically came to the same conclusion and am not aware of any new research that contradicts it. However, the potential cognitive benefits shown in mouse-model research are interesting. Here is the original study Muscle-building supplement β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate binds to PPARα to improve hippocampal functions in mice. This study had only 6 mice per group, which the author’s math show to be statistically significant. I’m sceptical, but don’t remember enough statistics to be able to check the math. Maybe HMB would help ; )
