Week 092 - 89.4 kilos (197.0 pounds) lighter over 92 weeks! - My 21 month review and DEXA results



Well here I am, 21 months into my journey, and SO CLOSE to losing 90 kilos!

FWIW, I usually have my DEXA scans on the Friday (my official weigh in), but I couldn't get the DEXA until the Wednesday after. This is why sometimes I say week 091, but am writing this at the end of week 092.

My 21 month health review !

Before I get into my health statistics, I think it is important for me to compare my life before my health journey started 21 months ago, and how I am today.

21 months ago -
  • I was constantly worried about fitting in chairs or breaking them
  • I took my own seat with me when visiting family and friends to ensure I wouldn't break their chairs
  • I was constantly sweating, even when just sitting down
  • I was out of breath walking just a few metres or up a flight of steps.
  • I parked my car as close as possible to shops to minimise the walking distance
  • I parked my car with extra space on the driver's side to ensure I could exit and enter the car easily
  • I constantly avoided being in photos
  • I avoided virtually all vegetables except potatoes, and they were usually fried or mashed
  • I was constantly hungry even though I over-ate
  • Most of my meals were high in sugar and fat and very low in nutrition
  • I didn't care about the quality or quantity of food that I ate
  • I never exercised
  • I was anxious about flying as I knew I would not fit in the seat comfortably
  • I was anxious about flying as I knew I needed a seat belt extender and the tray wouldn't go down
  • I was pre-diabetic
  • I had high blood pressure
  • My joints hurt and I had trouble breathing sometimes just due to my size
  • Food controlled me, I didn't control food.
  • I lived to eat, I didn't eat to live

Today - 
  • I can confidently sit in virtually any chair without worrying that I would break it
  • I no longer sweat just existing
  • I now walk an hour a day six days a week and have no issues climbing stairs
  • I now park my car further away to get more 'incidental' exercise
  • I no longer worry about parking too close to other cars as I am close to regular sized
  • I enjoy being in photos
  • I now look forward to my daily pumpkin soup and veges in my lunches and dinners
  • I feel full all day now due to the balance of low GI and high protein food in my diet
  • All of my meals are nutritious, and low in fat and sugar
  • I now care about the quality and quantity of food that I eat
  • I ensure I do my daily walk six days a week as it gets me pumped for the day
  • I now enjoy flying as I fit in the seat comfortably
  • I now enjoy flying as I know I don't need a seat belt extender and the tray now fits
  • I am no longer pre-diabetic
  • My blood pressure is normal
  • My joints no longer hurt and I breathe easily
  • I control my food, food no longer controls me
  • I eat to live, I no longer live to eat.
In summary, 
  • I now realise that I was killing myself by neglecting my health
  • Living is no longer a chore
  • I can now enjoy life with my family and keep up with them
  • I now look forward to every morning, of every day
  • I look forward to my meals, and I know that my meals will keep me healthy and happy 

On to the Health Statistics !

It's now been just over 21 months since I started on my health journey, and every three months I get my DEXA scan so I can review my progress on a medical level. A DEXA scan is a medically accurate full body scan. It is as accurate as possible without doing an autopsy (I think it is a bit early for one of those).

Unfortunately, I didn't discover the DEXA scan until three months into my journey, and I really regret I don't have the stats from day 1. Looking back now, those stats would have been mind blowing.

Historically, my week 52 scan was the first time I was able to fit within the line markers of the DEXA scan. Previously, I was too wide to get the scan, so the technician had to 'halve' my body and replicate the stats for the other side so we could actually have a semi accurate scan.

It is a huge milestone to know that I can now fit within the line markers.

And I have reached another DEXA milestone this time.
This was the first time the DEXA technician was able to put the foam between my arms and my chest. This is standard in most instances to produce a cleaner more accurate scan, so I am pretty happy that I am now classed as 'normal' in this instance.

The stats below will show my stats at 3 months and 21 months (an eighteen month progression).

DEXA statistics - For eighteen months of DEXA scans
Note, I only started my DEXA scans at Week 13.
DEXA weights may vary from my official TWD weights as the scales are different and the DEXA scan may not be on my official weigh in days.

Scan image comparison -

The image above is quite confronting to me now.
It shows truly how obese I was on a purely medical level.

So fat, it couldn't see my skeleton fully -
I only just realised now, that at the start, I was so fat, the scan didn't register my skeleton.
My fat was actually blocking the scan from seeing my skeleton fully.

I was so huge, my body was too fat to fit into the scan area !
And that was three months into my journey!
Oh how I would love to have a scan from day 1 rather than from 3 months in.
The original scan would be even more confronting to me now.

But now I can, with free space on the sides.
In fact, this was the first time that the DEXA technician put foam spacers between my arms and chest to provide some separation for a more accurate scan

And look at how much 'yellow' (fat) has melted away !

My body is so much leaner now.
It is so motivating to see how little fat I have now compared to the start.
I still have more to lose, but I am getting really close to goal now.

--- My DEXA stats ---Weight transformation - DEXA
Week 013 - 167.8 kg
Week 091 - 95.9 kg
Summary - 
Excellent weight loss of 71.9 kg in eighteen months!

Body Fat Kg - DEXA
Week 013 - 81.03 kg
Week 091 - 22.4 kg
Summary - 
This is a great statistic. My body fat in kilos dropped a massive 58.6 kilos in eighteen months!
Body fat loss - This blows my mind
Below I am holding an anatomically correct representation of a 2.2 kilo (5 pound) block of fat.
So far, I have lost just over 40 of these since day one.

And going by my DEXA, in the last 18 months I have lost
  • 10 kg in each of my legs - That's 4.5 blocks of this fat in EACH LEG.
  • 2.5 kg of fat in each of my arms - That's more that one block of this fat in EACH ARM.


Body Fat % - DEXA
Week 013 - 48.3%
Week 091 - 23.4 %
Summary - 
This is my favourite health marker.
My body fat % has more than halved in eighteen months !
And I am VERY close to being a healthy body fat percentage.
Healthy body fat percentage for a male my age is around 22%

To go from being virtually 50% fat to now being only 23.4% blows my mind.

Lean Mass Kg - DEXA
Week 013 - 83.25 kg
Week 091 - 69.88 kg
Summary - It is virtually impossible to lose fat only, and it is remarkable to lose virtually 72 kg weight in eighteen months and only have 13.37 kilos of that as muscle loss. That converts to around 18.6% of my weight loss being muscle and 81.4% of my weight loss being fat.
This shows that my high protein diet, with daily walks are helping to maximise fat loss and minimise muscle loss.

The image below is a great visual to help understand just how much fat I have lost and how little lean mass I have lost at the same time.

VAT - (the dangerous fat around my organs) - DEXA
Week 013 - 387 cm2
Week 091 - 122 cm2
Summary - Healthy target is 100 cm2 
This is a great statistic. The dangerous fat around my organs has plummeted from a staggering 387 cm2 down to only 122 cm2. 
The healthy range is 100 cm2, so it is amazing that I am so close to being in the healthy range!


Health stats update
No longer pre-diabetic - Blood sugar is 4.6, down from 5.5 eighteen months ago
Resting heart rate is around 47 bpm during sleep.
Blood pressure is now 122 / 83 - (Eighteen months ago it was 146 / 100)
Cholesterol is perfect

Measurements -
Week 000 - Shirt size - 9XL - 142 cm
Week 091 - Shirt size - M - 97 cm

Week 000 - Pants size - 157 cm (62 inch)
Week 091 - Pants size - 97 cm (38 inch)

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Quick update on my recent journey and challenges.

The last few weeks have been really challenging.
My scales died the day of my official weigh in for Week 090, so I had no real official weigh in for such an important date milestone for me.

Plus, I was no longer on track to lose 90 kilos in 90 weeks (and I love numbers that match).

So I had to accept that my body was not losing the weight that I felt entitled to.
I was exercising the same.
I was eating the same (no cheating).

So there was no logical reason why the weight wasn't coming off.

But, unfortunately weight loss is not linear, and I have to accept that I have no real control on how quickly, or slowly, that the numbers change.

So I have had to change my mindset, and my goals.

I've used the 91 / 92 week DEXA as my new benchmark.
I've bought a second set of scales and they match my DEXA weight exactly, so that keeps me happy.
I use the replacement ones (for the faulty WW800A scales) for my body fat %
Confusingly, I have to set them to male athlete mode, and the body fat % is only 0.8% different to my DEXA. Apart from converting every day, it means that I have a pretty accurate reading of my body fat %, and that is really important to me for this part of my journey.

The WW800A scales record me as 400g heavier than I actually am, so that is why I use two sets at the moment.  😂

Although the scales have been static for a few weeks, I am really happy that I have stayed focused, and ignored the part of my brain that says "It's not working... You might as well give up".

It annoys me that my brain still says that, but I am able to quickly shut that down.
It does show me that I have learned so much on the program that I can shut down those negative thoughts, as two years ago, I would have easily gone back to old habits.

So how much did my scales drop in the last few days?

Enough to make me VERY happy and reassure me that I CAN STILL lose weight. 

You'll just have to wait until next week for the OFFICIAL weigh in to find out if I have finally cracked that elusive 90 kilo weight loss milestone.

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