Muscle Loss While Fasting

I had a sudden urge to clean out my desk today, and while going through some of my old notebooks I found a page that had all my measurements from February of 2005.

The awesome things about measurements is that they don't lie.

With pictures, the right light, the right angles and BAM! you are a supermodel or shredded bodybuilder.

With the wrong lights it's a whole different story.

With measurements there is a lot less variability. They are a lot harder to fake, and they typically aren't as affected by happenstance.

The interesting thing is that 2005 is almost 2 full years before I started fasting.

So I can compare my measurements today with my measurements from 2005 and get an idea of what almost 2 years of fasting has done to my body.

in 2005 my right thigh measurements were:

4 inches above the top of the knee = 18 inches


6 inches above the top of the knee = 20.25 inches


10 inches above the top of the knee = 22.5 inches


My right arm (flexed) = 16 inches


My chest = 42.5 inches


My waist = 35 inches


My shoulder circumference = 47.5 inches


These are my current measurements as of September 25th 2008

4 inches above the top of the knee = 18 inches


6 inches above the top of the knee = 22.5 inches


10 inches above the top of the knee = 23.75 inches


My right arm (flexed) = 16 inches


My chest = 42 inches


My waist = 32.5


My shoulder circumference = 49 inches


(****I don't have my weight from back in 2005, however I know my wedding was in 2005 and that I had started to diet for my wedding by February...so I'm guessing I was under 200 pounds...probably about 15-20 pounds heavier than I am now.)

So what has fasting done to me?

My legs are bigger, but my waist is smaller. This is a good sign.

My arms are the same size which makes sense since I don't train them too often and I'm happy with a 16 inch arm.

My chest is a half inch smaller which also makes sense since I don't train my chest as often or with as much weight as I did back in '05.

I was really happy to see that my shoulder circumference has increased, since over the last two years the majority of my upper body work has been centered around increasing the size of my shoulders.

So, after almost two years of fasting once or twice a week, my waist is smaller, but everything else has either stayed the same or even increased in circumference.

Combine these results with my pictures (you can see them HERE) and I am confident in saying that after two years of following the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle I have lost fat, and gained muscle.

BP