With the dietary changes fairly well-managed, I wanted more data about my body composition and the calories I require to maintain my weight. I’m still struggling with sodium and working on getting my water intake higher, but these things will come with time. And usually I don’t exceed my sodium limits, it’s just that I don’t have enough options that taste good yet.
Weight realization
I knew I had lost weight since early August when I started the dietary restrictions, but I didn’t know how much. I thought it was maybe 4-5 pounds. But when we took the dogs to a vet on October 1st, I got on the scale and was surprised to see that I had dropped 11 lbs since my late-July weigh-in at Mayo Clinic. I don’t look unhealthy, but I’d really prefer not to drop any more. If I’m potentially facing serious health issues in the future, it would be best to head into them with some weight buffer and a strong body vs. a slim, frail one.
But even with this weight loss, my BMI is still on the high side of normal at 23.2. My whole adult life I’ve struggled with primary care doctors telling me I need to lose weight based on my BMI. Having inherited a muscular build from my father, I have usually felt that my weight was OK. But that’s a hard argument to win with your primary care doctor when they won’t order a follow-up test to measure your body composition. Over the years I’ve called various places to try and get a DEXA scan on my own, but everywhere has required a doctor’s prescription. The Mayo team had already performed a baseline DEXA scan for bone density, as poor calcium & Vitamin D absorption is an issue in PSC. (My results were very good, which was expected) But they wouldn’t prescribe a scan for body composition, saying it wasn’t “the standard of care.”
DEXA and RMR tests
When discussing the weight loss and my questions about adequate calories with a friend, she mentioned a place in Madison that would do a DEXA scan and other types of tests without a prescription. I hadn’t heard of DEXAFit, but sure enough, they’re a franchise that would answer all my needs, along with an iOS app to see results. I scheduled a DEXA body composition scan and a measurement of my Resting Metabolic Rate.
I suspected that my extra muscle mass meant that I needed more calories than the dietician and Cronometer had suggested.
Turned out I was correct.
Body fat was 23%, which at my age is considered “lean,” versus my BMI that’s on the heavy side of normal.
My lean mass was 73%, which is 11% higher than would be expected of a typical 56-year-old woman
The visceral fat around my organs was extremely low.
My resting heart rate was low. It’s another trait inherited from my dad.
And at the end of the day, my metabolism was categorized as “Fast” for my age. If we assume I’m “lightly active,” I need around 2,000 calories per day to maintain.
Given that for the past 2 months I’ve sometimes struggled to reach 1,600 calories, the inadvertent weight loss makes sense. Moving forward I’ll be tracking to the 2,000 calorie goal.
Taking all this into account, along with my high bone density, gave me a biological age of 40. I know this is just a marketing tool and not scientific but it felt good anyway.
Now someone just needs to tell my liver.
