Dexa / recomp / help with arms

[lamehack]

hey all. so I’ve been (slowly) ‘recomping’, over the last 1-2 years or so. at a slow pace, although the 6 months seen the largest fat drop of all (25lb). had another dexa scan done, and to my surprise, i reached 20.3% BF while gaining 4.4lb lean mass at the same time. there is recent pics here

Basic Question about Calorie Need (Fat Reduction)

its been a while. i am mid-way into getting into the desired BF%. prob around 25% now, but not sure, have a dexa scheduled. all my fat is around my waste. i started going into a solid cut mid november last year. 25lb down so far. at 6.3 height my goal is more of an athletic look as i’m a rather slow gainer, and getting jacked was never my goal. dumping 1lb/week consistently now. my diet is mainly meat/fruit/honey, with around 200g of carbs a day, and rest from red meat, eggs, greek yogurt etc. s…

my current morning weight is ~230lb at 6.3. goal is probably around 210lb which should me to 10%. all the fat is belly and some on sides

here is a overview;

all in all my arms on dexa are the weakest, and the only part which actually went down

that is despite having massive strength gains and visually definitely looking better. I went from 30->55lb bicep curl (2-3 last set), 70-130 tricep pulldown. my general training is like:
day 1: chest + biceps
day 2: legs
day 3: shoulders + triceps
day 4: back
day 5: a limited day 1-3, hitting 1rp/failure on everything.

bicep is typically: standing bicep curls dumbells (3 sets, 10/8/6), standing bicep curl flat bar (10/8/6), preacher curl
triceps is typically: overhead triceps push, triceps pull (machine), assisted dips, overhead triceps dumbells
apologies for my primitive terminology

is it just genetics? not looking to get jacked here, as i am fairly happy with the way I look already (minus the belly fat), but it is strange that everything grew but arms got smaller?

dexa thinks my lean mass if in the upper end, but I assume this is in regards to the average Joe, not the bodybuilder type ofc

[TrainForPain]

Congrats on the weight loss!

Are you happy with the direction everything is headed?

Keep in mind, lean mass includes glycogen, water, everything that isn’t fat. My guess is your arms haven’t lost any muscle. They’re just small enough (relative to our body, not you specifically) that losing all the “stuff” is a high enough percentage that it showed up on your chart as if you’ve lost all your muscle.

[The_Myth]

@lamehack

goal is probably around 210lb which should me to 10%.

If you do the math you will note that goal requires losing twenty pounds of fat while gaining almost twelve pounds of muscle.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but certainly optimistic.

[lamehack]

oh crap, yeah my math is off. ran it through chatgpt. without gaining muscle:
So, you would need to lose approximately 26.32 pounds of fat to reach 10% body fat, resulting in a new weight of around 203.68 pounds.
so i assume at 10%:
So, to reach your target weight of 210 pounds at 10% body fat, you would need to gain approximately 5.69 pounds of muscle.
but even 5.69 is unrealistic. I can probably gain 1lb, and my weight loss needs to be ~26lb not 20

[lamehack]

yeah that makes sense. overall super excited - i feel like this cutting is like you see nothing nothing nothing for ever…and then boom people start telling you how good you look, can’t wait for the next 10% BF.

[The_Myth]

It’s more complicated than it looks at first, and I have made the same mistake. I’ve gotten as low as 14% and it was very difficult. I could lose weight no problem, it was just that my BF didn’t change. You have to get creative with LISS and HIIT and nutrient cycling - at least for me.

[lamehack]

my weight loss is definitely better when i do some zone 2 cardio, which for me is plain road biking. any week i do only weights it definitely slows/stalls. I am thinking that at some point i have to change up the ratios of lifting, maybe do 3x week (instead of 5), and cardio 5x, instead of 3x, or something like that.