Slow Progress But That's Ok*

I seem to be making progress.  Increasing muscle mass and losing body fat.  My scale at home has not budged for 3 weeks, at 147 lbs.  However, my waist and the circumference at my belly button is going down slightly.  It's difficult to measure body fat with online tools, but initially it seemed like I was probably around 36%.  Now around 33%, maybe 32%.  I lost about 5.5 lb of body fat. Gained 2.5 lb of lean mass (includes muscle, bone density, etc) since June 25, 2020, 13 weeks ago. 0.42lb fat lost per week, and 0.19 lb/lean mass gained per week.  I have been in a calorie deficit for 4 weeks now, which slows down muscle gains.  I was tempted to restrict my calories more until my husband said, that I look a lot better than I did before (belly-wise) and to not worry about restricting more.  One lady at the gym could not help but say, "Wow your arms are a lot more fit than when you started".  I can actually put on, zip up, and button the blue "pre-pregnancy" pants that I was about to donate.  A few months ago, I could not even zip them up all the way and thought that there was no way I could ever wear those again.  I'm keeping them now.  Maybe a few months from now I can wear them more comfortably.  This weekend I'm planning on taking a break from dieting and give my body a much needed rest.  I'll try not to overeat though.  Rest and recovery is important to gain muscle mass.  Tomorrow I'll do my leg workout and a few push ups and I'll be done for the weekend.

* Update Oct 5, 2020.  My progress is actually not "slow".  I seem to gain lean mass at a rate of about 0.5 lb/wk, which is double the 0.12 to 0.25 lb/wk average.  I am losing fat mass at about a rate of 1 lb/wk, which is also quick.

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