Lean Mass Gain About 0.5 lb/wk, Fat Loss 1.1 lb/wk

I wish I could have been professionally measured, but it looks like I gained about 0.5 pounds of lean mass and lost 1.1 lb of fat mass per week since June 29th.  There is reportedly a wide variance on how fast someone can gain lean mass.  The average woman gaining 0.12 to 0.25 lb of lean mass per week (see here).  Using my tape measurements and two online body fat calculators (see here and here) my body fat went down from about 39% (Yikes!) in June to 31% in October.  I lost about 4.5 inches around my waist and naval measurements.  I wondered if there was some genetic component to this supposed lean mass gain, so I checked for variants in the MSTN gene, but 23andme does not test anything on that gene.  Bummer.  I do have the homozygous power athlete allele on ACTN3.  I lost about 7 pounds since June, presently 145 pounds.  I am getting close to being able to comfortably fit into some pre-pregnancy pants from when I was 135 pounds.  Perhaps I really do have above average lean mass gains or there is something else I'm not considering like water retention.  Who knows?  I don't take the "juice" either.  

My goals were to lose body fat, gain lean mass and strength, and generally improve my health.  For most of my life, I had issues with nutrition.  As a child, there often was not enough to eat.  As a teen I "beat myself up" by struggling with anorexia.  My form of exercise was running a lot since middle school.  I stopped exercising much after having issues with gout in 2014.  After having two kids, realized I was getting in poor health (belly fat, issues with blood sugar, postpartum depression, etc).  I wanted to be "skinny", but it looks like my body is built more for strength.  So I finally got around to weightlifting in June. 

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