Last week I shared my DEXA scan results.
5.3% body fat. The leanest I’ve ever tested.
The 5.3% doesn’t mean I’m exactly 5.3, it can be 1-2% off.
But where DEXA scan shines is in accuracy from test to test.
So it’s highly accurate at measuring changes.
Cutting 2% body fat to an extremely lean condition while holding muscle is pretty amazing for someone that’s been lifting his entire life.
I didn’t lose any muscle getting there.
Here are the two scans.
The last time I tested, I was at 7.3% body fat with 156.6 lbs of lean mass.
The new scan: 5.3% body fat. Lean mass at 156.3 lbs.
Yes, I do realize there’s a 0.3 lb difference in lean mass.
But I under-ate for a few days before this scan, which drops your lean mass reading by a couple pounds from water and glycogen depletion alone.
Eat normally for a few days, and that number comes back up.
My actual lean mass right now is probably closer to 157 lbs.
So I didn’t just hold my muscle getting from 7.3% to 5.3%.
I likely added a touch.
What came off was 3.7 lbs of pure fat.
Here’s why holding that muscle at this level of leanness is a big deal…
Getting lean to 10-12% while holding your muscle is one thing. But cutting to extreme leanness, 5-6% body fat, is where holding muscle becomes incredibly hard.
At that level, your body is hyper-incentivized to protect its fat stores.
You need essential fat to survive, so the closer you get to the lower limits of body fat, the more your body fights to protect what’s left.
That means your energy deficit starts producing a combination of fat loss and muscle loss, not just fat.
At 5.3% on the DEXA, I have 9 lbs of body fat.
Essential fat for a man my size is around 5 lbs.
That’s a 4-pound surplus before things get dangerous.
Four pounds of fat would last roughly a week without food.
Getting that close to essential fat levels while maintaining all your muscle is pretty f*ckn remarkable.
And that leads me to the question I hear more than any other when it comes to GLP-1s.
“Will I lose muscle on Tirzepatide?”
I’ve pretty much answered that question with my own scans.
I do low-dose Tirzepatide once per week paired with smart training and nutrition.
This allows me to maintain all the muscle while getting to a very lean state.
If you’re an advanced lifter, you can maintain all of your muscle and get chiseled.
And if you’re intermediate, you can likely gain muscle while shedding off fat.
The Tirzepatide boosts metabolic health and makes hitting the deficit enjoyable, but it’s the training and the nutrition that ensure the muscle stays.
This is also why the system matters so much.
You don’t want to blast a super high dose and undereat. That’s the misuse.
The goal is the lowest effective dose to nail your calories, and that’s when you get incredible results, and fitness actually becomes fun.
This is why I built the Kino Clinic.
To help people use Tirzepatide correctly while following a smart physique protocol, not just lose scale weight at the expense of muscle.
That’s the whole philosophy behind it, and the process is straightforward.
Kino Clinic is where to start.
Fill out a quick online form, a licensed physician reviews it, and if approved, your medication arrives within 3-5 business days.
No phone calls, no video calls.
Talk soon,
Greg O’Gallagher
Kino Clinic works exclusively with licensed 503A compounding pharmacies to provide physician-prescribed, pharmacy-grade compounded Tirzepatide. All medications are prescribed by licensed physicians for individually identified patients based on documented clinical need. Compounded medications are not FDA-approved finished drug products and are not intended as substitutes for FDA-approved medications such as Mounjaro® or Zepbound®. Individual results vary. This is not medical advice. Use only under the supervision of a licensed healthcare provider.
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