Adam Preisser
Lean Body MAss
Lean Body Mass (LBM) measures how much of your total body weight is made up of non-fat tissues. These tissues include muscle, bones, organ, connective tissues, and more. Lean Body Mass is important to measure as this tells you more information than just body weight. Many athletes have a higher than average body weight (and high BMI) because they have a high Lean Body Mass.
Adam moved from a very low level of LBM to one appropriate for his height in his first bulking phase from September 2017 to August 2018. After this initial year of training Adam’s efforts shifted towards reducing his body fat while maintaining LBM from August 2018 to April 2019.
Body MAss Index
Body Mass Index is strictly a relation of your height to your total body weight. A BMI of <20 is underweight, 20-25 is normal, 25-30 is overweight, and 30+ is obese. The major limitation of this measurement is that it does not consider body fat percentage or lean body mass. It is common for strength athletes to have BMI’s that classify as over weight and even obese. This is despite having low levels of body fat and a healthy body.
Adam began his training in September 2017 with an underweight BMI of 19. At the end of his first year and bulking phase Adam achieved a BMI of 25 (the top end of a normal BMI), and at this point his training shifted to maintaining a healthy BMI while reducing body fat.
Body Fat
Body Fat is the body’s energy storage system. Body Fat is absolutely vital to your survival & health, but like all things, it is best in moderation. For men and women, body fat of <6% & <13% respectively, is considered unhealthily low & affects hormones negatively, while >18% & >25% respectively, is considered too high.
Adam began at a body fat of 5%–unhealthily low and a result of Cerebral Palsy’s effect on metabolism. By the end of Adam’s first year of training he had risen to 16.7% body fat, still healthy, but near the high end of the range. At this point Adam switched his efforts to reducing body fat while maintaining strength & lean body mass and has settled at a body fat of 12.5%.
*Specific results are not guaranteed, and your results may very. These results are representative of strict adherence to a training & nutrition plan.