Pictures after Flex and Booty (weight gain.. eek!)

Last summer I noticed that even at 46kg (which used to be my perfect weight when I was younger... I am now 50) I still had cellulite on my thighs and a kind of generalised flabby appearance that I didn't like! This despite being quite physically fit and active. I didn't want to try to lose weight because my upper body was already quite bony, so I thought I'd try to improve my body composition by building up some muscle mass... For this I started on a combination of FBflex and FBbooty R2 combined (but rescheduled so as to do an average of just 4 FB workouts per week, because I also do yoga and tennis), trying to lift heavy.

At first it was really scary because my appetite increased hugely and I seemed to be unstoppably gaining weight... I am just 1.57m (5foot2) so on my frame a 3-4kg weight gain feels like a lot! Still, I know it's impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, so I kept going... telling myself that once I'd increased my muscle mass I could focus on leaning out a bit at a later stage. Also, I was enjoying the benefits of the new "bigger" (stronger) me. A lot more energy, no more backaches or stiff shoulders after playing tennis, better sleep and mood, no more hip/knee soreness/stiffness when running, amazingly greater ease in challenging yoga poses and just generally a tighter more compact feeling in my body that was making me feel better in my own skin.

So even though I could see the cellulite was still there (on top of the new muscles!) all these functional changes made me feel I was on the right track.

Still, I was afraid to take these pictures because I thought I would look bad (maybe even worse than when I started, because of the weight gain) and feel discouraged. I thought maybe I'd better wait until after completing my next program (FB burn r2) and hopefully dropping a kilo or so of fat without losing muscle mass.... But in the end I took the pics anyway and I have to say it's not as bad as I thought! I can see some progress :-)