Lean Body Mass - Muscle

I'm not a small woman, nor am I Amazon like, but I do have a lot of lean body mass (LBM) underneath the fat that is just so excited to reveal itself.  My LBM was acquired over many years of weightlifting.  Unfortunately, I never figured out what it took to get the bodyfat off and keep it off.

It takes a concentrated effort for me to remember to consume enough protein.  Since my LBM is about 154 lbs, that is a lot.  That means if I had ZERO bodyfat on my body, I'd weigh 154 lbs.  That is comprised of my muscles, skeleton, fluids, organs.  I do not have aspirations of being 125 lbs, as that not only means my bodyfat has to be super low, but it would require me dropping 44 lbs of LBM. 

The more muscle you have, the more calories it takes to burn at rest.  Why would I want to lose muscle to get at a weight that may be ideal for many women?  At 25.57% bodyfat and having 154 lbs of LBM, you do the math as to how much I weigh.  I do believe some of that 154 lbs LBM is excess water and probably to the tune of 1-2 gallons.  A gallon weighs approximately 8 lbs. 

If I wanted to eventually do a professional photo shoot and look really lean, I'd probably want to dehydrate myself, which would be dropping that water weight.  I'm guessing a better reflection of my LBM is at the 140 lbs range.  My goal for now is 15%.  That is having the abs of the woman in my blog's background or in my profile.  For a woman to have ripped abs, that's in the <12% range and takes quite a bit of work to drop that low.  As of right now, that doesn't sound fun or anything that I aspire, but who knows?

15% bodyfat is plenty low.  18% is sustainable and healthy for most women.