Fit Model Over 50: Four Weeks Out – Body Fat Progress & the Hidden Cost of Transformation on Relationships [Ep 58]

Host Lisa DuPree gives an honest update on her journey to her first-ever physique competition that is just four weeks away. She shares a detailed body composition update on changes in body fat and muscle mass, while highlighting how real transformation isn’t just physical, it's mental and emotional too.

Lisa opens up about the often-unseen sacrifices behind big goals, including the strain on social life, relationships, and day-to-day balance. If you've ever struggled to prioritize your dreams while maintaining meaningful connections, this episode offers validation, insight, and practical wisdom from someone living it in real time.

Key Moments:
[00:30] – Four weeks out: An overview of Lisa's current prep status
[02:00] – Dropping body fat through consistency—not extremes
[03:30] – The importance of preserving muscle mass in midlife
[05:00] – Using data to stay objective and make smart decisions
[07:00] – What the judges won’t see—and why the work still matters
[08:00] – How chasing a goal impacts social life and friendships
[10:00] – Honest relationship talk: the toll and the teamwork
[14:00] – The reminder: you’re allowed to take your goals seriously

Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

Hello. Hello, I'm Lisa Dupree. Welcome back to Midlife Mojo. If you've been following along, you know I've been taking you behind the scenes as I prep for my very first physique competition, and now it is four weeks away. The finish line is in sight, but there's still a good ways to go. In this episode, I'm gonna be diving into some numbers, body fat updates, and also what the numbers don't show, like the toll.

This level of focus is taken on relationships, social life, and a sense of balance. Because when you're chasing a big goal, whether it is fitness, health, career. Or something else that's deeply personal. It doesn't happen in a vacuum. It impacts everything and everyone around you. So if you've ever felt torn between your goals and your relationships, if you've ever wondered how to honor your vision without losing connection with the people that you love and care about, or if you've ever felt [00:01:00] guilty for saying no to things that used to be a yes, you are not alone.

Let's talk about it. So I wanna start with the check-in stats first. When I got serious and started training specifically for this competition back in January, which is about four months ago, I got a baseline body composition analysis. And the main things that we're looking for with that analysis is body fat, percentage, lean muscle mass, and water, or hydration status.

So this is a more in-depth analysis and assessment, than just looking at your overall weight. And so every four to six weeks I get an updated measurement to see how things are progressing. And so this week was my latest scan and it showed a total drop of 6.6% body fat.

In just over four months. And that is not from anything that's a quick [00:02:00] fix or anything extreme at all or, you know, cutting corners and being really restrictive. It's just from consistent effort day to day. With My workouts and being in a very small calorie deficit.

And so I am really proud of that because this isn't a weight loss story. It's not a weight loss goal. This is a body composition transformation, and, and there's really a big difference there. The focus isn't on getting smaller and seeing a smaller number on the scale. The focus is on being leaner and preserving the muscle that I've worked really hard for.

Because muscle mass is what keeps us strong. It's what actually gives shape to your body. It supports your metabolism, and it also helps us move forward with confidence and power as we age. It's also a factor in overall longevity, [00:03:00] and so I've really been keeping a close eye on that because my muscle mass, um, I'm excited to say has increased.

Overall, and now it's pretty stable with only slight fluctuations. And this is pretty normal, especially when you're dialing in in your nutrition and focusing on progressing with your training. So excited to say that overall I've kept, the muscle that I started with added a little bit more, um, especially in places where I needed to build a little bit more muscle, specifically to be competitive in this.

Fit model division that I'm competing in. And, and that's really a huge win, I think for any fat loss phase. And especially in midlife when you're over 50. So I was talking to a friend about the results and they asked, why are you focusing on this level of detail, these numbers? Why not just go by?

Before and after [00:04:00] photos, and, and that's a great question. So as an exercise physiologist and a health coach, I love data. I worked in research for many years, and the data, the numbers, they are objective and they help me stay objective. It's easy to feel like that you are not making progress or you're failing or your training isn't working.

When you see weight fluctuate or you don't see changes in the mirror that are really obvious, right? That can kind of mess with. Your mind. It messes with my mind, honestly. And so, I know this about myself and these numbers, your body fat percentage, your lean muscle mass, your hydration status, all these things.

Give me a clearer picture of what's really going on beyond the scale and, you know, beyond the mirror. It tells you what's working. It helps inform what needs adjusting, and it also lets me know like [00:05:00] specifically how my body is responding. And this data also helps my competition coach make adjustments in my prep program so I stay on track and then it helps me make smarter decisions within my training and my recovery.

And. So this is the kind of level of detail and the kind of information that I use with my own coaching clients so that we're actually able to create a plan and take action that is most effective and efficient for them to reach their goals. I. But also, I share the numbers because I also know from my own experience and my client's experience how motivating and validating it is to track progress that isn't always visible in the mirror or on the scale.

Especially for women over 50 who have, you know, a good bit of life experience and maybe have had experience with dieting and being. Overly restrictive and then, losing weight and then gaining it back. And you know, even if you feel like you're [00:06:00] doing all the right things or you're doing things that worked in the past and it's not working now, you're not seeing the results on the scale.

You're not seeing results in the mirror as quickly as you'd like. The muscle mass, that number, the body fat percentage in the hydration status, even things like tracking in your workouts, your strength levels, these things tell a much more complete story. Now on show day, will the judges care about my stats?

No, not at all. They won't know them, and they don't care at all. They also don't know how far I've come, they don't know what I started with. They won't see the workouts, the meal planning, the sleep discipline, their recovery strategies or any of the behind the scenes sacrifices that I've made to get on that stage.

All they see is that snapshot in time of what it looks like when I step on that stage. I know though. I know [00:07:00] what it takes. And that's what really has fueled me to keep going. So with four weeks to go, we're officially at that next level part of prep. There's no more easing into it. This is the really the stretch where decisions matter, and it's a whole new layer of focus and intensity.

And let me tell you, it really is impacting more than just, whether I'm doing my workouts and what's on my plate at this point. So I wanted to talk more about competing priorities that show up when you commit to a goal. That involves a change in habits or a change in your lifestyle, and this really goes for kind of any type of goal that, that you're working on.

Because saying yes to a goal like this has really meant saying no to a lot of other things for me. And one of the biggest things that has been impacted is my relationships and my social life. Now, I'm [00:08:00] not a social butterfly by any means, but I do need to get out and be with people and be with people that I love hanging out with, spend time with them.

And I've really had to scale back on my social life, spontaneous dinners out going and having a couple of drinks hanging out even just let's grab a quick bite while we're out doing something, has come with so much decisional calculus and mental math that it's just it doesn't feel like it's worth it.

Because I have to consider things like, am I gonna be able to keep to my meal plan? Is it gonna throw off my sleep? Will I feel better or worse tomorrow? Will I still be able to get in my workout and do all the things that I had planned?

And. And lately, most of that time the answer is no. I have to give that. No, thank you. Thank you for thinking about me. I would love to, but no thank you. And that's not because I don't want to do it but it's because right now I'm prioritizing something else.

And [00:09:00] so that has. That's felt really lonely sometimes, and it feels isolating in some ways, especially when your friends and family don't understand what you're working toward and they're not working toward the same things you are. Right? They're just out living their lives, how they wanna live their lives and.

Yeah. Also, some people in your life are just not gonna get it. They're not gonna understand. And so they're gonna look at you like, what? Like, what do you mean you can't do that? Or You're not going to do that, or you don't want to do that. And it can feel like you're letting people down, even though you are just really showing up for yourself and doing things that are aligned with you accomplishing your own goal, and then, there is. Some relationship shifts that have been, happening with my significant life partner. He has really been incredible. He is truly supportive. He is unbelievably encouraging and he's really understanding, and so I am so, so grateful for that. [00:10:00] But we've also had to have some very real conversations over the past few months about what this means, what this entails, what I'm choosing to do, and what I'm choosing not to because it impacts him.

Even before I started this, before I really committed, I made a point to sit down and discuss what this whole process entails with him before I even made that final decision to go for it. Even though I'm the one that's doing the work, I'm the one that's stepping on the stage.

It's my choice. He is part of this goal. He is part of this whole process and. And that's because prep has changed so much of kind of things in my life that were just normal or they, we didn't even think about. Right? It's changed how we spend our time it's changed what we eat. It's changed when we eat.

It's changed what does actually in the fridge, in the pantry, that he may be able to go and make what he wants. It's changed what our weekends look like. It's even [00:11:00] changed a lot of how much time and energy I have for just the regular old life stuff, and when one person in a partnership is laser focused on a goal, it can create imbalance and there's no doubt that the relationship dynamic shifts and there are some changes.

These shifts and these changes, it can make it really easy for resentment to creep in and you know that misunderstandings can come up unexpectedly if you're not making a point to communicate often and communicate. Honestly, I. And we've really had to navigate that. Um, sometimes really clumsily just fumbling through it, finding our way.

One thing that we committed to was always to work through it and do it with respect, and that has been such a huge help. 'Cause we're really focused on different things at this moment. Like he's really focused on his job. His job is really, really stressful.

There's been some [00:12:00] big changes. So he's really focusing on leaning in on that and dealing with some, the stress of that. And then I have, started ramping up my business and then also started this big. Body transformation goal, this competition goal, and so I'm really focused on that.

And all my point is to say that a lot of times when somebody takes on a weight loss goal or a body transformation goal, or a health related goal, anything that involves changing in your habits and changes in your lifestyle. A lot of times the impetus and the desire is to see changes physically, but there are also so many mental changes that come along.

There's emotional changes and there's also relational changes. So it requires not just discipline, but it requires self-awareness and self-compassion. It also requires compassion on the person that's actually undertaking the goal, right? And also [00:13:00] support and being able to communicate what that means in a way that's helpful to be able to maintain the connections that are important to you.

It also asks that you hold boundaries and it. It kind of redefines what your balance in life looks like at this point, and it helps to really remember the reasons why you started in the first place, especially when things get uncomfortable. And you know, this goes for really any change in habits or lifestyle goals that you're working toward.

And so I wanted to really make a point to say that, if you are thinking about undertaking a goal, whether it be weight loss, body transformation, increasing your fitness, something related to health or you're already in that process and making big changes, then you know, it doesn't matter what it's related to, but if it affects things in your life and other people in your life like.

[00:14:00] It's important to remember that you as an individual are allowed to take it seriously. You are allowed to do that. Whatever your goal is, you're allowed to say no without guilt and without shame. I. And you're allowed to pursue something that really feels deeply personal and important to you. Even if the people around you that you care about and that care about you don't fully get it 

it doesn't make you selfish, it makes you committed and it's absolutely possible to set things up and be able to communicate in a way that makes it absolutely possible for you to achieve whatever it is. This goal that you set out for. All right, so that is the update from the trenches with four weeks to go, overall body fat is down, muscle mass is holding, the focus is sharp and the life lessons they just keep coming.

And I am so, so grateful for [00:15:00] that and I'm really grateful to be able to share that with you. And so thank you so much for being here with me. Next week I'm gonna be sharing more about how I'm handling some of these emotional triggers that come up and just the grind of doing the same things on repeat to accomplish what I wanna accomplish. Until next time, get out there and keep your mojo rising.