Yes, bone-density scan. It’s been awhile, at least a year since I had it, then I moved, had to get setup with a new provider. She was setting that up, but thanks for the reminder, I need to call her as no one called me yet to schedule another scan 
I am anxious to see if it’s maybe not progressed at least, but even better if I’ve maybe gained some back. You can rebuild bone I think, I hope ?
Thanks much, and today is workout day again, and I feel great if that’s any sign of progress 
Awesome Shanita!! I know what you mean about gaining motivation. The more I do this, the more I want to. Just one day at a time, and I look for progress, and due for a bone-density scan I am so hoping comes out better, have a great day/evening, 
I am so thankful for this thread, it gave me a push I needed. And as we talk about workouts frequently, my focus is kept on it as much as needed. I don’t just forget about my workout and I am much more motivated, looking forward the next one!
I actually just wanted to do my full workout again and keep doing it… I didn’t think I will be this successful. And it’s easier than ever, to bring myself to put in the effort!
It’s doing the same for me Shanita, glad you are here because it really helps encourage me as well denise 
I would wait until you have 3-4 months of weightlifting under your belt and then go for the scan. I would expect your density has improved, or at the very least minimized the loss. If not, then drugs may be a viable option.
Throughout your life, healthy bones continuously break down and rebuild. As you age, especially after menopause, bones break down more quickly. Because bone rebuilding cannot keep pace, bones deteriorate and become weaker. Most osteoporosis medicines work by reducing the rate at which your bones break down. Some work by speeding up the bone-building process. Either mechanism strengthens bones and reduces your risk of fractures. Most of these drugs are taken 1x per week, 1x per month, or even every 6 months, depending on the particular drug. A combination of weightlifting and drugs can work wonders.
I wonder how much of this is due to people not getting enough protein as they age? A large portion of our bone is made of protein. It seems as people get older, especially if they believe all the standard nutrition advice that’s been fed to them over the years, don’t get nearly enough protein. I see it with my mother-in-law. She eats oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch and dinner may have protein, but I can tell you that is in very small portions. I’m sure the daily amount of protein she eats is not nearly enough.
No protein also means no or very little bone rebuilding.
Up until about 3 years ago when I started keto, I ate like that as well. I’m anxious to see answers to your question Virginia. Only now am I so focused on my macros and before keto, I’d never had a bone-scan done, so I don’t have any past scans to compare to. When I started keto I was 68.
I worked out almost the whole 3 years I’ve been on keto so I need another scan because I don’t have previous scans (never had one before Keto). I had only a long break after I moved on June 20. Several reasons I won’t go into, just wasn’t willing enough to get back to it.
I think just for peace of mind I’ll get the bone-scan scheduled now. I’m about to post my progress on lifting, and just plan to keep it up now that I got back to working out with plenty of weight-bearing. Thank you for your added info as even my “break-time” may effect my bone-density so I won’t be into great expectations at this point
Yes, protein does play a big role, but age is a bigger factor. At best, the additional protein will minimize the bone loss as we age.Protein is also very important in maintaining muscle mass as we age.
I can’t agree more on the consistency, that was my biggest issue until I got on to Keto, and even then, I’ve back-slid, but not totally given up, especially when I get tests that show deterioration, or things like the T2 diagnosis that brought me to keto.
thank you @ffskier
Did a good workout yesterday and most of my “sets” I did 2 sets for each muscle group. I did mostly upper body, but did throw in some lower body doing squat-types, and lunges plus 3 machines for legs.
I haven’t been writing down the weight I’m using, I just figured that I would go by how strong I feel on each day I go. I did use the mat-area this time that has some equipment so I tried hard to do some rear-lunges but kept getting confused and going back to forward ones 
I had to use 10 lb dumbells which seemed a bit too heavy, but what was hard was the balance. I’ll get that back again, and I had gained a lot when I was doing my workouts at home with just “resistance” bands
I’m feeling more confident each time I go to the gym, it was hard at first, so many people, and sometimes hard to get on the machines (including the pulley types) but I just keep looking around as there are machines, and more pulley-type galore, some in separate rooms and areas, this place is HUGE!!
I feel very fortunate that there are truthfully, at least half the folks there are my age and older though
My thought was like Edith’s. That it may be not mostly due to age but due to bad lifestyle (exercise and diet)… I suppose that is exactly the case. Both matters a lot.
Oatmeal always means a decent amount of protein to me (for someone who isn’t me, I need high protein myself) but my SO eats it in proper amounts to give him enough protein… 26g in one breakfast sized portion and almost all from oat (as the fruits doesn’t provide any significant amount). The calories, protein, volume and everything else are perfect for him that way.
A tiny lil oatmeal have quite little indeed. People should swap to some proper food later! My SO eats more eggs, cheese and meat later (and more protein rich plants. mostly legumes, not in small amounts). Well it’s easy if one needs almost 3000 kcal a day, even a very veggie rich vegetarian diet can provide protein just fine. If one doesn’t fill up the space with sugary things and low-protein bread and fat without protein… But it’s not hard. With a tinier intake, one should focus on protein more. Sometimes I wonder how on earth can some people eat those super fatty, super sugary cakes all the time along with vegs and fruits and starches and whatnot when I had a hard or rather long (many years!) time to figure out how to avoid overeating fat and my energy need is small but not tiny and I basically live on protein sources…! I add others here and there but it’s mostly protein. Protein never was the problem, staying below my energy need was the tricky thing and it was just the fat, carbs had no chance beyond the little I ate on good days. But in the end, it wasn’t difficult: I just had to put a lot of effort into enjoying lean proteins and somehow not eating a lot of fatty dairy every day…
I had a long walk today and it managed to make my workout impossible, I will do the whole thing tomorrow, at least I will try! With bigger weights 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523058185
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523061889
I was curious so I searched to see if I could find any studies. These two studies seem to suggest that increased protein does help with improving bone mineral density, but both say also taking calcium is required.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002231662215697X
This article is quite interesting. In this study, high protein resulted in hypercalciuria without effect on the parathyroid. The hypercalciuria was caused by more calcium being absorbed by the digestive tract. Low protein actually resulted in “secondary hyperparathyroidism” which caused a reduction in intestinal calcium absorption. The conclusion was that low protein diets can be detrimental to bone health.
It doesn’t seem they did any testing on actual bone mineral density (BMD), but they did include a graph from another study that showed better femoral bone density in women who ate more protein.
So… that brings me back to the question: Is it REALLY age or once again lack of proper nutrition (in this case protein) resulting in much of the bone density loss?
I understand that we all age, but how much of aging is really just not adjusting our nutrition was we get older?
The nutrition facts for 1 cup (81 grams) of raw oats are (5Trusted Source):
Sorry Shinita, this is the nutrition info for one cup of dry oats which would make quite a lot of cooked oats. It has only 11 grams of protein. I don’t think anyone eats one cup of dry oats per meal, probably at least half that. Five to six grams of protein is not a decent amount of protein.
I have tracked his actual recipe, I don’t just write random things when I use numbers… I hope
My data says 17g protein per 100g for oat. (I googled and found the same - and some ranges too. It can be less. On the site that I use for tracking, I just grabbed the first one with 17g protein, others have 14 or 13, apparently. I didn’t find only 11g there.) With the lower data, his oatmeal still would be maybe 20g protein. Yep, it’s little but still significant for someone who doesn’t need my high protein intake. And it’s just the breakfast, there are the other meals to get better at it.
Of course many people eat more than 80g oats, it’s very little! My SO has 130g in his breakfast oatmeal and he keeps his breakfast as small (I mean calories) as semi-comfortably possible as he needs to be careful not to get fat. He had bigger breakfasts before. Yes, the cooked oatmeal gets big, that’s why he needs near 1kg of oatmeal. He would be starving with only one cup!
He is a bit like me, it doesn’t matter how much water it soaks up, the macros and calories matter at satiation. But he needs volume anyway while I don’t. So it’s fine my food has a lower water content.
By the way, not per meal, but he can eat 300g rice on some days. It was 1500g cooked rice earlier, now it’s 1300g we use less water, as little as possible for us to cook the thing properly, no idea how others do it with little
The water doesn’t matter, just the nutrients, we drink water anyway and it doesn’t make us satiated and we would lack the nutrients too…
Can you tell me how you prepare oatmeal to get the protein content that high? I would like to pass that on to my mother-in-law.
It may be similar to hers, just bigger. That’s it, there aren’t tricks. You can’t get much protein from oats without eating it in big enough amounts. Even boiled eggs may contain only 3g protein if you eat half! Nuts may help a bit but not so much unless one loves the overpower the oat with it… But they may be too fatty if one needs a low calorie breakfast because they can’t eat much. But it’s very easy to make a protein rich low-cal meal but it can’t be oatmeal. Especially if the sheer volume is a problem. (Oats can be eaten without much water added but it’s not oatmeal. It’s my eggy oat dumplings, yum. I don’t eat them as they are carby but they are tasty even for me. Tasty eggs overpower the subtle not so great taste of the oat.)
As I wrote, 130g oat is used but I don’t know the water content… Probably the normal ratio. He puts 25g coconut or walnut (ground) into it too and lots of fruits (200-250g unless it’s something very flavorful like our sour cherries). Oh and a bunch of raisins, my SO is into raisins, I can’t often get away with a dessert if it misses it. But the fruits don’t add protein, just volume. It is a big oatmeal in the end but nicely fits into his 1 liter container so not overly much. My stomach can handle 2 liters, not using oatmeal though, I dislike the stuff. I used to make tiny oatmeals for myself but that had more coconut than oat. That actually raises the protein content. And everything is better with a yolk… So I automatically make things more protein rich. My keto bread is so protein rich and satiating that it’s impossible to eat much of it, even for me. But I looked up, even the normal bread (as normal as I can make, at least. I don’t make tasteless, almost just flour things. but it’s not for me so it’s mostly wheat flour and water) I could eat at once (if I was the same as years ago…) would have 50g protein. But the macro ratios would be horrible for me.
Grains have protein and people who eat a lot of it can get a significant amount of them (they should complete it with legumes or just eat 100+ g animal protein as well, seems even easier to me :D).
So it’s all about size and eating abilities. My SO needs his calories/energy and his oatmeal breakfast is the only source between about 6pm and 3pm and he does all his excercise and 8 hour physical work in that time. Of course one can do these things without eating in the last several hours but some people need to eat a bit more frequently.
There is nothing wrong with a tiny oatmeal but then the other meals should have more protein. If one can’t eat much, don’t eat much, they totally should focus on more protein rich items. I eat a big chicken leg in minutes and it’s 70-80g protein. Even half of it (a small amount of food, even in calories) is a decent amount for a meal, even with few meals per day for some.
Okay… back to @Goldengirl52 goal of keeping this thread on topic of weights/body building. 