u/iris__lu

I (25F) just got a gym membership because I've been sedentary and wanted to move around more. I have two goals: lose fat & get stronger.

At the gym, I start with 15-20 minutes of cardio (running, mostly) and then use some of the machines around the gym to target areas like my arms, core and lower body. I do 3 sets 10 reps of whatever weight feels right and move onto the next machine until I feel like I've done enough. And if I'm not that sore the next day, I assume I need to increase weight and/or sets/reps. (I use my notes app to track what I'm doing so I stay consistent.)

When it comes to my diet, I don't count calories. I eat mindfully and make sure my meals are balanced. I make home cooked meals ensuring they have some source of protein, fat and carbs plus fruits/vegetables. I also started intermittent fasting recently. 14:10 for now because it's easy and I don't ever feel hungry enough for breakfast anyway.

Maybe I'm overthinking it. But I want to make sure what I'm doing will benefit me down the road. It's really important to me that I lose weight, but I also want to be stronger. And I know that I could be contradicting myself when I say I want to lose weight but gain muscle.

TLDR; I just started going to the gym, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm looking for feedback & reassurance. I hope I'm asking the right place!

When I was 15, I had an MRI done on my chest and abdomen as part of diagnostic testing for a blood disorder. In that MRI, they noted "mild mitral valve prolapse" but nobody ever told me about it. I actually didn't know about this "diagnosis" until years later when I saw it on my medical records. I didn't bring it up though because I thought it was a mistake, especially because I had no symptoms. A few years after that, it fell off my record. (as in, it was on my list of diagnoses, then it wasn't) I thought nothing of it.

Flash forward to this year, I had an echocardiogram. Everything came back perfectly normal. In fact, I noticed that they found no mitral valve prolapse either. Everything in that part of the test was normal too.

My question is.. was that "mild mitral valve prolapse" found 10 years ago inaccurate? Or maybe since it was mild and I've recently taken on a healthier lifestyle.. could it have "reversed" itself? Like I said, I have no symptoms but I have health anxiety lol.

Edit: I went ahead and sent a message to my doctor just to confirm. Basically worded it like "I had this diagnosed in 2015 but now I don't see it in my recent test. Is it safe to assume I do not have this condition?" more to come on this I guess.