Well, I went to the Shape Up America (founded by C. Everett Koop)
website at http://www.shapeup.org/ and calculated my body mass
index (BMI). It came out as 28, which puts me in the moderate/high
risk group for weight-related health problems such as cardiovascular
disease or type II diabetes. The minimum weight loss necessary to put
me in a safer category -- low/moderate -- is 15 pounds.

Therefore, it seems to me to be a good idea to lose 15 pounds. I've
set as a goal to do that by the beginning of the fall semester in
early September. That's a bit over 3 months from now, so that comes
out to losing about a pound a week. That's in line with what the
experts say is a safe rate of weight loss, so this strikes me as a
practical goal.

The experts also say that for permanence, a weight loss program 
should include regular exercise with both aerobic and weight
training components. So I've adopted a regimen that involves a
45-minute workout, six days a week.

Three of those days I take a brisk walk around the neighborhood. I
do a mile in about 15.5 minutes, so the whole walk covers a tad short
of three miles. My heart rate gets up to somewhere in the 130's,
which is the recommended level for aerobic benefit in my age group.

The other three days, I work out in front of the TV, using one of
the exercise tapes put out by "The Firm". I've started with the
"Firm Basics: Fat Burning" tape, which is geared to the beginning
and intermediate levels and involves a combination of aerobics and
weight training (using dumbbells). In my current condition, this
seems about right -- I feel like I'm working hard, but can finish
the full 45 minutes without undue strain.

I've also made some adjustments to my diet. I'm trying to reduce my
calorie intake by about 500 calories a day, eating about half a dozen
small low-fat meals emphasizing fresh fruits and vegetables, and
whole grains.

I'll use this item to keep y'all posted on how things are going.
Do feel free to chime in with your own weight control experiences,
advice, or opinions.

77 responses total.

Best luck, John.

Thanks. I should add that I've been on this regimen for two weeks at
this point, and have lost two pounds according to the scale. So far
I'm on target.

John, you are very welcome to bike over to watch us work on the house, or even
help nail a few boards, or dig in our garden, and then join us for a whole
grain vegetarian meal.  We have been losing weight without wanting to, so our
cooking cannot hurt you and we would enjoy the visit.  If you don't have a
bike, we can provide one for you cheap, that you can use as transportation,
which would automatically get you more exercise.  If you incorporate exercise
as part of your normal life rather than as something that you add to it, you
are much more likely to continue exercising.  Hope to see you soon, but call
first (see my plan or the phone book).

Thanks for the offers, but I think I'll stick to my planned regimen
for a while and see how it goes.

Progress report: So far I've lost about 9 pounds. That puts me 6
pounds from my goal. Beginning of the school year is about 6 weeks
away, so this should be feasible. Perhaps I should state that I'm
in my mid-fifties, and find that taking off pounds is harder than
it was when I was younger -- noticeably harder than even four
years ago. But I went into this assuming it would be slow going.

I've kept up the "Firm Basics" workouts and the walking, and doubt
the weight loss would have happened without them. Lately I've been
following the style of diet described in the "Zone" books by
Barry Sears. He recommends a strict balance between macronutrients,
with 40% of calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 30%
from fat at each and every meal and snack. I wouldn't say that I
follow this absolutely religiously, but I try to stick close to it
at most meals.

I'll say that since starting all this I've felt better both
physically and mentally than I have in a long time.

Since I started this, whatever association or government agency
it is that makes pronouncements on these things lowered the
line for being considered "overweight", to bring U.S. standards
into conformance with the rest of the world. That means that in
order not to be considered overweight I need to lose 25 pounds
from what I was at the beginning of the spring. I'll stick with
my 15 pound goal for now, then take stock in September. I will
say that losing 25 would bring me down into the weight range
that I was for all of my younger adult life. But for a lot of
people, when you hit your 40's and 50's, weight starts to creep
up. I'm no exception.

Those standards are a bit funny, though.  Since they only measure height and
weight, a very muscled person with little fat calculates out to being "obese".

This is true. There is a somewhat simplistic "one size fits all" at
work on the standard makers' part, I think. On the other hand, I
suspect that the percentage of people who don't fit the model is
rather small. In particular, since I'm of more or less average build
and have a more or less average (although a bit on the too-side)
percentage of body fat, I think the standard fits me.

Another measure of progress: I now fasten my belt two notches in
from where I did in early May. Since the notches are about an inch
apart, I figure that's a couple of inches off my waistline.

re #6, Jim came out overweight on the tables when he was about 10 pounds
heavier.  He would like to gain back the weightand is putting olive oil on
everything now.  (I should cook lunch....).

It's been two and a half months since I started this item. Here's the
latest progress report:

o I've lost 13 or 14 pounds (15 is my goal for Sept 1)

o Body mass index (BMI) is 26, down from 28. According to the charts at
http://www.shapeup.org, this puts me in the low/moderate health risk
category, a one-notch improvement from the moderate/high category I
started in. (The next category is minimal/low, the best on the chart.   
I need a BMI of 24 to achieve this, which translates to a loss of 10
more pounds from where I am now.)

o My waist measurement is down 2 inches. I had to go out and buy new
trousers -- the old ones were too big.

o My lean body mass is down only 1 pound. This means that my weight loss
is almost entirely fat loss. This is a Good Thing. (Lean body mass was
calculated from a formula in Sears' "Entering the Zone" book, and
involves plugging in waist and wrist measurements and total weight.)
According to this, 24% of my weight is fat, which isn't great but is an
improvement over my initial 28%.)

The keys to all this are just what the experts seem to say: (1) eat
sensibly, (2) exercise regularly. My "eating sensibly" is actually
pretty structured and involves following the Zone diet, as I mentioned
earlier. Exercise consists of brisk 45-minute walks and the Firm Basics
"Fat Burning" video, which is a mixture of low-impact aerobics and
anaerobic (weight lifting) exercise.

Are there any other "Zone" fans out there?

Not Zone, but I've read and tried a week or two of all three of the "low-carb"
plans.  They seem to work for me.  It's the exercise part I can't get going.
The basic bio-chem premise of all of these makes a lot of sense for how my
body responds to starches and sugars.

Well, I've met my goal -- 15 lbs weight loss by early September --
a few days in advance.

You must be very pleased with yourself.  And so you should be.

Thanks for sharing the encouraging news.  Maybe other people will try the same
approach.  Do you have additional goals?

I'd like to lose about 10 more pounds. That would get me into
the "not overweight" category according to the current U.S.
guidelines.

In addition to the weight loss, do you feel better overall?

Absolutely! More energy, generally "sunnier" mood overall.

Hmm... interesting.  I checked out the body mass calculator page John posted
in another item.  I come out around 18%.  Seems like I've been stable for
about a year at this weight.

I've lost about 5 more pounds since the beginning of September, making
my total weight loss since I began this regimen about 20 pounds. Body
fat has gone from 28% in May down to 21%. Body mass index (BMI) is 25,
down from 28. Lean body mass has remained unchanged.

No significant weight loss for the last two or three weeks. I expected
this leveling off - less time for exercise with the semester underway,
colder weather, the distractions of work. Eventually I'd like to lose
another 10 to 15 pounds, but I'm in no hurry. That can wait until next
spring. My immediate goal is not to gain anything back.

<kick-starts the item>
It's been nearly three months since your last progress report. How's it going,
remmers?

Some further progress. Lost 5 more pounds since my last report, but
for the last few weeks I've been holding steady in the 150-155 lb
range. I'm somewhat surprised that I lost anything, since my exer-
cise level is way down due to the time demands of the school year.
Losing another 5 pounds or so would be nice, but I suspect that
will have to wait until spring/summer when I'll have more time to
work out.

I feel pretty good at my current weight, actually. Waistline is down
3-4 inches since I started all this. It's nice to be able to fit
into clothes that I haven't been able to wear for 8 or 9 years.

The bulk (no pun intended) of my success -- and especially the fact
that I've continued to lose weight during the school year -- is due,
I'm convinced, more to my radical change in eating habits that any-
thing else. Restricted calorie intake (around 1500 cal/day), with
an effort to balance carbohydrate, protein, and fat calories in a
40/30/30 percentage ratio at every meal or snack (the so-called
"Zone Diet"). In particular, carbohydrate intake is way down --
no more binging on bagels and pretzels, which I used to do a lot.
And I've been able to do all this without feeling like I'm starving
myself.

Maybe you have reached the correct weight for your genetic makeup.  You looked
quite healthy to me at the UPS potluck.

Thanks.

I'm skeptical that there is such a thing as "correct weight for one's 
genetic makeup" though. Certainly genetics has something to do with it, 
but weight depends a lot on lifestyle choices too. My example is a case 
in point.

Although I generally feel a lot better since I've lost weight, I was 
interested in getting an objective reading on any actual improvements, 
so I asked my doctor to prescribe a blood test to measure cholesterol 
and such. Compared with six months ago, the last time I had this done, 
indicators such as the total cholesterol to HDL ratio, and the 
triglycerides to HDL ratio, have improved significantly. My doctor 
wrote "excellent" on the lab report.

Three cheers and a pinch. Good job!

grad school has contributed to my weight loss, since I plain do not 
have time to eat during the day! I know that's not good, but it was so 
hard to integrate something healthy to eat. There's places on campus to 
eat but it's all greasy, fried or sugary crap. I can't eat that every 
day. 

So, I carry around a can of Balance, a natural alternative to Slim Fast.
I get it at the natural foods store. It's got vitamins and all and is 
tasty, does not have that "aluminum" taste because it doesn't have all 
the icky chemicals. Only $2 a can, which is cheaper than anything I 
could eat at school. It really does fill my tummy, I don't drink it and 
go, "Aaagh solid food!!!"

I am also working out 2 to 4 times per week. 30 minutes on the bike or 
cross country ski machine. I break a sweat but am not spent when it's 
done. If it wore me out, I'd get burned out way quick and not stick to 
it. I exercise to get energy, not to kill myself. I also do weight 
training. The weight is slooowly coming off but it's coming off.

Nice going, bees. If it's coming off slowly, and you're working out,
it's much more likely to stay off, I think.

Agreed. And keep up the good work, bees!

yeah, but i was bad today, i ate one of those brie-en-croute things. 
(Brie inside bread). WEll I hate half, it's so rich and goopy there's no 
way you can eat a whole one. Still, it's like pure fat. After I ate it I 
was like, "ugh". It does stick though, that was several hours ago and I 
am still not hungry. 

It's OK to occasionally eat something huge and heavy.  Just keep up the normal
good habits and it won't make muchof a bulge.

Right. I depart from my usual regimen now and then (like yesterday,
when I pigged out on Chinese food). I find it doesn't hurt.

True... I was being a bit hard on myself. Usually I compensate, 
balancing a big lunch with a smaller dinner, etc. I'm getting to where I 
like exercising (probably because I no longer go with the intention of 
wearing myself out), so when I eat something not-so-healthy I know I can 
go to the gym that night to burn it off. 

I'm not sure how many calories I eat per day; I just can't sit down and 
add up all that. Yawn. I know I can eat 2200 a day and maintain, but 
since I want to lose I try to keep it around 1700 or so. So if I want 
the little debbie swiss cake rolls, and it turns out I'm nowhere near my 
limit for the day, I just eat it. I know they're empty calories, but if 
I didn't exceed the limit then would it do harm?

When I took karate as a PE credit in undergrad, I was working out 1 1/2 
hrs twice a week. Ate my typical fattening diet, which included lots of 
pizza and beer back in those days. I still lost. But I was 21 or so 
then, and five years has changed me somewhat. It's a little bit harder.

The current wisdom on exercise (as reported in the Feb '99 issue of
Consumer Reports) is that you don't have to exercise intensively to
get the health benefits of exercise. Half an hour a day (or on most
days) of moderate exercise - like brisk walking - is enough. It can
even be spread out in smaller chunks over the course of a day.

Yep. Some days I'm in the mood to break a sweat. Other times I just want 
to get my blood moving is all. I can't do aerobics classes and such. 
They bore me to death, and those instructors are just too damn perky. :)

i am now in another range. my current weight is where i was when i was a 
freshman in college, before it caught up me. i am down a total of 21 
pounds from my highest weight. but i am almost 15 pounds lighter than i 
was last semester. 

my jeans are loose, but not really falling off. the thighs and hips are 
the last things to budge, argh. i feel lighter on my feet.  my face 
does look thinner, my cheekbones are more pronounced. no one's really 
commenting on my weight loss, but it may be hard for people to tell 
because i'm still wearing my loose clothes. and they don't study my body 
as much as i do (i hope). 

yesterday and today though i am like FOOD! I just want to eat all day!
I've been snarfing Pretzel Flipz all day. I may have been a little too 
strict calorie-wise the past few days and my body was like "you better 
feed me  more or else". 

Apples are filling.

Yes, I just used some for filling in an apple pie.

Re resp:33 - I have days like that too, and usually give in to the
urge (but try to keep to the 40/30/30 ratio of macronutrients when
I do). So far it hasn't resulted in my gaining any weight back.

Ehhh. It caught up with me. I am up about a pound and a half. But some 
of that's probably water. I didn't eat well all weekend, definitely too 
much fattening things. It's showing in my skin too. Why did I 
deliberately do this to myself?

ref #37: Good question. Have you come up with an answer?

Interesting item.  I just discovered it.

I'm guessing the pound or two bees was talking about having gained
probably wasn't anything significant.  When I've had regular access to a
scale, I've found myself fluctuationg by that sort of amount very regularly.

Anyhow...  I dont' own a scale, in part because I've never gotten around to
buying one, and in part because I've never been convinced that weight alone
was a terribly good indicator of health.  However, I was discovering last
winter that in addition to looking fatter than I had ever looked before and
having a lot of my older clothes fitting quite tightly, long walks or climbing
stairs were rather difficult.  This became especially noticable when visiting
my parents in their London townhouse, with every room on a different floor,
such that I was constantly going up and down stairs.  I found the first couple
of days to be rather exhausing, before I started getting used to it and having
an easier time of it.  In the couple of years before that I had gone from bike
racing, and training for that a couple of hours a day, to being mostly
sedentary, and eating whatever horribly fatty food was available when I
remembered to eat, which wasn't on any sort of regular schedule.  I weighed
myself at that point, and discovered that I weighed around 190 pounds (up from
120 when I stopped getting taller, and 140 the last time I had been living
a "healthy" lifestyle).  I set out to get myself back into shape.

That trip to London helped a lot in getting started.  The constant running
up and down stairs forced me to get into some semblance of shape very quickly,
as did walking everywhere.  Visiting people who were eating reasonably healthy
food on a fairly regular schedule helped as well, since after a few weeks my
body started expecting that.  By the time I left there, I was already feeling
much better physically than I had when I got there.  When I got home I started
eating on a much more regular schedule than I had been before, eating
breakfast (which I hadn't done on a regular basis in years), lunch somewhere
close to lunch time, rather than forgetting about it all day, and dinner at
something resembling a usual dinner time, when I previously would have finally
been getting around to eating lunch.  Without even thinking about it, I cut
out almost all of the vending machine junk food I had been eating before,
since eating on a more regular schedule meant that I wasn't getting hungry
for snacks in between.  I think I'm now eating more food than I was when I
was gaining lots of weight, which seems counter-intuitive, but I've read that
the body starts storing lots of energy as fat when it doesn't know whether
it's going to get fed again anytime soon, so eating on a regular schedule
probably helped with that a lot.  I think I'm eating a lot less really greasy
food than I was before, mostly because when I'm exercising regularly greasy
food stops tasting very good, but I haven't been ebing very picky about what
I eat for my meals, as long as I'm eating something.

The other piece of what I started doing was regular exercise.  The biggest
thing has been lots of walking (at least an hour, sometimes a lot more, almost
every day).  The time I've been spending walking is time I previously would
have spent at work or watching TV.  I seem to have downgraded the importance
of my job in my time priorities.  Being less of a workaholic is probably a
good thing in general.  I also started biking again, which I hadn't done much
in the last few years.  I haven't managed to work biking into my week day
schedule much, but lately I've been doing an hour or two of road riding on
one weekend day, and a few hours of mountain biking on the other weekend day.

It's now been eight months.  The most important change from my perspective
is that I now feel a lot better than I did before.  I'm also finding that I
have a lot more energy.  I haven't weighed myself recently, but I'm assuming
I've probably also lost a considerable amount of weight.  I think I look a
lot thinner, and clothes that were quite tight a few months ago are now rather
loose.  I'm assuming that if I were to go back to my previous sluggishness
and poor eating habits I would probably once again start feeling like a slug,
and would once again start gaining weight quickly, but I have no plans to do
that.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss