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Jun. 20th, 2009 01:56 pmThe weight loss thing actually appears to be working this time! Most of you already know about this, mostly because I've been excited enough about it that I've been talking about it far too much to everyone and I've also been trying to keep the whole exercise in the front of my mind. It's a really good thing though. A couple of months ago I weighed a bit over 93kg. I now weigh a bit under 83kg. That's more than a 10% reduction in body mass and I'm now lighter than I've been in over a decade.
There's been a distinct reduction in fat bastard morphology including things like being able to tie and untie shoelaces with legs nearly straight while breathing normally. My belt can now be moved semi-freely around my waist fastened to the last hole and I discovered today that the 83cm waist jeans that I bought in error a while ago still don't fit but can be fastened without significant effort and worn without particular discomfort or fear of explosion. I won't actually be wearing those any time soon because the resulting 'muffin top' effect is really not a good look but given that it's the first time I've been able to do them up at all, I'm pleased.
So according to BMI charts I'm now merely overweight rather than actually obese and I'm actually in agreement with that because some of the effects of being overweight I was experiencing before were not simply "carrying a few extra pounds", it was my body seriously getting in its own way and I was starting to see it as a type of morbidity unto itself. Where I am now is still not ideal but it's no longer causing me a lot of the problems I was having before and things like cycling are becoming easier and more enjoyable. Bear in mind that 15 years ago I weighed 60kg and while I was definitely lean I was also definitely not skinny...I've *never* been skinny. So my goal is to get within 10% of that weight and given that I'm unlikely to be carry the same muscle bulk as I was 15 years ago, that probably means to within 15% of my former body fat levels. I feel this is realistic. This does mean that I'm only about 40% of the way through the weight loss that I want and that's likely to taper off as time goes by. I'm still most pleased though and I hope that the weight loss I've managed so far will put other forms of exercise and weight loss more easily within my reach.
There's been a distinct reduction in fat bastard morphology including things like being able to tie and untie shoelaces with legs nearly straight while breathing normally. My belt can now be moved semi-freely around my waist fastened to the last hole and I discovered today that the 83cm waist jeans that I bought in error a while ago still don't fit but can be fastened without significant effort and worn without particular discomfort or fear of explosion. I won't actually be wearing those any time soon because the resulting 'muffin top' effect is really not a good look but given that it's the first time I've been able to do them up at all, I'm pleased.
So according to BMI charts I'm now merely overweight rather than actually obese and I'm actually in agreement with that because some of the effects of being overweight I was experiencing before were not simply "carrying a few extra pounds", it was my body seriously getting in its own way and I was starting to see it as a type of morbidity unto itself. Where I am now is still not ideal but it's no longer causing me a lot of the problems I was having before and things like cycling are becoming easier and more enjoyable. Bear in mind that 15 years ago I weighed 60kg and while I was definitely lean I was also definitely not skinny...I've *never* been skinny. So my goal is to get within 10% of that weight and given that I'm unlikely to be carry the same muscle bulk as I was 15 years ago, that probably means to within 15% of my former body fat levels. I feel this is realistic. This does mean that I'm only about 40% of the way through the weight loss that I want and that's likely to taper off as time goes by. I'm still most pleased though and I hope that the weight loss I've managed so far will put other forms of exercise and weight loss more easily within my reach.
