Today marks the day!

Today marks the first day I’ve been simply “overweight” rather than “obese”. The Body-Mass Index still says I’m obese (at my height and age, I won’t graduate to “overweight” until I go below 224 lbs), but my body fat percentage, according to mybodycomp.com is now 22.54% — a really nice reduction versus the nearly 30% I was at the start of November. I’ve also put on, according to them, 7 lbs of lean muscle mass in that time from my exercise program.

I’m consuming around 2,200 calories per day, which with my moderate exercise (3-5 days of light exercise per week) puts my caloric burn somewhere in the neighborhood of 3200 calories per day. If I’m totally sedentary, my burn rate is around 2600 calories/day. It’s actually really difficult to reach 2200 calories a day when low-carbing at 25 grams or less of carbs per day. I basically have to eat till I’m full (not stuffed!) six times a day. If I reduce my calories too much below 2040, though (my Basal Metabolic Rate), it could put my body into fat-conservation, a.k.a. “famine” mode where it becomes really, really tough to lose.

Here I was thinking that I was in trouble, because I thought I’d “stalled” right around 228 lbs, when in fact I was still dropping inches (about half an inch from everywhere significant), except in my shoulders where I added nearly half an inch (I guess those deltoid exercises are doing their job!).

Eating less, exercising, and following a low-carb eating plan has finally given me the energy, feeling of “satiety”, and diverse diet I’ve been needing for years when I’ve failed at low-calorie diets. 12 pounds down in my first month! If other people’s history is any guide, that will probably slow down to about 4-6 lbs per month over the next few months. As I pass 200 lbs, I will probably find the pounds trying harder to stick around — I’m thirty now, not twenty-one any longer like the last time I was less than 200 lbs! And at that point, I’ll be transitioning into pre-maintenance and maintenance on my weight, trying hard to make the weight loss such a slow drop that, realistically, transitioning to my “normal” diet won’t be more than a tiny adjustment to my eating habits once I’m at a level where I want to maintain.

My wife says I’ve put on a lot of muscle in the last ten years (carrying babies around in one’s arms, and coping with household duties tends to do that a little), and so she thinks once I get below about 200, I’ll probably be very comfortable with my proportions. I guess we’ll wait and see where that goes… I’d sure love to be my high-school weight. I remember that, even then, I saw some “pooch” on my belly in the mirror with which I was dissatisfied.

Anyway, if you’re into tracking your stats to see which way you’re going (and heck, I’m unemployed right now so I definitely have the time), this page really helps to understand one’s stats. mybodycomp.com and fitday.com aren’t perfect sites by any means, but they are really helpful in getting a realistic picture of where you are health and diet-wise.

As managers are so fond of saying, “that which cannot be measured cannot be improved”…

Hope ya don’t mind the rambling about weight and stuff. I generally get obsessive over my new hobbies, then my interest dies off after a few months as I simply make it part of my routine rather than an important focus in my life. It’s happened that way with everything else I do; I figure this won’t be much different. Rest assured, within a few months, weight changes won’t be the center of my world…