It’s a New Phil, Week 1

By | January 6, 2006
5 Comments

I’ve just had my first official weigh-in after beginning a weight loss program recommended (and supervised by) my primary care physician. I had my annual physical a couple of weeks ago and the scales showed an alarming 297 lbs.

Now please note that this was not alarming because of any specific health risks (the general risks associated with lugging that kind of baggage around being more than sufficient), but more because it put me three pounds shy of the big three-oh-oh, which is just not a respectable weight for somebody who isn’t starting for the NFL or who isn’t a Sumo wrestler and I must come clean — neither of those apply to me.

The plan the doc has me on is one of those moderate and super-sensible deals. I count calories, fat, and fiber (the latter being something of a mitigator.) I don’t currently count carbs, although the tools I have could do the math that way. I personally don’t want to go down that road again. As far as I’m concerned, low carb is a mirage in a desert of getting nowhere with diets. (Of course, your mileage may vary.)

One of the interesting features of the program is that I will be cutting my caloric intake further as I lose, so this could potentially begin a foray into the world of CR life extension, although right now — at 1500 calories a day — I think I’m still well north of any CR plan.

Still, you have to crawl before you can walk. And my first week of crawling has resulted in a 7 pound loss. At two-nine-oh, the big three-oh-oh seems a lot less menacing and I plan to see it quickly receding in the old rearview mirror.

More next week.

  • https://www.blog.speculist.com Stephen Gordon

    “and I must come clean — neither of those apply to me.”

    Heh. :-)

    Godspeed my friend.

    I could stand to lose weight myself. Keep us informed about what works.

  • Jim Strickland

    This is appropriate for The Speculist how, exactly? I mean, bully for you that you’re loosing weight, certainly, but this kind of article is not what I come here for.

    Also ’300 pounds is not respectable for anyone not in the NFL’ is a pretty broad generalization, and one imagines that some people being swept up in it will take umbrage. While I’m not suggesting you dumb down the science and speculation content to avoid offending, in a piece of fluff like this, it seems gratuitous.

    -Jim

  • Phil Bowermaster

    Jim

    I realize this seems iffy as a Speculist piece, but the editor-in-chief okayed it, and who am I to argue with him? (The one that really surprised me getting past him was that blonde joke; but he seems to have softened up his editorial stance ever since USC lost the Rose Bowl.)

    Plus I did work in the obligatory reference and link to Calorie Restirction and life extension; was actually hoping we might get some discussion on that in the comments.

    On the “respectable weight” reference… no offense intended to anyone. It ain’t easy being big — a lot of the world is set up for smaller people and you run into insults and gratuitous “help” everywhere.

  • http://ikbot.blogspot.com ivankirigin

    Public humiliation is a good motivator (at not meeting goals, not being overweight). But don’t get your hopes up with CR. I’ve seen reports that show is matter less the more advanced the species (translation: don’t get excited by results with yeast and worms).

    I’ve seen some pretty amazing public diets. A blogger was posting everything he ate, with excel spreads of progress, based on formulation from “The Hacker’s Diet”. I would recommend you google it. It’s from the maker of AutoCAD, who clearly has some hacker cred.

    If your diet fails, I’m certain some legit (non meth) drug treatments will be getting FDA approval any day now. That is the main reason I just don’t worry about obesity.

  • Ross the Heartless Conservative

    Phil,
    You should have gone ahead and gained an extra 4 pounds before starting your weight loss program. Once you get down to 150 pounds it would sounds a lot more impressive to say “I was over 300 pounds before I started my new lifestyle” instead of saying “I was alomst 300 pounds before I started my new lifestyle”. Oh well, good luck with the lifestyle change.