Statistics

I'm 6' 3" tall, and just a while ago, I tipped the scales (or broke them) at 345 lbs.  I used http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ to calculate a BMI of 43.1   Ouch!  The link says that "normal" is a BMI from 18.5 to 24.9

Do they not adjust for male/female?  What about big boned, husky men?

Another site http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/lose_wt/bmi_dis.htm provides some interpretation of my current risk level.  I learn that I am currently in Obesity Class III.   Whether my waist measurement is above 40" or less than 40", I have "Extremely High Risk" of Diabetes Type II, hypertension (high blood pressure), and CVD (cardio vascular disease ie. heart attack or stroke).

So far, so good.  No wonder I feel a need to change for the better.

When I measure my waist as I'm seated (ie. no cheating as my gut naturally sticks out no matter what I do), my waist, when measured over my belly button and hipster "love handles" is 57.5".

If I measure while standing up, sucking in my gut (as I have learned to do for at least 8 hrs a day when I'm around others) is just 51.75".  Not bad eh?  A savings of 5.75"

Unfortunately, the BMI doesn't seem to care.

I bought a new scale that weighs me, as well as taking my total fat (46.7%) and total water (37.1%).  I'm not sure if that is good or bad.

Using the % Fat, that means that I'm carrying 161 lbs of fat.

Using the ideal BMI at maximum of "normal", I should weigh no more than 199 lbs. for a BMI of 24.9  This means that I need to lose 146 lbs.  Since the scale estimates that I have 161 lbs available to lose, this all seems to make sense. 

For the minimum BMI without being underweight, I should weight 148 lbs.  Ouch again.  To me, that seems way too low.  I'd be skin and bones.  When I left University in 1977, I weighed 200 lbs. and I was in excellent shape, running 5 miles every day.  Ahh, those were the days.

Back to the calcs.  For minimum BMI, that would mean that I would have to lose 197 lbs, even though I only have 161 lbs of fat, so I'd have to lose water too.  Again, doesn't seem too reasonable.

I think my target should be 200 lbs.

Genesis

I have been overweight for most of my life.

I've gained weight, and lost weight.  Sometimes I had great willpower, usually I didn't.  Most of the time, I had little awareness of why I was eating, or what I was eating.

A year ago, I stumbled upon Dr. Lustig's video on YouTube Sugar: The Bitter Truth.  Now that was interesting!  I started to research more.  The more I investigated, the more interesting it became.  By the time I re-watched Dr. Lustig's video about 15 times, I could successfully describe it to others in conversation.

By the end of the month, I decided to give up all pop and fruit juice.  My wife wanted to have a rye & ginger ale now and again, and we eventually switched to diet ginger ale.  After reading some more about how Splenda is made from real sugar that is reacted with chlorine gas, I decided that diet pop is not acceptable.

It seem that I've been making a lot of changes lately, and they are accumulating into quite a significant change when they are grouped together.

I discovered Gary Taubes when I was searching again for Dr. Lustig.  A mis-labeled YouTube video alleged they had a huge fight and argument, so I clicked and watched.  In reality, they seem to be soul mates.

I bought Gary's two books Good Calories, Bad Calories available from Amazon.ca here and Why We Get Fat available here.  I'm only 1/4 way through the first, and have skimmed the second, and have started using the low carb diet in the Appendix of the second book.  This last event is what has prompted the start of this blog.

While I was driving home last night, I started to think about the movie Julie and Me, where a lady (Julie) blogged about her passion for Julia Child, the American who was trained as a French chef, and wrote the book on it.  Perhaps blogging about my voyage of discovery could help me, as well as others.

I've seen this orange background with the stylized "B" around here and there, decided that many others had used that Web application, so I got an account, and started typing.

That's about it.  As we go along, I'll fill in more and more details on the back story about me, why, when, etc.

The other major event that launched this blog was when I saw today a news article (and it's also mentioned in passing in Taube's book) about how Alzheimer's is linked to excess serum insulin levels.

We have an epidemic of Alzheimer's today, as well as obesity, diabetes, cardio vascular disease, etc. and the most we get from the medical community is that we are all gluttons (we eat too much) and sloths (we are lazy), and if we were to mend our evil ways, we would all live long, healthy, and happy lives.

I used to buy that.  I have felt a great weakness of character since I was eight years old when it came to food and TV.  However, maybe Dr. Lustig and Mr. Taubes have a different take on things that is a little easier on the self-esteem and may be more worthy too.