Tag: scale

The Reality of Losing Weight

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I’ve lost almost 70 pounds in the last 228 days. I have done it counting calories, eating a somewhat low-carb diet, and taking Ozempic. My health depended on it; I had a couple of problems directly related to my weight.

I am still overweight. I started at 255 pounds, and now I’m just shy of 185. I will probably stop losing weight pretty soon because I don’t think my body will lose any more. It hasn’t lost any in weeks, so this might be my stopping place.

I still have chub, and I have lots of skin. Taking the skin off would be cosmetic surgery, and thus not covered by insurance. It’s also major surgery with possible complications. I will have to live with my body as it is.

I am afraid I will have to eat like this for the rest of my life, which isn’t bad, except I only eat 1000-1200 calories a day. I don’t know if that’s sustainable. They’re also going to want to wean me off the Ozempic, and I will go back to always being hungry.

I have gained weight back more times than I can count. This is not a cliche, this is the truth. I don’t want to gain it back because I can’t deal with the health consequences of gaining again. But it’s going to be really hard to keep it off. I’m worried.

It’s not a lack of willpower that causes us to be fat; it’s the fact that the body does not lose weight very well, especially after a lifetime of gaining and losing. It’s the fact that society expects skinny bodies, and some of us are fated not to have that.

This is the reality of losing weight.

Big Audacious Goal #2

I have another Big Audacious Goal I hadn’t counted on, and that is to lose some weight. I am way too plump for my doctor’s liking, and now I have to do something about it. My weight is starting to affect my health.

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This is going to be a neverending goal, and that is a bit daunting for me. I have a sugar addiction (and I mean this in the most literal way possible). I have always had disordered eating in the form of sweet foods. My doctor said, “I mean you can have those things occasionally,” but given our game plan, I don’t know how.

The goal is to eat around 120 grams of carbs a day. That is not a SMART goal, so I need to work on it. I will set a goal of 127 grams of carbs, 48 grams of fat, and at least 60 grams of protein a day (give or take a few). This is based on a 1500 calorie a day intake. I will choose complex carbs like fruits and vegetables and whole grains. I will track my food intake daily to see if I meet those goals. I will weigh myself once a week. I will wean myself onto Ozempic according to my doctor’s instructions.

Notice I focused on my actions instead of the results. If I had said “I will lose 2 pounds a week”, I might have run into problems, as this doesn’t take into account my 62-year-old metabolism. Focusing on my actions makes more sense, because that’s what I can do something about. I made my goals realistic (I can do this!) and specific and measurable. The only thing is it isn’t time bound because it’s open-ended. I should be eating this way for the rest of my life, I suspect.

There are things this BAG needs. Like “how often can one diverge from this meal plan to have occasional ‘bad things’?” (I don’t care what dieticians say, there are ‘bad foods’ when an ice cream concrete leads to a sugar binge). A goal of how much weight to lose (at the moment, that’s 50 pounds. I have more than 50 pounds to lose, to be honest, but we’re being realistic).

So far, after two weeks of following this protocol, so good. I haven’t had a bad eating day and I have lost 3 pounds. Knowing my past attempts at losing weight, this stage is not the problem. The problem is keeping it off, especially when faced with desserts. Wish me luck.