Slow But Sure Weight Loss

It has become a ritual when I've gone on a series of office visits over the past few months--height and weight measurements. I understood the latter, although it always annoyed me I seem to weigh in about 4 or 5 more pounds than my early weight-in on my Taylor scale at home, which measures within  0.2 pounds of accuracy. Granted, I had eaten since then and was wearing clothes, a wallet, keys. On last visit, I finally weighed in 3 pounds lighter on their scales. My thyroid readings are significantly better (although still high). It's probably made a difference but not much.

I find the height measurements odd--after all, I probably stopped growing by early high school, decades ago. I know people might shrink a bit as they get older but over a follow-up visit days later? I was always a little bit sensitive about my height growing up, with my folks each 3-4 inches shorter than average. In sixth grade I remember being called a "shorty" by the tallest female student in class (actually tallest person in class), a full head taller (and inches taller than both parents). Over the next 2-3 years I grew to pass my Dad by about 2.5 inches and, of course, most women, although with a good pair of heels many are nearly as tall or taller.

Still, I don't feel all that tall. To give a minor example, I was having to wait in line to get a pass to a federal facility, just behind a fifth grade girl accompanied by her mother. (I think she needed paperwork to attend some summer camp. I overheard the mother conversing to others in line.) I was barely taller than the girl, who had a good 2 or 3 inches on her mother.

I suspect the real story is the calculated BMI measurement  And every visit I get handed this paper tape ragging me over my excessive numbers. Yes, I'm very aware of my BMI numbers. They disqualified me from getting reasonably priced health insurance during the Great Recession. (I'm still about 15 pounds away from the relevant target.  I haven't been able to shop normal men's clothing for years. I've shopped Internet and specialty (Big & Tall Men's) shops for years. There are some anecdotal signs of progress; I can't wear some older underwear; my one decent suit needs to be taken in, and over the holidays I ordered clothes and belts in smaller sizes--but nothing like diet pills or programs seem to promise mere days or weeks away.

I will say I got down to a new multi-year low (every new pound is another multi-year low) by about 2.5 lbs--and one subsequent informal weigh-in hinted a couple of pounds more, but basically I rebounded to basically a 4 to 5 pound range.

I find my tastes have somewhat changed over the years. I've almost never eaten at national pizza places over the past 20 years. (I have on a few occasions picked up one of those small individual pies at an airport, occasional (way back) visits to a Pizza Hut lunch buffet, or a slice or two, but almost all I have bought over the past few years have been frozen. Of course, pizza is often a staple in the IT profession (not that often--maybe 2 or 3 rimes over the last year and a half). We had one recently, and I could barely eat 2 slices--too doughy. There was a time I enjoyed pan/thick crust pizza, but I no longer do. I guess I'm just a thin-crust guy now. I sample pizza maybe once every 2 weeks or so. But even a Lean Cuisine serving will grab some 50 carbs. I'll probably go back to Atkins, about $3.50 each at WalMart. I'll probably make some other adjustments over the next few weeks, phasing out frozen burritos, nuts, etc., not to mention protein bars for work lunches.

The most interesting diet post I've recently read argued that diabetics should eat within a limited time period (like 6 hours starting around noon) fasting otherwise, that eating several small meals over a longer period actually exacerbates insulin issues. I haven't seen the data, but it's an intriguing idea and I may test it out.