And Now A Word About Set Points

NO MORE MISTER FAT GUY

 

And Now A Word About Set Points

 

Set points (not the kind whereby you will win or lose a set in tennis if you win or lose the next point) is based on the idea that we’re all genetically predisposed to be roughly a certain weight and our body works really hard to get to and/or maintain that “ideal” weight—ideal genetically speaking, not necessarily ideal as far as how one looks in a bathing suit or even how healthy one is. Which explains why so many diets fail, and why so many of us gain back whatever weight we’ve lost. (On a more positive note, I suppose, one could say it’s also what makes it difficult to gain too much weight, but that rarely seems like a common problem or complaint, and thus the reason why there’s no show out there called The Biggest Gainers.)

           

I only bring this up because after shedding a quick three pounds (188 to 185 for those keeping score at home), the scale seems stubbornly stuck on 185 during my most recent morning weigh-ins. All three of them so far. I know, I know, I’ve heard all about not weighing oneself too frequently, but F….that. I mean, really. Who starts to try and lose weight and says, I won’t get on a scale for at least a week. I can tell by how my clothes are fitting, how I feel. I don’t need some arbitrary number to validate my efforts? My morning weigh-ins have become more important than checking in on what’s happening with Red Sox off-season trades, the upcoming weather, or what’s happening with Tiger and his marriage. I look more forward to it than my first morning cup of coffee, and for anyone who knows me, that’s really saying something.

 

So when I stumbled from the bed to the scale the other day and stepped up on our trusty digital scale only to discover that it was broken, well imagine my response. Well, you don't have to imagine it, I'll go ahead and tell you: I was crestfallen. I was broken; of all the times for our scale to up and quit on me, why now? Were the diet gods saying be patient my son? You don’t need a scale to find your way. Or maybe just: Look here buddy, you’ve been overweight long enough to actually bust your scale, do you and your scale a favor by taking a few days off of weighing you and your fat ass. Is my problem that I just can’t take a hint?

 

Still, you got to admit it was disappointing. Instead of “good” news that would help motivate me, and that I could share here with you, the news that would say that I’d dropped another pound or so, that I was at least on the right track, the only news I got was this error message that said, “Lo.” Said it repeatedly, no matter how many times I hopped on and off of it.

 

I guess I could have taken this as good news, but wouldn’t it have said, “Low” if that was the case? Where the heck was the “w” hiding? So, of course, I had to rush out and buy another scale, one that wouldn’t say “lo,” or “hi” although by the time I could do that, the window of the morning weigh-in would no longer be open, and therefore I would have to wait another full twenty-four hours. Not to mention that I would have no baseline with this scale. No previous and longstanding relationship. This scale and I would be virtual strangers. What if it gave me an entirely, or even slightly different reading than my usual tried and true? On a scale of one to twenty, how accurate would this one be? On this scale 185 might really mean 188. Or even worse, what if it said, 190, when the other one would have said, 188, breaking the news that I’m still fat, but doing so a little more gently. The truth is, there would be no way of knowing where this scale was coming from other than Rite-Aid.

           

All to say that one of the big battles of the bulge is patience: one step back, two steps forward is often the way (weigh?) it goes, especially if you’re exercising one day and not the next, or a little dehydrated one day, but retaining a bit of water the following day. Or your scale breaks and you have to get a new, strange and scary one. I guess plateaus, set-points aren’t really legit when you’ve only been at this a week or less, as I have. But still, now that I’ve gone public with this quest, I need some results and I need ’em fast. Once again who is going to want to read a blog about maintaining one’s slightly overweight physique? How encouraging is that? Would anyone watch The Biggest Loser if they all stayed at the same weight they’re at in episode one. That would be called The Littlest Loser, no?, and unless that was a show about supermodels losing a half pound or so in six months, or elite athletes doing the same….well, even then, that show would be canceled before it even had a chance to begin, I don’t care how good looking they all were.

           

So while I’m waiting around for this new way of eating to kick in, for results to be gathered, data to be collected, anaylysed, reviewed, discussed, I did at least figure out a target weight to aim at. If you keep plugging in different numbers (lie in other words) about your weight, you can finally get down to a BMI (Body Mass Index) number that is considered “normal.” There’s normal, overweight, obese, and then why aren’t you dead already? Okay, I’m kidding about that last one, but maybe it should be--careful, you might just bust a scale and a gut.

 

But right now, 5’ 11” and 185 lbs puts me at a BMI of 25.3, and up comes that nasty little overweight sign, with all the accompanying warnings about health issues, and how I might want to go to this or that website and fast in order to buy lots of products that might still save my life if I act NOW and pay with a credit card. Up to me. My choice entirely. Do I want to be at risk for type 2 diabletes and possibly lose a limb or not? (Then again, without one of my legs, I would probably be able reach that target weight easy peasy.) But plug in 179, with my height, and “normal” is the result, or 24.9 BMI, my fantasy island. Living on the edge, for sure, but normal is normal. So my first goal will be to get to that magic 179, to get to normal (I can live with normal), a “mere” six pounds from where I now stand (naked, of course, and every morning on scales I hopefully won’t bust).

 

[December 16, 2009]