Week 8: Body Mass Index and Me

I set my initial weight loss goal of 180 lbs because it seemed to me that 100 lbs was a nice round number.  I also recall back in 1979 thinking to myself for the first (and last) time that I was starting to look fat, at the time I weighed 183 lbs.  As it goes 183 lbs is just within the normal weight range for my height as outlined by the Body Mass Index commonly referred to as the BMI.

BMI is a guideline on body fatness based on height and weight.  It is a fairly good guideline when dealing with large populations, but on occasion fails miserably when dealing with individuals.

Let me give you some examples where this guideline may fail.

1. If an extremely fit Body builder were to enter his numbers in a BMI calculator it is quite possible for this individual to come up with a BMI indicating that he is obese.  The algorithm does not account for the fact that this individual has a body fat percentage of 7% and has more muscle then is normally found on a person. The bottom line is that it may overestimate body fat in athletes and others who have a muscular build.

2. If a 70 year old were to enter their data they may register as normal weight, but in fact be overweight because they no longer have the muscle mass they once did.  To say it differently BMI may underestimate body fat in older persons and others who have lost muscle.

3. Kids need a calculator aimed at kids and even then they all grow at their own pace so using a child BMI calculator to judge an individual child may be problematic.  Further info on BMI for children and teens.

BMI limitations aside setting an initial goal weight equal to a BMI around 25 is a good target for most folks.  After you reach that goal then you might want to fine tune your goal for a specific body fat percentage or fitness level.

The reason I am talking about this today is because every time I enter in my weight into my app it lists my BMI next to my inputted weight and then states in simple terms Obese Class II.  Well today when I entered in my weekly weight it changed to Obese Class I. I am celebrating that milestone and looking forward to hitting my next goal of losing my second ten pounds.

I estimate I'll have to get down to around 224 lbs before it stops referring to me as Obese and starts referring to me as simply overweight.  I can hardly wait.

So as you can see my current weight is 261.4 lbs making my weekly weight loss 2.2 lbs and my running total is now 18.8 lbs.  Talk to you all in another week.

Week 7: Good News

It seems that my wife has been paying attention to her crazy husband and asked me what I've been using to loose weight. I pointed her to the Food Diary App I've been using and she has decided that she wants in on this action.

This should make things quite a bit easier since she will be counting her daily allotted points too.  Now when she chooses something to prepare for the family I'm sure it may be a healthier choice today than in days past.  It should also fit into my points allowance since this is something she'll be tracking as well.  At this point portion size will be key.

Another app I pointed her to is Fast Food Nutri. & Weight Loss app which has the Points Plus points (lists as Units) for all of our local restaurant / fast food joints.  This allows us to make informed choices when dining out.  She often frequents Panera Bread and this app allows her to look up what points are in various dishes before she orders.

Speaking of Apps, the app I use for food tracking has an extensive database of items, but this list is crowd sourced.  This means the folks that use this app can input items into the database.  On occasion the entries may be slightly off either because the item was entered in wrong or because the item may have been actually changed slightly by the company.  Just be careful.  If you have the item you are looking up in hand then verify the protein, fat, fiber etc... before entering it into your favorites to be used over and over again.  Also ensure the serving size in the item you are looking up matches the serving size of what you have in your hand.

Weigh-in - This week I clock in at 263.6 lbs for a weekly weight loss of  2 lbs which makes my running weight loss total 16.6 lbs.  See you again next week and if you were wondering about the above quote... I'm very happy.

Week 2: Girl Scouts versus the Food Journal

Well the end of week 2.  There have been many things that have tempted me this week and yes I gave in to a few, but more on that later.  I said last week that I would be talking about how I plan on losing weight.  Let's get started.

Keep a food Journal. Seems simple enough but so many folks over look the obvious.  This one little item is critical to changing your old habits and creating new habits.

You can use a notebook a scrap of paper or if you have a smartphone use any of a zillion available apps.  The important thing is that whatever you choose to use is convenient to you.  If it isn't convenient it will be easy to dismiss the idea entirely.

Additionally there are web sites that you can log onto to track all of your food. My Fitness Pal is one that comes to mind.  The only problem with web sites is the the old adage “out of sight out of mind."  So if you choose to use a web site carry around a small notebook so you can track items as you consume them.  If you don't log the items at the time of consumption it will be that much harder later in the evening when you go to log your items on the site.  The odds are strong that you will forget items and fail to make the most out of the online tool you chose to use.  Shortly you'll wonder why you aren't losing weight and your food journal may not help if it isn't accurate.

Personally I chose to use the Ultimate Food Value Diary Plus app on my Android tablet.  This app is available for both Android and IOS platforms.  This app seems to be based on the current version of Weight Watchers Points Plus system and during setup allows you to choose from the USA, UK or Australia versions of this system.

Years ago when I experimented with Weight Watchers Online the point system was different so I am going to have to do more research to fully understand this system.

The App is easy enough, simply enter your info and it tells you how many points per day you are allotted. When I played with this app a few months back I found the total points allowed per day to be too many so when I set up the app I chose to check the boost option which automatically drops your allotted points.  To start off I am allowed 43 points a day with an additional 49 points allotted for the week in case the mood strikes me.  As I lose weight my daily number of points will be slowly reduced since I will no longer require the same minimum calories to survive.

The app has many features to help you track your food including the ability to scan the barcode and enter your item quickly.  I also take advantage of the ability to add Favorites, this keeps those items I eat regularly on hand for quick entry.  For more details on this app read the info on their site.

Image from CollegeHumor.com

My second week of using my food journal, attempting to lose weight and what should appear magically in the house?  You guessed it, the enemy of every person trying to lose weight.  Girl Scout cookies.  By the way did I mention that my wife is currently not trying to bring her weight back in line with historical standards.  Who am I kidding even if she was attempting to lose weight too buying cookies from our neighbors little girls is the neighborly thing to do.

The good news is I logged every single cookie in my food journal.  Over the week the grand total was 22 Thin Mints, 12 Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, and 5 Caramel deLites.  Fortunately I only drink skim milk because there was a lot of milk to go with those cookies.

As I pointed out I do have a lot of points to play with because I'm still a large guy although I managed to only use 10 of the extra 49 points I was allotted for the week.  The nice app I am using allowed me to scan the barcode and easily add and account for the points from the Girl Scout cookies.  Looking back on the week the app has ONE huge drawback.  Since I simply scanned in the barcode I didn't have to manually enter the Fat, Protein, Carbohydrates or Fiber which means I didn't have to look at the Nutrition Facts label.

Still what did I miss.  It couldn't have been too bad, could it?  Well if I had actually taken the time to read the label of the Thin Mints this is what I would have seen.  So what was the damage from the 22 Thin Mints?

• Saturated Fat - 27.5g
• Sodium - 687.5mg
• Carbohydrates - 121g
• Sugar - 55g
• Protein - 5.5g

Roughly the same amount of saturated fat as found in 4 tablespoons of butter with almost 14 teaspoons of sugar.  To top it off the other 66g of carbohydrates that weren't sugar were processed flour and essentially would have metabolized as easily as the sugar.

Are there any pluses in all of this?  Well the label does say Transfat 0g, but if it was 0.49g or lower per serving they would have qualified to list it as 0g.  From looking at the list of ingredients I know there were transfats because they are right there in plain sight.  Ok not in plain sight because they are listed by a different name, in this case the key phrase under Vegetable oil is "Partially Hydrogenated." The bottom line is that I may have consumed approximately 5g of transfats on top of everything else that I listed.

Maybe next year I'll choose differently.

Even with all of that junk I weighed in 4.4lbs lower this week.  At 7.6lbs lost I am only 2.4lbs away from my initial goal of losing 10lbs.  On to Week 3.