It took ninety days. Was 190 pounds, now 150 pounds. Was officially over the line between overweight and obese, and now I’m down to dimensions I haven’t sported in maybe twenty-five years. It was becoming clear to me that most of my long-term health issues were linked with diet and fitness, and that that was going to be the only way to avoid worsening quality of life in my remaining years, I was going to have to do something major about it.
Thanks to the good people at Enara Health I was able to negotiate the transition to a very low calorie diet (800 kcal/day) with a minimum of pain and hunger, coupled with an exercise program to try conserving as much muscle mass as possible. I had support the whole time, weekly in-office checkins, metabolic and body composition tests to refine the weight loss goals during this period. It was a busy time, too, with work and vacations and all sorts of different temptations along the way, so I’m just glad I was able to come up with the results I did.
Now comes the really tricky phase: keeping the weight off. I am at the weight I’d like to be at for the long term, although not necessarily at the best balance of fat to lean yet. So it’s time to up my calorie intake to match my metabolism, without overshooting in either direction. Apparently it can take up to two years for the system of hunger signals to adjust to a new target.
I’ll put up some pictures later, maybe, for anyone interested in what losing this much poundage looks like.
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