In January 2013, I decided it was finally time to get rid of the excess weight I had been carrying for quite some time. Exercise and eating sensible foods weren’t working by themselves, so I decided that I needed a method. While visiting my sister, I saw that Consumer Reports had a review of weight loss programs and had a good review of the free MyFitnessPal.com site, which emphasizes calorie counting (with social network features, since this was 2013…).
Two years ago today, Jan. 7, 2013, I signed up and started counting my calories carefully. After the first year, I had lost nearly 47 pounds (over 21 kg, or 3 stone 5 lb.) and was back to what I weighed in 1999. After two years, I have lost another 17 pounds (7.7 kg, or 1 stone 3 lb.), for a total weight loss of 64 lb. (29 kg, or 4 stone 8 lb.). I weigh less than I did in 1997.
I’ll probably never get back to my all-time lowest adult weight, which was about 130 lb., some time in the early 1990s. Back then I was swimming three times a week for 45 minutes to an hour, usually the crawl, and occasionally running a bit. (It’s possible that I weighed slightly more, if the scale in the pool locker room was off.) By the time I got married I was running instead of swimming and had put some muscle on my legs, so I was around 137. I’m not likely to get that low again in my late 40s or 50s. Strangely enough, as I have lost weight this time around, my hands have retained some of their fat, so my wedding ring is still too small to remove. Since I’m not likely to lose much more weight, I’ll probably get it resized this summer.
Having reached a healthy weight and body fat percentage, I’m not going to worry too much about scale weight in the future. I want to avoid gaining much more fat, to preserve lean body mass through exercise (particularly strength training), and to continue to develop speed, power, and endurance on the bike and in running. For those goals, the scale is less useful. I’ll continue to keep an eye on it, though; having slowly gained over 60 pounds from 1996 to 2008, I would like to avoid a repeat.
