Mea Maxima Culpa

Yes, I know this blog is supposed to be mainly about me getting healthy again.

Yes, I know that I’ve been on and off the “live healthy” wagon so often that I should be getting frequent flyer miles (if I mix my metaphors momentarily) << say that aloud it sounds cool!

Yes, I know that I have been very much NOT blogging of late.

sigh

So I’m going to share some stuff with you which I’ve been doing this morning.  I’m doing this “stuff” this “morning” because my THIRD monthly visit with my most awesome doctor: Karen King is fast approaching and I want to be able to truthfully tell her that I’ve begun the very long process to get healthy again.  Woot!

When I went on my first visit to her back at the beginning of May, I told her that I needed help getting healthy and asked her to put me on a medically supervised weight loss plan.  Which basically amounts to coming in every month to weigh in and have her give me a mini-check up and monitor things so that I don’t actually end up doing myself injury as I try and get healthy.

I have Type 2 Diabetes

Hi, my name is Tony.  I’m a Diabetic.

and the teeming masses say “Hi Tony”

Kinda scary actually.  I freaked a little bit when I found out.

My doctor says that I’m not just a diabetic, but that my numbers are off the scale.  I’m WAY diabetic! So on the monthly visits she’s monitoring that and other stuff.  No question about it.  I need to get healthy and that starts with moving my body and loosing weight.

More on the diabetes thing in later posts.  The short version is that I should be fine once I’m fully medicated.

And thanks to the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”) I may actually be able to afford the drugs that will keep all my inside bits functioning as they should while I get my ass in gear and get myself healthy again.

(OK… I’m gonna ask point blank:  If you have $5 to spare and want to throw in my direction then click on the “help Tony button over on the right hand side; I would be very very grateful. Why?  Because I live on a tiny amount of money each month and healthy food is expensive.  And my doctor wants me to start eating healthy food.)  Now back to our regularly scheduled blog…

Back to the “Stuff I’m doing this Morning”

I have this cool Excel spreadsheet which I eventually intend to sell to people for $5 over on Fiver.com — stay tuned — I’ll be asking for beta testers soon, I hope.

Anyway, this spreadsheet is where I keep track of my weight and body fat — both the goals and the actual numbers that tell me how close to the goals I’m getting.

So… picture if you will, little (ok, ok, not so little) ole me clicky-clicky-clacking in the spreadsheet:

Starting Weight, Starting Body Fat, etc etc etc  Every time I do this I have this issue with the “standard recommended” body weights.  I know from personal experience that back in the day when I was cycling like crazy and routinely doing 60 mile / 100K bike rides on the weekends I weighed around 165 and I felt AWESOME!

Unfortunately I have no idea what my body fat percentage was at that point “back in the day.”  This was back in the day before home Body Fat / Weight combo scales hit the market.  😦   True, I have a pretty good idea, but I’m not 100% certain.

So…  when I see the numbers that show up in the “recommended body weight for men” charts online (do a Google search — you’ll find hundreds of them) I just do not believe it!

Here’s what my spreadsheet is telling me:

So… you see the problem.  5.04% body fat?  Are you kidding me?  Something is not right.  And, no, it isn’t a typo in the formula in the spreadsheet.  I’ve checked and double checked.

And…  should I set a goal of what I know that in the past was a good weight for me, around 165 lbs, then I’ll end up with negative body fat!

Which doesn’t make sense!  Hence my “warning” in the image above to the future, currently imaginary, users of my spreadsheet AND a reminder to myself that the numbers may need adjusting as we near the goal line. (again with the mixing of metaphors butcha know what I mean!  LOL)

Everything I’ve read says that the goal of weight loss is actually to loose body fat, not muscle!

But to get where I KNOW feels good and healthy for me I end up with weird numbers!!!!  Arrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!

So, I did this morning what I always do, when I see this, I go out on the web and try to find better charts / recommendations.  And I did find one new bit of information:  I have a large frame.  Turns out I’ve been using the wrong column in the charts. I have always pictured myself as a “little guy” compared to the hulking dudes which tower over me.  And no, I don’t have a height inferiority complex.  Why do you ask?  😉

I always thought of myself as “medium” or “average” build.  Turns out… I’m not.

According to the National Library of Medicine, any guy taller than 5′ 5″ and with a wrist size greater than 7.5″ has a “large frame”  Here’s the link to the full article:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/17182.htm

I’m 5′ 9″ and my wrist size (which actually does NOT have any fat around it… …I can easily feel the bone) is 8.25″  So there!  I have a “large frame” — it is official!  The US Government says so!

Ok, so that is all fine and dandy to know, but it still does not answer the HOW MUCH SHOULD I WEIGH question!!!!

sigh

On the other hand, I’m pretty confident in the answer to the What is my ideal body fat percentage? question.  Here’s a chart that I believe to be the best answer which shows the numbers recommended by the American Council on Exercise:

I did this complicated spreadsheet last year where I found every chart / set of recommendations that I could find from any and every source that even seemed remotely reliable.  When it was all said and done, these guys, at the American Council on Exercise seemed to have a chart already that pretty much represented a good average of all the rest.

AND more importantly to me, it matches my personal experience!

So… How much should I weigh?

Who knows for sure.  I think that I’m going to have to just “wing it.”   I set the best goal I can for now and then re-evaluate when I get closer to the end of my “get healthy” plan.  Which is what I’ve put into the info in my spreadsheet.

I did find this one calculator on calculator.net (here’s the link: http://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html).  The cool bit is that it shows you the results using several different methods of calculating the “best” or “ideal” weight.  These guys, like the body fat chart above, seem to be solidly “in the middle” of all the charts, tables, and while rumors of ideal weight which I can find on the net.

Here is what it said for me when I did the calculation:

Based on the Robinson formula (1983), your ideal weight is 152.3 lbs
Based on the Miller formula (1983), your ideal weight is 151.9 lbs
Based on the Devine formula (1974), your ideal weight is 155.9 lbs
Based on the Hamwi formula (1964), your ideal weight is 159.4 lbs
Based on the healthy BMI recommendation, your recommended weight is 125.3 lbs – 169.3 lbs

Most of these are STILL way below the lowest I’ve ever weighed in my adult life: 165 lbs.  Only one of these figures (the one from the government based on BMI stats) is close to that what I know from the real world.

Back when I was fit and healthy and skinny

When I was 165 lbs, I happened to be working as a barback in a gay country western bar.  And the customers, those who knew me as more than the dude picking up bottles, would ask me “Are you ok?”  What they meant by that was “So, when did you test positive for HIV?” It was the 90s and any gay man who suddenly lost a lot of weight was likely to have lost the weight for not so good reasons.  Fortunately that was not true in my case.

I would assure them that I was fine.  I was actually in the best health of my life!  Disease free and in the “athlete’s” fitness range on all the charts!  I was so skinny because I burned a lot of calories riding my bike and because I watched what I ate and got lots of good nutrition.

But I do confess that I think I looked very scrawny, the kind of scrawny you see in long distance runners – not a good look, in my humble opinion.  Healthy, no question!  But attractive, not in my book.

I think I look much better around 185-195.  But that was 20 years ago.  I’m older now.  The odds of me getting down to that high level of fitness again are not very realistic.  Possible yes, but not probable.

Hence my goal of 200 lbs.  Which I think is a reasonable target, and achievable.

And IF — scratch that — WHEN!!!! I get down to that level and I’m fit, healthy, and look and feel awesome, then I won’t sweat the numbers too much.  These are just guidelines after all, not holy writ carried down the mountainside on rock tablets from a burning bush or anything like that!

See ya on the dance floor!