Background:
I put on a lot of weight really fast. I had already crept up to what I thought was really fat, and
six months later, I had packed on another 50 lbs. beyond that. I discovered that my scale simply
reads "OL" once you're over 309 lbs. There were health issues, and still are, and I used that as an
excuse, but I have grown bored with leaning on that crutch - I'm tired of being fat!
I started counting calories, and found somewhere that it took about 3500 calories a day to maintain
my weight, so I was trying to keep under 3000 a day. It was coming off slowly. I had lost 17 lbs.
when I spent a week with my parents (we ate at Golden Corral three times) and got home to discover I
had gained back all 17 lbs. in a week. I figured it was just water, and would come right back off,
but it didn't. I joined WeightWatchers.
I wonder if packing it on so fast has anything to do with dropping it so fast. I've been on WW
(online) for just over two months and have lost 35 lbs.
My first week, I lost 9.5 lbs. I didn't kid myself, I knew it was just water. The next week, another
5 lbs. gone, and the week after that, 3.5 more. Now when I record my weight each week, it keeps
yelling at me for losing too fast, and offers me lectures on why that's bad. And yet, when I
recorded my weight today (lost 5 lbs. this week), in the same breath it told me to be proud that my
target points were dropping from 32 to 30 a day, having crossed below 275 lbs.
I earn activity points (and I've been more active since starting WW), but I almost always eat them.
I eat most of my Flex points each week, too. In fact, I went beyond my Flex points allotment three
weeks, once by two points!
My 32 points a day (now 30) is somewhere in the realm of 1600 calories (now 1500). It's no wonder
it's melting off, considering I was losing at 3000. I suppose I could try adding 5 points or so over
what I'm allotted, but that really seems to be defeating the program. I joined the program because
it works, and I must say it really does for me, and I confess that I'm not displeased with the
weight I've lost. I keep thinking it will slow down and I should enjoy the ride while I can.
My body has always responded well to being treated well, and yet I have almost always treated it
very badly. I got to 309 (and beyond) by treating it badly. Now I'm treating it well, and it is
responding with great joy and my knees are happier and my feet are happier and I don't have to
hold my breath while I tie my shoes and so on. I just have such a hard time believing that this is
a bad thing!
Of course, my wife, who has been on a plateau for three weeks, doesn't want to hear about it
anymore, and just tells me to shut up. Well, that and if I say my knee is bugging me, she'll say,
"Oh, it's probably gall stones from losing weight too fast." She's really very sweet...
Stan
309/273.5/199