The Arithmetic of Weight Loss

Jen Your information based on what exactly? If you are using the height and weight charts then you really are not with it. My total muscle mass with 0% fat is 192, so you can figure it our from there. My numbers are based on actual measurements taken and not some chart somewhere.

That's fine. I'm just saying that if you're coming all up in here with your info, you ought to come correct and correctly state the difference between BMI and body fat percentage. There are a lot of people on here who are new to things like BMI and BF% and they are easily confused, so it's very much worth it to be correct.

How are you conducting your measurements? Are you using a BodPod or DEXA scan? I would like to get one myself one of these days and see where I am lean mass wise.

Good luck on your journey!

Jen

Jen's information is based on a thing you seem to have no knowledge of - facts. BMI is, indeed, only based on height and weight.

What you are not aware, is that most likely as you lose more weight, you would be losing not only fat but some muscles. Almost given, considering your age.

And even with that, 15% body fat for men are just normal. Not really low.

I can assume this is you a very first serious attempts to lose the weight all the way to your goal. Even if you drop down to 250lbs - this will be incredibly great results. And I am not saying this as a joke or put down. But if you dripyor weight for to 250 and maintain that for 5-10 years, you would be in a 5% of people who can do that. And you would be much healthy. I was where you are now, doing everything possible, eating healthy, exercise, meditate to reduce stress, etc etc. Getting to a goal, or slightly above goal, and maintaining for a few years. Until some unforeseen even like death of a loved one, or car accident messed my well worked schedule, and I would start gaining.

I don't think WLS is for everyone. Some people should not have it. I know more that few who I would never advise to have it. Because even after WLS it takes hard work and dedication to maintain.

The difference between with and without WLS? Well...this year was really rough on me. Trying to recover from accident, horrible stress at work, house water damage and mold, a family person dealing with a deadly illness - and my whole strength was to just survive. Eat whatever, drink whatever, just survive. Did I gained weight? Sure I did. But only 25 lbs in a year and not 50-80 as I would if I didn't have WLS. I still deal with slot of issues, we now have house repairs and no working kitchen - so I eat a lot of take outs. But I am back in control of my eating, and in past 2 months I already lost app 10 lbs. There is still no time for regular exercise, unless you consider packing 5 rooms to empty the space and exercise. We have more than one month to go with the mess. And my tool helps me limit my portion, when I chose good for me foods.

At the same time - I have days I regret having RNY. In one way, the surgery made my life easier, but it another, more difficult. But it is what it is. No need to cry over spilled milk.

HALO,

I know that surgery isn't the easy way out because I've talked too many patients in the clinic I attend. As for losing muscle along with weight that may be true but the weight program I'm on is designed to minimize that. In fact, I've actually gained muscle mass since the end of July, almost three pounds. As I've said the clinic that I attend treats physical, mental, and nutrition which is what makes our clinic so unique, and I know it is because we have patients who come to our clinic from 100 miles away and drive past multiple weight loss clinics because of the success we have. Weight loss and maintenance is a three-legged stool. Earlier this year I was also going through a major depressive event that caused me to kind of "go through the motions". What was important to me is that even though I saw little to no weight loss during this time I also didn't gain any, and that was because there was a staff there who was able to help me process and deal with what I was going through. All of us go through such events periodically, and it is during those times that we be much more aware of what were are consuming. Of course this sounds trite, but having a staff in place that helped me through this will make make stronger the next time.

Here again comes that 5% number. I alluded to a University study over the weekend that clearly concluded that people who were enrolled in the program that our clinic utilizes have a 62% success rate after 5 years, not 5%. As I said earlier I made a conscious decision NOT to have WLS because this whole journey for me is about making lifelong changes to habits and doing everything I can to live a healthier life and it's working. I am stronger, more fit (yest even at 374) and have substantially more endurance than I've had since my early 20's. My ideal weight range is between 200 and 220 and I'll get there and it will be sooner rather than later. Skin reduction surgery is also in my future and I've already had preliminary discussions with the staff about how that whole process will go down so there are as few surprises as possible. There will be a point of no return regarding this issue but I've been assured by staff that it won't be as high as I think it is.

Thanks for the encouragement as well as the advice. I wish nothing but continued success for you as well.

By the way, for all of the rest of you blokes my current BMI is 58.1. I'm guessing that none of you have seen this before so here's another fact to rock your world.

https://www.businessinsider.com/bmi-is-bogus-best-way-to-tel l-if-youre-a-healthy-weight-2016-9

I probably did use BMI improperly but the important thing is that I know where I'm going and I know that I will get there, despite all of your less than enthusiastic support.

Her name is not "Halo." :)

LOL! btm61 is exhibiting a lack of knowledge of numbers, percentages, BMI ranges, and how to scientifically & accurately calculate body fat percentage, and then to correctly assess what it all means. Sad.

BMI is not a percentage. It's body mass divided by height squaredand is expressed in units of kilograms/meters squared.

With your height, you would need to be 174lb to be in the healthy BMI range.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmi calc.htm

Body fat, however, is expressed as a percentage and is most accurately measured via a DEXA scan.

Everything I've read as of late says resistance training is much better than cardio. For weight loss and general well being

12 exercises, 12 reps, 3 sets each, targeting three major muscle groups; upper body, core, and lower body. Updated and changed every 5 weeks. Using free weights, tension bands, cardio, and other means as well including circuit training. You are reading and I"m doing what is medically accurate provided me by a professional with a degree in the subject and therein lies the difference. I do my cardio on an Arc Trainer by Cybex, aerobics classes, and interval training. I use the Arc Trainer because it burns 11% more calories than other elliptical machines or treadmills, and it much more physically demanding than other cardio machines, excepting stair machines.

Last week my wife happened to have Rachel Ray on and she had this "expert" on highly recommending fruit juice as one of the top liquids to drink to lose weight. He based his statement on the "fact" that juices had nothing but natural sugars and contained no added sugars. Ever compare the nutrition label on a juice bottle and a "No Sugar Added" juice? That's all it takes to discredit this so-called "expert."

Calories expended vs calories consumed, that's how simple it is. Since learning that math I have only failed to achieve 3500 calories burned in a week, twice, and my weight loss shows that of the 33 pounds I have lost, 27 of them are fat, and because I'm operating on a calorie deficit on a daily basis, I can guarantee that the weight will not come back, it can't possibly because it's biology.