BMI limit?

I think most Americans don’t realize how overweight we’ve become, because most people are overweight even if they don’t realize it. In our society, portion sizes are generally too large. I’m 4 weeks into a diet created by a nutritionist so that I can lose 15 pounds. (I’m 5’9”...started at 175...down to 166...going for 160) it wasn’t until I really paid attention to EVERY calorie I consumed did I realize that my caloric intake was much more than I would have imagined. I’m retraining myself about what my “normal portions” should actually be. It has required discipline and good meal pre-planning. It’s like a magical gross weight increase for my plane!
 
BMI doesn't really take into account the build of the actual person. Sometimes you really ARE "Big boned."

I've lost 1/4th of my body mass (deliberately) in the past year. I think I've still got 20 pounds to go, but both my doctor and my trainer are cautioning me about my robust Scandinavian frame. My BMI is still rather high (but now out of the "obese" range). My trainer actually measures the thickness of my fat in various locations and comes up with a much lower fat composition.

Ron Wanttaja
 
LoneAspen said:
Now I'm depressed!

I've always been a bit overweight, everybody in my family is. When I worked in Silicon Valley, I ballooned up to 280 (I'm 6' 1") because of the sedentary lifestyle of sitting at a desk all day, plus all the free snacks they have at startups. That was WAAAAAY too heavy, so I started working out and lost about 40 pounds, and am now floating around 240. But even though I've tried to improve my diet, and work out on a rowing machine every weekday night for 30 minutes, it's tough losing more weight since I turned 50. I've been struggling to drop below 240.

I fear I may have to give up all normal foods and just confine myself to a tofu and water diet - blech!
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You might try juicing. depending on what you use to make the juice its not bad tasting.

I've lost 30 pounds in the last 3 months by drinking juice for one meal, keeping portion sizes within reason on the other meals, and a little exercise.
 
Weight loss is 80% diet, at least. You can't go to the gym and lose weight eating the same stuff you ate before. In fact, you don't need the gym at all to lose weight. So change that first hand in whichever way that best subscribes to your convictions: Keto, Vegan, Vegetarian, Intermittent Fasting, OMAD (One Meal A Day), 5/2, Smaller Portions etc. Make sure all your meals are home cooked from scratch, whichever regime you subscribe to. It makes a huge difference.

Another little tip if you get excited by white coats: Fast for 2 days before you got to AME and your BP will be about 10 points lower.
 
Zeldman said:
Wow... do you know where I can get one of these..???

the-medieval-rack-torture-device11-e1316102182452.jpg
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Sporty's?
 
stratobee said:
Weight loss is 80% diet, at least. You can't go to the gym and lose weight eating the same stuff you ate before. In fact, you don't need the gym at all to lose weight. So change that first hand in whichever way that best subscribes to your convictions: Keto, Vegan, Vegetarian, Intermittent Fasting, OMAD (One Meal A Day), 5/2, Smaller Portions etc. Make sure all your meals are home cooked from scratch, whichever regime you subscribe to. It makes a huge difference.
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When it comes to weight loss, all blanket statements are wrong ;-)

Whether you lose weight from going to the gym depends on how much time you spend there and how much energy you expend. True, if you go to the gym 'for an hour' but you spend 30 minutes in the locker room and the exercise is limited to some low intensity cardio and some pretend weights, you are not going to see a net difference on your energy balance. Just like we consistently under-estimate the amount of food we take in, we tend to over-estimate the intensity of any exercise done at the gym. 20 minutes of running at low speed is going to use less calories than an hour of high intensity interval training. Adding some muscle mass through resistance training is also a way to tilt the calorie equation further your way. While lean muscle mass doesn't nearly add the amount of resting metabolic rate (RMR) that bodybuilders and supplement evangelists would want you believe, in the long rung, upping your RMR from 1800 to 1900 per day moves your balance 10lbs/year in the right direction.

Otoh, any diet that is based on simple calorie restriction is going to be met with resistance by the body. When faced with starvation, the body will adjust resting metabolic rate downwards to adjust to the new food situation. Great mechanism if you are an animal that has to live through periods of constrained food supply, not so great if you are trying to lose weight.

At the end of the day, most people need both. Increased activity AND diet changes.
 
Good information.

Another thing I have noticed is that during periods when I'm in better shape, a given amount of exercise goes less far in the weight control regime than when I'm still struggling to get into shape. During the winter, when I'm more sedentary that I like to be, climbing the local ski hill (a 900 ft elevation gain and about 2 miles round trip) is enough to allow me an extra ~300 calorie snack without gaining weight. During the summer, when I'm doing moderately strenuous hikes 2-3 times a week, I don't get that kind of benefit with less than a 6 mile hike, typically with 1200 to 1600 feet of elevation gain. I suspect that well-conditioned muscles function more efficiently so you actually burn fewer calories doing the same amount of work with them, but I don't have any documentation to support that idea.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
So....if I eat the food....I won't lose the weight? o_O
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That is a blanket statement, therefore it is wrong.

And that commercial is extremely misleading. It should say "If I eat only this food, I lose weight".
 
azure said:
I suspect that well-conditioned muscles function more efficiently so you actually burn fewer calories doing the same amount of work with them, but I don't have any documentation to support that idea.
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Probably. One possible explanation: In the summer, your better conditioned muscles remain strictly with aerobic metabolism. When you are out of shape, your muscles have to shift to anaerobic metabolism to get you up that ski hill. ATP is the 'currency' of energy inside of a muscle cell. One molecule of glucose burned using the anaerobic pathway yields iirc 4 molecules of ATP. Burned using the aerobic pathway it yields 30. So once your muscles drop to anaerobic, you burn through a lot more of the glucose stored in your liver from your last meal.
 
A friend of mine, at 71" in height and 310 lbs., got his 3rd class medical (I was quite surprised). I'm the same height, used to be 175 with decent muscles, then got a foot crushed a couple of years ago, which got me to sit on my behind for about 25 lbs. worth of time. When you can't run around it's easy to eat more! It's coming back off, but it's more difficult as I get older. As someone mentioned, every pound loss is a pound of useful load gained!
 
I am a big fan of intermittent fasting, which I basically began unknowingly about 15 years ago by never eating breakfast. One of the big problems I think people have is they eat all the time. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack snack snack. For these people intermittent fasting can be easily started simply by eating only 3 meals a day, and nothing in between. I now eat 1 meal a day, usually dinner unless I have a business lunch or some special function. Sure there are occasional hunger pangs, but to me they are much more tolerable then how I used to feel about an hour or 2 after lunch when I felt like I had no energy and needed a nap. Most studies have not shown significant decreases in basal metabolic rate with shorter (<1 or 2 days) fasting, and there is less loss of muscle mass with fasting then there is with general caloric restriction. Exercise is also important not just to burn calories but to maintain muscle mass, which is a big contributor to basal metabolic rate.
 
I don't call it intermittent fasting, but I do only eat 2 meals a day ordinarily, breakfast and dinner, with a power bar in between on very active days. Big plus to exercise to maintain muscle mass and cardiovascular fitness. It doesn't help with burning calories as much as you would think, since once your muscles are in shape they are very efficient (someone suggested the difference might be aerobic vs anaerobic metabolism) and it takes many hours of exercise to burn off the calories from even a small meal. But it makes a huge difference in general well-being and stamina.

YMMV of course. ;)
 
I tried intermittent fasting but I get more than hunger pangs. I get epigastric pain and eating soothes it. Lately I sometimes don't even make it through the night without having to get up and eat something. So I have bought myself an endoscopy. :(
 
And don't discount that certain medications (and even some for BP) can affect your metabolism and make it really hard, if not impossible, to lose weight.

If you are on one of those, you need a doc that will work with you to get the right brew of meds to enable weight loss.
 
Ravioli said:
I've always known I was too tall for my weight.

But if there is a BMI standard for medical qualification, it should include a Min and Max.

I know when I lose 10# I am unfit to drive or fly. [If you haven't read before, I'm 6' 0" and 150#]

I actually track my weight to keep it UP to my goal weight. How backwards is that?
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Ravioli? You should call yourself Spaghetti!
 
tspear said:
Not that short. I am supposed to be between 129 to 174 for 5ft 10in. And a few medical people I know are pushing people to go to the bottom of the range.
Personally, I do not think I will ever get down to 174. I would look like a skeleton; let alone down to 129.

Tim
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Right, and everyone is now "pre-diabetic" and "pre-hypertensive" as the medical industrial complex pushes to get more people on lifetime meds.
 
People sometimes confuse overall health and weight loss. Weight loss is math, eat fewer calories than you burn. Generally speaking eating 3500 fewer calories will result in @ 1 pound weight loss. That’s physics and is indisputable. Now, how one arrives at a calorie deficit is a whole nuther matter. You like a ketogenic diet, great. You like intermittent fasting, fantastic. You like paleo, swell. You want to calorie count, excellent. All are roads to the same place. Now, exercise......it makes you feel better, it does, I promise. For overall health, a balanced diet with a modest calorie deficit and some exercise is a good plan. There is a metric ton of bro-science, misinformation and outright bullsheet out there, but it really is as simple as eat fewer calories than you burn. It’s not necessarily easy, but it is simple. You want to exercises? Fabulous, it will make you feel good, but is absolutely not necessary for weight loss.
 
Biggest thing is you have to do what works for you, not for the guy who wrote the diet book, not your spouse or the guy on the internet.

Data point. I haven’t eaten meat or fowl since the Reagan administration. I don’t eat breakfast except perhaps a piece of whole wheat toast. I typically have a small sandwich (2 oz bread) and two or three cups of vegetables for lunch. Dinner is somewhat more and more varied. I walk the three miles to work nearly every day, hot or cold, rain or shine. I have to, I can’t park a car there.

And once a week I make popcorn for dinner. I drink a LOT of liquid, around 50 oz a day. Keeps me from getting too hungry, and keeps away the gout and kidney stones that run in my family.
 
steingar said:
Biggest thing is you have to do what works for you, not for the guy who wrote the diet book, not your spouse or the guy on the internet.

Data point. I haven’t eaten meat or fowl since the Reagan administration. I don’t eat breakfast except perhaps a piece of whole wheat toast. I typically have a small sandwich (2 oz bread) and two or three cups of vegetables for lunch. Dinner is somewhat more and more varied. I walk the three miles to work nearly every day, hot or cold, rain or shine. I have to, I can’t park a car there.

And once a week I make popcorn for dinner. I drink a LOT of liquid, around 50 oz a day. Keeps me from getting too hungry, and keeps away the gout and kidney stones that run in my family.
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What is your source of protein? And cherries are great for gout.
 
steingar said:
Data point. I haven’t eaten meat or fowl since the Reagan administration. I don’t eat breakfast except perhaps a piece of whole wheat toast. I typically have a small sandwich (2 oz bread) and two or three cups of vegetables for lunch. Dinner is somewhat more and more varied. I walk the three miles to work nearly every day, hot or cold, rain or shine. I have to, I can’t park a car there.
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Apologies for the thread drift, but why not? Even working at that university in the city that made you nearly throw up, I was able to get a parking permit for a minimal paycheck deduction. Here I have to walk too, unless I want to arrive before 0730, which since my class schedule doesn't require, I prefer not to. But that is because of construction on campus, and is temporary.

If I really couldn't park on campus for some reason, and it was a permanent state of affairs, I think I would complain to the administration.

Just my 2 cents; do as you will!
 
Limits can be found in Part 67 of the FARs....there is not a single mention of BMI.

Bob
 
Mike Smith said:
There is a metric ton of bro-science, misinformation and outright bullsheet out there, but it really is as simple as eat fewer calories than you burn. It’s not necessarily easy, but it is simple. You want to exercises? Fabulous, it will make you feel good, but is absolutely not necessary for weight loss.
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Its not 'necessary' in the sense that you can't lose weight without it, but as it is a calories in/calories out math, you could say with the same justification that reducing your food intake is not 'necessary'.

An hour on a bicycle at a leisurely pace of 10-12mph uses 600 calories, that's an extra meal right there. Its so much easier if you do both, increase energy expenditure and limit caloric intake.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
it's not hard....some of us gain on a 1,700 calorie diet....:confused:
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I gain weight if I eat more than 1500 calories. (I’m 6ft).

For me to lose any weight I need a nett calorie intake of less than 800 calories/day.

However according to all types of body scans from various nutritionists my “sustain weight” calorie count should be at least 3500 calories/day. Yeah, right...

I have a feeling they’re all just making it up as they go along.
 
I guess I am lucky. To maintain, 2500 calories, and takes close to 3000 before I gain. To lose though, I have to be under 1800.
But I am 5'10", and 225. Goal is a steady 220 by year end (I am losing ten a year, three/four years to my target).

Tim
 
paflyer said:
What is your source of protein? And cherries are great for gout.
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Not a huge cherry fan, sorry. Alopurinol is really great for gout. Protein comes mainly from vegetable and legume sources, and I do allow the occasional seafood.
 
azure said:
Apologies for the thread drift, but why not? Even working at that university in the city that made you nearly throw up, I was able to get a parking permit for a minimal paycheck deduction. Here I have to walk too, unless I want to arrive before 0730, which since my class schedule doesn't require, I prefer not to. But that is because of construction on campus, and is temporary.

If I really couldn't park on campus for some reason, and it was a permanent state of affairs, I think I would complain to the administration.

Just my 2 cents; do as you will!
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The cost for a permit to park on my campus is approaching an AMU/year. And that permit is naught but a hunting license that often doesn’t result in a kill. I’m actually quite fortunate to live close enough to walk but far enough away to make it difficult to do so.

The one thing I can tell you about exercise is if it’s built into your day you’re more likely to do it. I like walking, and it’s what we humans were built to do. Whatever exercise you’re going to do, it should be something you really like, otherwise you won’t do it.
 
steingar said:
The cost for a permit to park on my campus is approaching an AMU/year. And that permit is naught but a hunting license that often doesn’t result in a kill. I’m actually quite fortunate to live close enough to walk but far enough away to make it difficult to do so.
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That sounds like a dreadful case of mismanagement by the parking authority, or maybe higher up! Condolences... :(
The one thing I can tell you about exercise is if it’s built into your day you’re more likely to do it. I like walking, and it’s what we humans were built to do. Whatever exercise you’re going to do, it should be something you really like, otherwise you won’t do it.
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I totally agree with your last sentence, though the amounts of exercise I like to get, there is no way I can build it into my day. I have to make time for it and it's often inconvenient, but worth it. Given that my preferred exercise these days is hiking, it does help that I work (and live) in a little town with hiking trails within easy walking distance of anywhere in town, and easiest of all from campus.

Walking to work is not a big deal either, but it is only a half mile or so.
 
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