Food intake is the battle
About 24 years ago I weighed in at 296 pounds on a 5 '10' frame. I was walking death coming down the street. Maybe the most unhealthy human being ever. Long story short, and a brain aneurysm later, I got busy exercising. And 60 pounds less later, I continued to exercise, but primarily so that I could eat what I wanted with few restrictions, and stay at 240 . . . which seemed like a good weight after being 296! But a decade at 220-240 and it became clear that 200 was healthier and I felt a lot better at 200-220, than I had at 240. But then I turned 50, which birthday I spent with my niece, brother and sister-in-law in Thailand. Was a lovely trip. But my brother said to me, as he was trying to help me get out the door for my return flight to Macedonia, "man this bag is heavy" and which I replied, "it is just the standard 50 pounds allowed by the airlines." Then he noted, "man you are still carrying THIS much extra weight every moment of every day! Pick up this bag and feel your body's pain!" I did.
That was seven years ago, 50 pounds ago, and yes I have been in the 160-165 pound range these last seven years, and yes as the scale goes down, the better and better I feel. So much so that I have been toying with the idea of the 140's . . . but I am digressing from the point of all this history.
I have been operating under the wrong idea that exercise was responsible for weight loss. Of course after working out practically every single day for 24 years, I had started to suspect that "calorie in and calorie out" was not how our bodies actually work. The pinnacle of learning that lesson for me was bicycling across the entire USA three years ago and gaining 12 pounds. Exercise has a zillion benefits and I still do it everyday, but weight loss happens in the kitchen. Tom Kravirtzs stated about exercise affecting weight loss, "It's not nothing, but it's not nearly equal to food intake — which accounts for 100 percent of the energy intake of the body,"
And there it was in bold letters - food intake equals 100% of the energy intake of the body. The enemy to weight loss is simply how much I eat. Nothing else can affect it really. Sure you can manage the types and frequency and the fine details, but in the end, it all comes down to how much you eat. I exercise - alot and the upsides are real and great, but how much I eat matters the most when it comes to weight management.
About 24 years ago I weighed in at 296 pounds on a 5 '10' frame. I was walking death coming down the street. Maybe the most unhealthy human being ever. Long story short, and a brain aneurysm later, I got busy exercising. And 60 pounds less later, I continued to exercise, but primarily so that I could eat what I wanted with few restrictions, and stay at 240 . . . which seemed like a good weight after being 296! But a decade at 220-240 and it became clear that 200 was healthier and I felt a lot better at 200-220, than I had at 240. But then I turned 50, which birthday I spent with my niece, brother and sister-in-law in Thailand. Was a lovely trip. But my brother said to me, as he was trying to help me get out the door for my return flight to Macedonia, "man this bag is heavy" and which I replied, "it is just the standard 50 pounds allowed by the airlines." Then he noted, "man you are still carrying THIS much extra weight every moment of every day! Pick up this bag and feel your body's pain!" I did.
That was seven years ago, 50 pounds ago, and yes I have been in the 160-165 pound range these last seven years, and yes as the scale goes down, the better and better I feel. So much so that I have been toying with the idea of the 140's . . . but I am digressing from the point of all this history.
I have been operating under the wrong idea that exercise was responsible for weight loss. Of course after working out practically every single day for 24 years, I had started to suspect that "calorie in and calorie out" was not how our bodies actually work. The pinnacle of learning that lesson for me was bicycling across the entire USA three years ago and gaining 12 pounds. Exercise has a zillion benefits and I still do it everyday, but weight loss happens in the kitchen. Tom Kravirtzs stated about exercise affecting weight loss, "It's not nothing, but it's not nearly equal to food intake — which accounts for 100 percent of the energy intake of the body,"
And there it was in bold letters - food intake equals 100% of the energy intake of the body. The enemy to weight loss is simply how much I eat. Nothing else can affect it really. Sure you can manage the types and frequency and the fine details, but in the end, it all comes down to how much you eat. I exercise - alot and the upsides are real and great, but how much I eat matters the most when it comes to weight management.
