Ruminations on Weight Control

My weight control ruminations are based on multiple factors, some of which are personal issues of health and appearance and some of which are Camino related. This post mixes the two a bit.

Camino Weight

Weight is a recurring issue for me when I think of the Camino. The reason is simple: my feet and legs must carry the total weight of my body, my clothes, and my backpack (I don’t use services like Camino con Correos … yet) every inch along the trail every day. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight feels exactly the same to my legs and feet as a kilogram of equipment.

Keeping that total weight under control is a major motivator in my weight loss journey.

Health and Appearance

There are many health and appearance reasons for keeping one’s weight under control. I am aware of them and am sad to note that appearance has played far too much of a role in motivation my decades of battling the “fat monster.” Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. In the end, however, it’s always up to me to make the system work. And I do have a system that works for me every time I stick to it!

Just eat less and exercise more. That makes me look better when I glance in the mirror and, I must admit, feel better, too.

A side note: I work to avoid the term “gain weight” because adding weight to my body is not something I see as a “gain.” Similarly, I work to avoid the term “lose weight” because I am not “losing” it, I am working hard to delete it, to eliminate it, to remove it from my body.

The truth

My system may be proven and simple and guaranteed, but it’s also [expletive deleted] hard! That admitted, the following ruminations have worked for me in my weight reduction journey. It’s a journey that began about 40 or 45 years ago when my weight peaked at near 95 kilograms (210 pounds). At a height of about 1.75 meters (5 feet 9 inches), I was officially obese.

It is also a journey with some setbacks over the last month and a half.

About me on February 20, 2023

This morning, after a vacation and at the end of a six-week struggle with what might be described as “mild depression,” my weight was 76.4 kilograms (168.4 pounds). That’s up 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) from what had been the norm last fall and perhaps 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) from my best numbers of the last year.

That’s up, so it’s very disappointing. It’s also still officially “overweight.” At least it’s not horrible.

Knowing what I know about my height (which is easily measured), muscle mass (a guess), and obvious body fat (I can pinch more than an inch, so to speak), I know that my best health will be at a weight of less than 70 kilograms (under 155 pounds). I also know that my goal for the last several years has only been to get to the 72 kilogram (159 pound) range. I’ve been close, but no cigar.

Measurements

There is an old saw that goes “if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” I measure my weight and exercise levels (walking and strength) to manage them in a way that brings my next Camino adventure within reach. I track my success managing them carefully in a Microsoft Excel Workbook. If you would like to do the same, a blank copy of the Workbook is available for you to download.

Mathematics

There is some very simple mathematics that governs adding or deleting body weight.

And hard work it is because of the mathematics.

A pound (0.45 kilograms) of human fat, such as the fat around my waist that made my pants and belt tight this morning, has about 3,500 calories in it. An average month has 30 days. That means, if all other things (eating, drinking, house temperature, weather, the list goes on) are kept the same, changing my habits to eliminate just 100 calories on an average day eliminate 0.4 kilograms (0.8 pounds) of fat in an average month.

What has worked for me

My process is simply to change my net calories by 100 calories each day. It is not a diet, it is simply a small change in my habits.

How small?

Walking a mile over level ground, a very small effort compared to most of My Camino Days, burns a bit more than 100 calories for a person of my weight. Walking on my treadmill, with the incline set at 5%, burns about 145 calories and is a great way to warm up if I feel a bit chilled after a long spell working at my computer.

Snyder’s of Hanover makes some very small pretzels called “Itty Bitty Minis.” A single-serve bag of them has 90 calories and about 40 pretzels. When my success levels are where I want them, I can be satisfied (barely) with 20 pretzels as a way of getting over a hungry patch in the afternoon.

Catch 22

The admittedly small flaw in this system is that, after having eliminated some weight, the habits require another small change. What worked for me from about 85 kilograms (190 pounds) in 2018 to about 75 kilograms (165 pounds) today stalled out before reaching my goal of 72 kilograms.

Stay tuned to my daily success posts for occasional news about my success on this weight reduction journey.