Being Fat, Recovering, Late Evening Fight

[Cheese]

There is a guy in the department who, for whatever reason, is a pain in my butt. Tonight we talked about addictions and I used the expression "recovering fat guy." He replied with "recovering?" My thesis advisor suggested I kill the other guy. Sadly, it was a department function and I couldn't.

So, this got me thinking. I played football at 6'5" 330 when I was a junior in high school. I trimmed back to an honest 300 when I went to college, was strong and pretty quick. Then I stopped playing ball and have been trying to do some downsizing.

This morning I was 262. I have been as low as 252 in the last 4 months but going back to Wisconsin was hard on my weight.

How many of you battle weight stuff like this? I am a pretty big dude, wear flannel and am confident in other stuff, but the weight thing gets me. I drink one Fresca at supper, otherwise it is water or coffee with 3-6 beers a week. I am no longer eating like a big dude, but with broad shoulders and a big frame, I would look emaciated at less than 240.

Being active is no big deal, I run some but am convinced that people over two bills are not meant to be runners. I do jump rope classes at the gym and generally can't sit still. I do hard outside work and don't think of myself as a fat piece of crap.

Just interested how many people fight this battle too.

[AxleIke]

Department function be damned. Kick his ass.

I can't add to your discussion, except to say that you are big, but don't look fat. Interesting that your self perception is such.

at your height, if you dropped much weight, you'd just look like a pussy. Healthy is where its at, not Hollywood bullshit weight watching. As long as the Doc says you are okay, and aren't going to have heart or other health related issues, why worry about it?

Sorry to be negative, but i can't stand the Hollywood perception of beauty that is eating my generation alive. It is disgusting that we care that much.

[AxleIke]

Fucking censorship.

[Cheese]

The worse was after my prof. told me to end this guy his wife, also a wife in the department, asked if this guy was the dick who has hassled me before. The look on everyone's face was priceless.

Isaac, I appreciate it and the vain beauty part of thing is bad. My BP is good, my cholesterol is good, my back feels better than it has in a long time and other than occasionally needing coffee to get over the hump, I am healthy like a horse.

[habanero]

And look good in a kilt.

Healthy comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You seem to have found your ideal weight range, are feeling good and are healthy. That's the what matters of it all.

Perhaps idiot-boy has his own personal issues and something about you, confidence, intelligence, size, who knows, threatens him so he picks at a societal scab. It's all he got.
Perhaps the poor chap needs a sympathy card for his pathetic self-image.

[habanero]

And in answer to your question, I battle weight stuff too. Fat in the winter, thinner by the end of outdoors season (it's shorter with kids). Most of my life I've been far too thin. Now I'm too 'fat'. My weight has been anything from 110-160. I'm 5'9. My current happy weight is 132ish, which I'm not at right now. Years of starving in my 20's when I didn't have any money have taken a toll on my metabolism. I do have a good cholesterol level and tend to have low BP.

I don't generally get compliments on my size unless I am 10-20# underweight. Go figure.

[04 Rocko Taco]

Hab, I think your beautiful, as an aside. forget 20 lbs under... ugh.

I battle it to!!

I was always a skinny kid.... I wieghed like 105 my freshman year of high school, I've been almost 6'1 as long as I can remember. I bulked up a bit before junior year was up to about 155, mostly fat, got tired of it, started going to the gym 3 days a week or more, lost all my fat, got lots of muscle, but bulked up to about 220. Like 4% Body Fat, I then stopped going to the gym, now I am 265 pounds of flab. I eat to much, but I am curbing size and type of my meals, and trying to get myself back into the gym routine, I would like to be back down around 225 or so.

[habanero]

Sweet guy

[Cebby]

I struggle with weight - only since college though. Prior to going away, I was in pretty good shape, not really athletic cut - more of cornfed teenage boy. It's been a downward (actually upward) spiral ever since - over the last 20 years.

I'm 6'1" - I think my ideal weight is 210 or so - at least I felt good when I was at that weight (been a while).

After my first year of college I was 240 - partially from partying, but in big part to me discovering free weights and the St. Vincent weight room (same room the Steelers use during camp). I put on a good deal of muscle during the next few years, but my actual body fat % yo-yo'd up and down. During a summer off, I went from 240 down to 185. This was through riding a road bike, running, and going to a gym every day. I found that was too thin for me - I was ripped and all, but felt I lost too much strength. I also found that the weight came off pretty easily.

Well, 8 years of marriage without kids and the partying that goes along with that didn't help my physique in the least. Then after 8 years, we started having kids - sympathy weight (or whatever they call it) and then eating badly while the kids grow (can't let those McNuggets go to waste!) Fortunately, my kids are nearly off of McD's now and have moved on to Subway and other healthier alternatives. I thought that beer was my primary weight adder, so I switched off of beer altogether and drank vodka instead. Helped lose weight somewhat, but seemed I was heading down a slippery slope. The tolerance grew to high to quickly. Needless to say, I'm back on beer

Fast forward to 5 years ago - got up to around 280 (in sales - never ending stream of crap food while on the road). I was playing racquetball with a buddy 3 - 4 times per week and going to the gym regularly. Dropped down to 230 over the course of 6 months - was also doing the South Beach diet somewhat.

Back to about 3 years ago - I made the decision to start my own consulting business - this meant long periods on my ass in front of the computer - as well as long hours and little sleep. This probably did the most damage to my waist line as I got up to just over 300. One thing that contributed to the increase was definitely the lack of sleep. I'm now a believer that you need a reasonable amount of sleep each night - I was getting by on 3-4 hours. Not nearly enough.

I currently have a better balance of work/play time so I am getting the weight down again. I've joined a league for racquetball so I have some cardio and now that my kids are back in school, I plan to put some miles on the bike this fall.

I'm not sure what my ideal weight should be now, but I estimate I should drop 50 lbs as a good start. Have I struggled with weight? You could say that. It is a lot harder to drop it the older you get. Doesn't help that my wife is a gourmet cook with her own catering business either...plus, I like beer, Chinese food, and other stuff that's bad for my weight.

In the immortal words of Mike Myers as Middle Aged Man "I'm working on it!"

Ditto on Hab being a fox!!

[Cheese]

Part of it is the control thing. When you are a big person, you can eat a lot of crap in one sitting and it is not too disruptive. I am big so my stomach is big, it can be filled with a lot of stuff.

Part of it is stigma. I attended one grade of school at double digit weight, that was kindergarten. I will always be a fat kid in my mind. It is a mental thing to get over, but it takes time.

Habanero, you are a good looking lady with apparently a good husband and kiddo.

I won't say it paralyzes me because I don't have problems like that, but it is a constant thing. I got past the only certain things because the restrictions caused me to act out. If I couldn't have a cookie, I would want all the cookies although I don't usually care for cookies. Now I eat cookies when I want them, and just one or two.

The other side is it is not a self-confidence issue. Usually I am that guy talking to everyone, being afraid is not my deal.